jonathanA

Yep I have a small SPO kit for the times the card doesn't work or the BW machine is out of action, which is about 50% of the time... A small hand pump (about £30 ebay) couple of short lengths of hose and some 1.5" BSP fittings. I pump into a 20L caravan waste container which I can then safely empty in the elsan point as required. total cost less than £50 and it lives in under the deck in the engine hole ready for emergencies - no fuss no drama no mess

I am an electronics engineer (not a technican) and hold a degree in the subject... I misread your voltage squared comment and thought you were implying it was inversely proportional to Resistance (it was late at night) - so apologise for my schoolboy error on ohms law ! I won't apologise for anything else, as I demonstrated and by you own admission your statement: "Thus if you now increase the voltage by say 20%, the voltage across the resistor increases by a lot more than 20%" is simply incorrect. I have admitted my mistake and apologised - how about you do the same ? .

I'm not sure these 'resistive' LEDs are that common these days, but going with the argument lets examine this.... power in a resistor is a function of current squared (I2R) not V2 power being Volts X Amps in a resistive load If the volts dropped across a led is fairly constant then increasing the supply voltage from say 12v to 15 volts simply increases the volts across the resistor by 3 volts (no more no less) - there is no magical multiplication that results in a lot more voltage across the resistor, how can it ? we said the voltage across the LED is more or less constant...This will cause a significant increase in the power dissipated in the resistor for sure. Whether thats going to cause them to burst inot flames I honestly don't know, but there's not exactly a lot of people reporting fires on their boats due to LEDs on this forum so the evidence would seem to be that it doesn't... People should be aware to all the issues so they can make an informed decision, but overstating them and giving factually inaccurate information does not help.

I thought this thread was going to explain why so many ladies end up 'doing' the locks whilst the fella drives the boat... always seems odd to me (diving for cover...)

All good advice i would say, my automatic assumption when buying pretty much anything is that there is at least 10% available to haggle. and most reasonable sellers (of anything) will be prepared to meet you some of the way if you are reasonable and make a good case. e.g if its your first boat and you are a cash buyer thats an immediate advantage over someone who has to sell a boat or arrange finance. If I was selling I'd take a -10% offer from someone able to do the deal today over a possible +10% offer with loads of conditions or ifs/buts/maybes...

expense of the work ? you choose to use a yard to do it -, you could have changed it yourself, its fairly staightforward. (not a criticism just an observation) It was the first 'proper job' I had to do on my boat and i hadn't found this forum for advice and help then... I didn't fit anything to stop water getting to the underside,( I didn't realise you could) but do keep it well greased. i had no difficulty finding and fitting the replacement parts once i'd got them off and didn't need to get the boat out of the water. I post this so that anyone else with the same issue won't be put off at least looking into doing this for themselves.

If you are burning coal or coke and regulalry run your stove hot then it depends whether you think its cheaper to replace fire bricks or the stove... I've seen a number of expensive wood burning stoves without fire bricks ruined by being overfired with coal/coke so that they crack and/or distort.

As Tony said 40W/10 is about 4 amps at 12v which means that in your case, for one hours TV+Sky you will need 4 amp-hours (AH) of capacity from your battery. you can expect to get better than 80% efficency from your inverter, but what you get will depend on inverter make, load, battery voltage etc etc

good luck - hopefully someone will turn up to share with you otherwise its a long day... take it you know the L&L is closed just past wigan until saturday (fingers crossed)

There won't be any interference issues. I'll think you'll be lucky if there space for a reasonable connector for the phone as well, but must be worth a try. you would need to make sure that the two phone wires are kept separate from the mains wires (of course) and I'd make sure there was no connection with the hull just to avoid the slight possibility of any stray galvanic currents that might cause corrosion.

i wonder why ? - sure there is a good reason so hpefully someone can educate us all.

