Chewbacka

Sounds like a new boat to you :-) I aim for about 45%. Pure antifreeze is not a good as water for carrying heat away from the engine, so you do not want too much - say over 50%. The antifreeze - more normally called coolant - also contains corrosion inhibitors which for the blue stuff last a couple of years or so. So if you don't know the history of the boat it may be wise to think about changing the coolant over the next few months. Do NOT dump the old stuff into the canal or onto the towpath as it is toxic. Take it to your local council recycling centre. As above do not mix red and blue coolant as it can cause a powder to form that can cause big problems. Whilst red has a longer life than blue, it is not suitable for many older engines. Enjoy your boating

Have a read of this as I think your batteries are not being recharged. It takes a long time, say 8 to 10 hours to 100% http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_the_lead_acid_battery Also, and I appologise if you know this - but you should not discharge a lead acid battery more than about 50% because if you do it will not last long.

Or spend a bit less and get a sailaway which you can have great fun in fitting out. But you will need to consider RCD etc.

If your spare fuse box is anything like mine the fuses in it were probably made to the 1970's edition of BS1362 :-) Update - Just looked on the BSI site and it looks like the 1973 edition is still current. I am amazed.

I am guessing that they are LED lights? If so it may be that the switch mode supply that powers the USB charge outlets or the laptop supply (12v in and I guess 19v out) is putting a lot of mush which is upsetting the LED driver circuit. I had this problem with a small circular flurescent light that used to make the LED lights near it to flash and overheat. I fixed it by getting rid of the flourescent light. I also changed my LED power supply system and now it is fine.

water tap & elsan hole?? But then that does not sound as grand as CSF

When I leave the boat when I think there will be a hard frost etc I pour a bit of this http://www.leesan.com/index.asp?m=3&cat1=77&cat2=86&p=687&t=LeeFreeze+Non+Toxic+Antifreeze+(5l) into my toilet and flush it through the macerator to ensure there is no freezing damage. A bust electric toilet is expensive to fix. 5l tub of the stuff has lasted me 3 years and there is enough left for this winter as well - so not a high price for peace of mind.

The question is "will this thread still be running when her replacement gas bottle is empty?"

Fully agree about using cable to meet the rated output, but at these low voltages you probably want a bit thicker to keep volt drops to a min. As to a fuse, fully agree there must be a fuse close to the batteries as in a fault, hugh currents can come out of the batteries, but I don't see a need for a fuse by the turbine as I don't see how the wind turbine or solar panel can ever output enough to blow the fuse. Wrote this because I was not sure if the op would realise from your post where to put the fuse.

It's a difficult question. Do nothing and next day you hear one died from CO you would feel terrible. On the other hand you say something and will probably get 'no thanks' at best and a lot of abuse at worst. I would only say something if there was a very high risk, and start off with something like 'don't you get headaches with all those fumes blowing into the boat.

Don't feel too bad about only getting a 'well done', my employer never said 'well done' or 'thank you' for a few patents my name was on, but they did give me £1 for each one for giving up my rights. Would have much prefered a 'thank you'.

It may help you to think about power. The wind turbine converts wind power into electrical power. You want as much of this to go to the batteries as reasonably possible. A thin wire has a resistance and this will result in a small amount of wire heating, ie power lost in the wire. A thicker wire has less resistance and so will lose less power. The thicker the cable the greater the cost and the lower the loss. The volt drop - which you can calculate or measure - multiplied by the current will tell you how much power is being lost in the cable. The rate at which the batteries accept power will depend upon the applied voltage, so even a small reduction will reduce the charge current. So power loss reducing the voltage could reduce your charge current in low winds by a significant amount.

