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  • COMMAIK
    • Contact Form
    • Imprint
    • Privacy
  • The Villa
    • The top floor
    • The upper floor
    • The first floor
    • The cellar
    • The garden
  • Stories from the construction
    • irrigation
    • Photovoltaics
    • Pool and terrace
    • SmartHome
    • The planning
    • The demolition
    • The installation
    • Machinery
    • Restoration and working techniques
    • This and that
  • Videos
    • Build & Renovate
    • Irrigation
    • Carport
    • Gabions
    • Garden
    • Garden kitchen
    • Pool
    • Smart Home
    • Drying
    • Tutorials
  • TESTED & RATED
    • Heating solutions & energy
    • Outdoor & Garten
    • Pool & garden kitchen
    • Security & Smart Home
    • Tools & DIY
  • Commaik Music
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  • Balcony power station – Set up the Solarman app optimally

    Screenshot of a solar panel monitoring app displaying the Statistik section. The background highlights blue solar panels, with the main heading reading Balcony Power System and a note showing it was last updated 5 minutes ago. www.commaik.de

    With a balcony power plant it is possible to cover the basic consumption of electricity in the household. But how do you monitor power generation? How do I know if the system is actually profitable? Quite clearly: with a program for analyzing, evaluating and monitoring PV power generation.

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    A cozy wooden cabin interior with a red Hageer wood stove burning brightly and a parking heater nearby, next to an indoor fire pit. Snowy trees are visible outside through large windows and a wooden fence. www.commaik.de

    5 diesel parking heaters compared: which one is right for you?

    19. February 2025
    A rectangular outdoor swimming pool with clear blue water is surrounded by gray tiled paving and pool edge stones. There is a small palm tree, green grass, and hedges in the background. Some tiling work appears unfinished on one side. www.commaik.de

    Laying pool edging stones and building your own pool terrace for the perfect pool surround

    8. December 2024
    Built-in outdoor kitchen featuring a black gas grill with a sizzling sizzle zone in the center, a side burner on the left, and sleek metal drawers and cabinets below—all set in a stylish wooden and concrete counter. www.commaik.de

    Permanently installing the sizzle zone of the Napoleon gas barbecue in the outdoor garden kitchen

    30. April 2025
  • 800W balcony power plant easy to install & optimize by yourself

    Two large solar panels for a balcony power plant stand on wooden pallets outdoors. An arrow points from 600W to 800W. Inset images highlight the panels, power inverter, and cables, showcasing the system's details. www.commaik.de

    To cover the base load I have installed a small 300W balcony power plant for quite some time. I was able to gain some experience and optimize my own use of solar power. Now I am replacing my 300W balcony power plant with a new 800W balcony power plant. In addition to the new PV modules, I renew the substructure, the microinverter and, of course, the connection to the house grid. During my rebuild, a few questions came up, which I would like to answer with this entry and my video:   👉 What components does a balcony power plant consist of? 👉 How to fix a balcony power station?…

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    A Lymow One robotic lawnmower with tank-like tracks sits on a well-manicured lawn, surrounded by green grass and some fuzzy bushes in the background. www.commaik.de

    Lymow One in test: Robot mower without boundary wire with RTK navigation and chain drive

    16. November 2025
    A man stands next to a mounted parking heater system with large pipes, wires, and controls—perfect for any workshop. Large text above reads, Diesel Heizung für die Werkstatt (Diesel heater for the workshop). www.commaik.de

    Install 8kW diesel parking heater safely in the workshop & garage

    9. May 2025
    Partially constructed garden kitchen with unfinished concrete block walls, a wooden roof, and a grill inside. The structure sits in a backyard, surrounded by trees visible in the background. www.commaik.de

    Build your own garden kitchen – solid half-timbered roof with OSB and welded sheeting for the outdoor kitchen

    22. March 2024
  • Install Reolink RLN36 NVR | Install hard disk and set up camera

    Reolink NVR device on a gray background with large "Reolink NVR" text above it; a hand can be seen in the background installing a hard drive inside the Reolink security system. www.commaik.de

    To monitor my property, I had set up a camera surveillance system. Nine Hikvison and Trendnet cameras monitored every nook and cranny on the site. The data was stored on a QNAP NAS. The system ran cleanly and stably – but also at the capacity limit. The amount of data from the cameras was simply too large and I had to think about how to future-proof my surveillance system. I therefore decided to set up a Reolink camera system and store the data on an NVR, a network video recorder. In this post I show you how I went about it.

