Welcome to the web site of ThreeOrbs Specialist Services.
We offer a large range of technical services for Westray, Papa Westray (Papay) and throughout Orkney and northern Scotland.
Please contact us directly for a full range of our services and to discuss your specific needs, or see the About page for a brief summary of some of the services available.
Emergency services are available whenever possible. Covering buildings, heating, electrical or plumbing works.
This project has been suffering from a complete lack of effort and resources on my part. Which has basically resulted in little obvious progress for the last couple of years. Which is not ideal.
There have been many factors that have caused this and if you would like to read on, then please do so below:
Most ‘electronic’ rain gauges used these days for rain monitoring for the IoT world, use a ‘tipping’ bucket see-saw mechanism. If you are using one of these with the original display, then that’s fine, nothing to do.
If on the other hand, like me, your weather station electronics have died, then you maybe reconsidering ‘up cycling’ the actual rain sensor for your latest IoT project. In this case, you will need to ‘calibrate’ your tipping bucket sensor so you know how much rain has passed through it.
There are several articles on the Internet for doing this, so why write another? Well most are written and miss off some of the important stages and processes, making it difficult to achieve. So I have tried to be a little more helpful and complete….
ThreeOrbs are now pleased to be able to offer fully stainless steel air-sourced heat pumps to Orkney residents. These are an ideal choice for the harsh Orcadian weather, for either new systems, replacements, upgrades or complementation use. They come with a full 5 year warranty and have an expected operational life of around 20 years. Output capacities from 6.8KW through to 500KW. Installed prices from £2,500 (+VAT)*.
In recent weeks, it has become apparent to me that the external temperature sensors on Nibe* heat pumps are very prone to the effects of the Orkney weather. The image to the right shows the internals of a typical Nibe outdoor sensor that is suffering from the ravages of the local Orcadian weather.
These sensors are critical to the correct operation of the heat pump and its failure can cause incorrect operation or total deactivation of the system as a whole.
This project is progressing well. I have been seeking funding channels to get a bunch of pre-production ‘sweet-spot’ units built, along with microprocessor control boards in order to evaluate the ‘sweet spot’ controlling on boilers and heat pumps.
My prototype control circuitry for a cheap proportional hydronic central heating diverter/blender valve is progressing well.
The MkI version worked well with just mechanical switches. Producing a valve which can be set and held in any position of its normal rotational path. This now allows me to produce a CT (Constant Temperature) valve and control unit for well under £100. A significant saving on current units,which sell for several hundred pounds.
I am now offering all tasks concerning Heating & Hot Water Systems, Oil Boilers and Heat Pumps.
Get your system installed, repaired or serviced at our very competitive rates. Or get your system optimised to save you money and get you a warm and toasty for winter……
Available for pre-order on Amazon Kindle is my latest publication. Regarding the consequences of not dealing with condensing oil and gas boiler condensates. This short and informative publication covers the damage that can occur if the condensate from your condensing boiler is not disposed of correctly, how it should be disposed of and what are the effects of letting this liquid go where it likes.
At the end of last week, I was called to an air source heat pump, that had ceased operation. The obvious failure was a blown fuse on the main PCB. This fuse was so well blown, that the wire was vaporised perfectly on the inside fuse glass. This implies that there was serious short somewhere.