Not sure what your landrover separator looks like, but the BSS doesn't like clear bowls on filters unless explicitly approved. As to FAME free diesel, both the fuel suppliers near to me only supply red diesel with from memory 7% bio. With some biocide after each fill, I have so far not had a problem. They both sell a lot of fuel as they are fuel suppliers to farms etc, boats is just a small extra to them. If you are turning over your fuel in your tank every say 3 months, and it was good when it went into the tank and you don't let water in I would be surprised if you had a problem. The biggest risk is a half full tank on a boat that is unused for a few months over the winter, followed by a few short weekend trips. So the fuel gets very old. Best way to prevent diesel bug is to keep using the boat and using the fuel up and refilling. More fun than sitting at home.

Not the stuff I used around my shower base 3 years ago :-((

As it was less than £250 for a 2kW inverter I suspect the word Pure does not mean 100% pure. It would be interesting to look at the wave form with a scope.

Advantage The max voltage between a 'hot' wire and earth is 110V which is safer than 220V. Very common on construction sites etc. Disadvantages Need a double pole switch to fully isolate appliances Needs a double pole circuit breaker so an overload will disconnect both sides of the supply etc............

I also have a single coil and am thinking about adding a diesel boiler - so same problem as you have. I am considering one of these as it is a lower cost option - http://www.solarcoil.co.uk/products.html As it will fit in a horizontal tank, I guess it will not heat the bottom half very well, but it may be possible to bend it down a bit, and half a tank is better than none :-) Anyone ever tried this method?

In case you missed it, the tank should not smell much if it has an adequate supply of air - yours did not as the breather was blocked - and lots of the right bacteria. Bleach and some other toilet chemicals will kill the good bugs and then your toilet tank will smell bad. It took my good wife ages to accept she could not bleach the toilet.

Just thinking aloud - but if there were a capacitor between neutral and earth in your stereo it would be designed as a lowish voltage as neutral and earth should be at near enough the same voltage. However in your case the neutral is 110v AC away from earth, and so it may be leaking too much.

There are some roads near to Sainsbury's but there is often car side window glass on the road. It happens to old as well as new cars. So fairly central I don't know of anywhere safe and free. However if you want to be close to the docks you can park in the multi storey car park by the travel lodge for £10 per day, which is safe but expensive. Better to park away from the centre and walk back as already suggested.

Just an idea = Put a couple of ice packs on the roof every night to get nice and cold and pop them in the cool box during the day. Obviously works best if it's frosty :-)

Some of the more expensive inverters have a power save option which puts then into an intermittent state where it briefly outputs 240v and if there is no load - say the fridge is cold enough, then it goes off again. Every so often looking for a load. In the 'off' state it claims a very low power consumption. With one of these inverters and a 240v A+++ fridge you are probably not far off the efficiency of a 12v fridge and you will have a inverter - expensive :-( inverter. I still have my chinese cheapo inverter, but one day......

No one seems to have answered your question for cable size. At 12v the main concern is voltage drop not cable current carrying capability. For this you need to consider the peak load and cable length to ensure that enough voltage is available to the appliance for correct and efficient operation. Cable calculators are now available on line such as these below - I have never used them as I made my own spreadsheet a few years ago. Also don't forget the cable run is there and back again which some calculators allow for and some don't. http://www.12voltplanet.co.uk/cable-sizing-selection.html or http://www.solar-wind.co.uk/cable-sizing-DC-cables.html Have fun with them.

Bilge pumps are (I think) designed to leave a bit behind as if they pump everything then grease and oil that floats on top of the bilge water will be pumped into the canal. Of course you may not have an oily or greasy bilge, but the pump does not know that.

Apart from a little bit of power lost in the controller, any power coming out of the 'fan' must be going somewhere - into the batteries. If the voltage is too low, then there will be little current generated. However what you are really interested in is what if anything is going into the batteries, so after the controller is best. I seem to remember - and maybe it does not apply to small turbines, but some units in high winds and where the batteries do not want much (fully charged) will dump power into a dummy load to limit the turbine speed. So if you measure before the controller you may see a highish current in high winds but little going into the batteris which could cause confusion. But as I said, I have no idea if yours limits turbine speed by using a dump load.