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    A man stands in front of a backyard with a pool, thinking. Two Reolink Duo 3 security cameras—PoE and WiFi—are displayed, showcasing the latest in Reolink surveillance. The Reolink logo appears at the top right. www.commaik.de

    Reolink Duo 3 WiFi & PoE review: Smart UHD surveillance camera with 180° field of view

    29. January 2025
    A man stands beside images of a backyard with a pool. A Reolink Trackmix PoE security camera is shown on the left, with the Reolink logo at the top right and smart home icons above the garden scene. www.commaik.de

    Reolink TrackMix PoE – 4K dual lens surveillance camera review

    20. July 2024
    Diagram showing two triangular fields of view in front of a house at night from a reolink Wi-Fi security camera: one labeled 180° Sichtfeld (larger area) and the other 100° Sichtfeld (smaller area). A person walks by. www.commaik.de

    180° surveillance test: These 4 Reolink cameras secure your home seamlessly

    4. May 2025
  • Lawn care in spring for the perfect lawn

    A manicured garden with a palm tree, landscape stones, lawn care equipment, a bag of fertilizer and two lawn mowers on a neatly trimmed green lawn. www.commaik.de

    It’s the beginning of March and winter is slowly retreating. It’s time for me to take care of my garden and bring it out of hibernation. Today I want to take care of my lawn. There is a lot to do, especially in spring. Mowing the lawn, fertilizing the lawn, reseeding the lawn, in addition to scarifying and aerating, are just a few things that I would like to tackle today. I also have to reactivate my water taps and my lawn irrigation system after the winter.

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    A garden kitchen area with unfinished wooden walls and built-in stainless steel cabinets, drawers, and doors set against a concrete floor and countertop. www.commaik.de

    Build your own outdoor garden kitchen: Installing stainless steel BBQ furniture

    15. August 2024
    Lawn irrigation system components, including pipes, valves, and wiring, are laid out on the ground next to an open valve box in a grassy area. A green garden hose and plastic cover are also visible. www.commaik.de

    Installing lawn irrigation: Valve box, Hunter solenoid valves and Rain Bird water distribution in detail

    1. March 2025
    Close-up of a Rain Bird mechanical irrigation control box with exposed cables, pipes, valves and connections, surrounded by gravel. The sunlight illuminates the area and highlights the various electrical and sanitary components. www.commaik.de

    Lawn Irrigation – Connect 4 Rain Bird Valves to Hunter X-Core Computer

    31. January 2021
  • Set up 2. balcony power station and connect in series.

    Two large solar panels, part of a balcony power plant, are mounted on a wooden platform outside a modern house, angled to capture sunlight beneath a partly cloudy sky. www.commaik.de

    Despite my balcony power plant in the backyard and lower electricity consumption, electricity costs keep going up. According to the http://strom-report.de, KWh of electricity costs an average of 34.6 cents. New contracts currently cost as much as 41 cents. It is therefore necessary to think about cost-effective alternatives and to add another module to my existing Balkan power plant. But can I connect 2 different PV modules together at all? Do I need a new inverter for two modules or can I continue to use the two old micro inverters?

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    Screenshot of a solar panel monitoring app displaying the Statistik section. The background highlights blue solar panels, with the main heading reading Balcony Power System and a note showing it was last updated 5 minutes ago. www.commaik.de

    Balcony power station – Set up the Solarman app optimally

    29. October 2023
    Close-up of an ALLPOWERS powerstation with a digital display showing 74% battery, 499W output, and several connected cables and outlets on the front panel. www.commaik.de

    LiFePo4 Powerstation – mobile storage for stand-alone PV systems

    5. January 2024
    A person stands on a rooftop with solar panels and a balcony power plant, pointing toward a graphic showing a Zendure SuperBase energy storage unit. A modern house and trees are visible in the background. www.commaik.de

    Optimize balcony power plant – New modules and 220V battery storage for maximum efficiency

    26. July 2024
  • Draining the cellar – 1 year later

    In a damp cellar, plastic containers are inserted into holes at the base of a brick wall to dry out the room. A red dehumidifier and various appliances can be seen in the background. www.commaik.de

    I have been working on draining the cellar for a good 2 years. In addition to repairs to the pipe system, ventilation concepts, dehumidifiers, dryers and a pump shaft in the cellar, I also installed a subsequent horizontal barrier with a masonry injection. It is now time for a review and a summary of the individual measures.

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    Close-up of a Rain Bird mechanical irrigation control box with exposed cables, pipes, valves and connections, surrounded by gravel. The sunlight illuminates the area and highlights the various electrical and sanitary components. www.commaik.de

    Lawn Irrigation – Connect 4 Rain Bird Valves to Hunter X-Core Computer

    31. January 2021
    Ein verwittertes Holztor mit zerbrochenen Bohlen steht vor einem schmalen gepflasterten Weg, umgeben von grünen Pflanzen und Bäumen. Das Tor ist leicht angelehnt und teilweise beschädigt. www.commaik.de

    Bad surprise – cable thieves strike

    18. September 2008
    A construction site with a stone retaining wall and gabion wire mesh reinforcement in front of a modern house; soil and building materials are scattered in the foreground. www.commaik.de

    Slope stabilization – stack gabions safely on top of each other

    21. August 2020
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Autor & Blogger

In this construction diary, we share our experience in the renovation and modernization of our Art Nouveau villa and hope to give a few suggestions and tips to some of you.

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