Chewbacka

No Parallel. If a number of panels are in parallel and one goes short it will present as a short for all the panels in parallel with it. Hence if a few panels are in parallel they should have a fuse between each panel and the feed cable to the controller. That way if one panel goes short then when it ‘takes’ all the current from the other panels it’s fuse will blow. The internal conducts within a failed panel can ‘burn out’ like a fuse but I believe there have been instances of internal arcing and serious over heating. So if you have a few big panels in parallel I would fuse the individual panels. Obviously not required on a single string of panels in series.

I agree, however if you have a number of panels in parallel and one panel fails with an internal short then the conductors within that panel will have to carry all the current from all the panels. Whilst it is rare it is a risk worth considering.

Panels (rather than controller to batteries) only need fuses if you have several in parallel, which you probably don’t. With a VoC of 46v if you put your panels in series you will be getting some fairly high open circuit D.C. voltages, so exposed terminals etc need guarding, and a warning notice by the controller wouldn’t be a bad idea.

Those gates are very heavy, and don’t even think of trying to open one until the levels are completely equal. If no volunteers to help, you will probably have to join her to open the gate.

I bought a stove at crick a few years ago and he drove his van full of stock from the stand to my car in the car park for free, even helped me load it into the car. Worth asking if you want to buy something heavy or bulky.

When you get £2m per day in green subsidies from the uk government you can afford to pay a bit extra for HVO. All helps with the green image.

That’ll be because the traders paying a lot for a pitch know what will sell and what doesn’t and boaters are ‘careful’ with their money, whereas wannabe boaters have come for a fun day out and have more disposable income as they don’t have a boat to pay for.

But then Drax power station also claim their wood chips are carbon neutral and never taken from whole trees cut from primary forests……..

Not on the G&S canal. Fuel supplier (supplies mainly farms and construction sites, but boats as well) told me they considered stocking it, but none of their big customers were prepared to pay the extra, not worth their while for the few boats that are interested.

I fitted my stove over 10 years ago, tiles onto a calcium silicate board. Tiles still in place and grout is fine, I didn’t light the stove for a few days to ensure any excess water in the tile adhesive had evaporated, then a gentle fire for the first few hours. Be careful with the calcium silicate board as it is very brittle and not very strong, but then it is foamed, so mostly ‘air’, and surprisingly expensive.

Why make a welded stove pipe when you can buy the bits and slot them together?

Depends how much of the time the heater is on full or reduced output, but very roughly I would say a less than 1/2 litre per hour. So maybe 50~70p per hour at diesel price of £1.40/litre

CRT very probably made attempts to contact the boat owner to make ‘personal’ items available for collection. If the owner doesn’t collect it’s best for CRT to dispose of them with the boat. If CRT removed items prior to sale, they would have to store them in a secure location clearly identified etc and protected against deterioration for a reasonable period, before having to pay to have them disposed off. So just more cost and inconvenience for CRT for zero benefit.

3 points to be aware of- 1. The first two river locks have limited open hours 2. The canal is closed every Tuesday 3. If there is a high spring tide (from memory, more than 8m at Sharpness) it goes over the weir at Gloucester. You do not want to be outside Gloucester when it does. See the stoppages section for lock opening hours. Consult Mr Google for Sharpness tides or Call Gloucester lock for tide information, they always seem happy to help. That way you can make a good plan. Finally if there is lots of rain above Stourport the river gets too full, and they may close the locks. Not usually a Summer problem. If the river is flowing fast you will need lots of diesel when going upriver as you will need high engine revs but achieve a low ground speed. That said it’s a nice trip and with a bit of flexibility in your plan it should be enjoyable

The interconnecting cables if very short (a few inches) will have little volt drop so are fine. But f the batteries are well spaced apart and the interconnection cables are say a meter or longer then the volt drop may become a problem, in which case a bigger cable could be a benefit.

If canals get any shallower the sides could be classed as wetlands, so money available??

When ever I get a cold call claiming to be a service provider (phone, electric etc) I always explain that as they called me I have no idea who is really calling me and ask if it’s reasonable for them to prove who they claim to be before I will give any personal information. The only one to disagree quickly became obvious that they were a scammer.

What message do you get if the bollard breaker has tripped? I would have thought if the bollard supply had failed a message would be sent to the bollard ‘owner’ as they would need to fix it, rather than the boater who has no control over bollard supply etc. But as I have learnt over the years the logic in computer systems is often unpredictable.

Maybe they thought to do it in one region then if no one made a fuss to apply it everywhere.

To keep my bottles off the floor I laid to 2 strips of metal (40mm wide and 5mm thick) per gas bottle. Make them longer than the bottle is wide so the bottle can’t fall off. Glued them in place with stixall. The strips being angled to aid any water to drain rather than acting like little dams.

Assuming you have been running the system for a reasonably long time and it works fine without using an excessive amount of fuel, how will changing the pump make it work better? When I fitted my Webasto heater (a few years ago) I called Butler Technik with a couple of technical questions and they were very helpful, they could probably answer your question, why not give them a call. That said, I am pretty sure Matty40s also knows a lot about Webasto’s so I would happily trust his advice.

Being curious I looked up the price of a genuine Webasto DP30 fuel pump. It’s almost £200!!! Here is the link if you want one https://www.butlertechnik.com/webasto-heater-fuel-pump-12v-dp30-86115a-86115b-85106b-p138

Plug a simple electromechanical time switch (the sort driven by a little synchronous motor) and if it is slow in the morning then you know how long the power was off. A simple digital clock will flash if the power was intermittent. If no problem then all done, if there is a problem, then maybe more sophisticated monitoring is required.

If I was running a pump inlet ‘suction’ pipe for 9m I would use 22mm plastic pipe as I think 15mm would reduce the flow somewhat. As to the tank outlet I doubt if 3/4 bsp would be any better than 1/2”, so would go with 1/2”bsp

email from CRT, worth a read if coming down the river. Update on 20/03/2023: Opening Hours for Gloucester & Sharpness Canal & River Severn Further to the recent consultation regarding opening hours, we are now pleased to confirm the following for the 2023 summer season: Gloucester & Sharpness Canal Wednesday to Monday open 8am – 6pm Tuesday – Closed (except to pre-arranged commercial traffic) this closure includes Gloucester Lock. River Severn Navigation River Locks open 7 days per week 8am – 6pm Please note that Bevere & Holt Locks will be available at the set times below: Bevere: Open 8am – 9am, 11am – 12pm, 2pm – 3pm, 5pm – 6pm Holt Open: 9:30am – 10:30am, 12:30pm – 1:30pm, 3:30pm – 4:30pm