Mtb - i assume the different pressures are something to do with be able to use the same jets- so gas/air mix remains same (pure guess though...) The figures I got were from some site that google threw up when I searched on 'butane versus propane' the figure for acetlylene is much higher , as you'd expect and also I have used propane/oxygen for gas cutting which is quite common and tends to confirm that it burns hotter otherwise butane/oxygen would be used for gas cutting when oxy/acet isn't needed. I was surprised about the butane/propane mix intuitively it feels that should be somewhere between the two, but as I think 'patio gas' is just a con I wouldn't entertain using the stuff and didn't really care....

at the risk of correcting MtB on a gas related issue.... I was always told and my practical experience has shown that propane stoves produce more heat than butane. some common fuel gases can be found in the table below: Fuel Gas Combustion with Oxygen(oC) Combustion with Air(oC) Acetylene 3480 2500 Butane 1970 Carbon Monoxide 2121 Ethane 1955 Hydrogen 3200 2210 MAPP1) 2927 2010 Methane 1950 Natural Gas 1960 Propane 2526 2392 Propane Butane Mix 1970 so not only does it burn hotter but its freezes at a lower temperature. I think 'butane' is usally aimed more at the leisure market because of the 'clip on' regulator needing no tools to change. eta - sorry table didn't work but butane burns at 1970oC and propane at 2392 (in air)

I've got a selection of crimpers etc, but you can get a cheap plastic RJ11 crimper (works surprisingly well ) for a few pounds... doesn't help the OP though. bit hard to give more specific advice without knowing the details but I'd still suspect the BT socket, if not properly protected from the damp is the most likely problem assuming its not his service provider... Guess the OP is still off the air...

I'd forgotten about 'cream' and wasn't sure about Blue so didn't include that. I can't ever remember Yellow ones but as I'd forgotten about cream ones... I seem to recall a very experienced fire officer telling me that most times fire extinguishers were a waste of time because people either panicked and couldn't set them off when needed or they failed to work properly... although I wouldn't want not to have some on the boat... (ETA - Green were BCF as Bengo said)

you can get RJ11/LJU adapters - lots of modems (remember them ?) used to come with them or RJ11-LJU cables that would plug the router straight into the phone socket. . gosh that's a pretty complicated way of doing it, although agree with the sentiment of using a better quality cable. it all depends on where the BT master socket is in relation to the OP's boat. and does he need a long 'extension lead' of some sort. If the OP can make up a RJ11/LJU cable then thats what I would do using preferably a cat 5 cable. (you only need to connect the middle 2 pins up so would only need one pair of wires in the cat 5 ) - rather than trying to source and connect multiple leads/connectors.

Or perhaps someone just needs to explain how the system is supposed to be used.... and he can see if he can live with it or needs an automatic systems such as a split charge. There is nothing wrong with this sort of arrangement its just fallen out of fashion as its been superceeded by automatic versions and 'clever' alternator /battery management systems. (which may have some advantages in some cases)

there used to be red, green and black until the europeans stepped in and said they all had to be red regardless of the extinguishant ....

they just get wet.... even as standard the 'wading depth' of a typical defender is quoted as something like 2ft... the first 90 I had some years ago had a 'wading plug' that you were supposed to fit to stop water getting into the cam belt housing - don't recall ever even seeing it or fitting it... I also had a v8 engined defender and that used to wade in deep water quite happlily although once during a very ambitious wading attempt the engine cut out in a very big and deep 'puddle' and I had to resort to squirting Wd on the ht leads to get it going again... never had any issue with starters or alternators - other bits falling off /not working but nothing to do with deep water as I recall....

thats certainly the case for the 'fixed wiring' but isn't the case for telephone extension leads or 'patch cords' Telephone extension leads are generaly flex of some sort, the better ones being more robust (and flexible). the most likely problems here are: problem at any connectors (line jacks) particularly if they are exposed to the damp, faliure of the micro filter (you can run without one especially if you re not actually using the landline for phone calls) or break down of the 'extension lead' either physical damage ( coming through window/door for instance) or repeated flexing breaking the insulation or conductors If the router has a wireless capability I would try plugging it straight into the BT socket and seeing how it works to prove the ADSL service/router then add the extension leads /filter

I love cats .... they taste just like chicken... <COAT>

I too have never had any problem with tar either coming back down the chimney or leaching through the brickwork/plaster and one of my previous houses was a 19th century brick/stone terrace on 3 floors with 6 open fireplaces ! Which were the only form of heating until i fitted gas central heating. I guess I'm slightly sceptical that the people who tell us we need liners, we'll have problems with tar/chimney fires etc are the same people generally, that have a vested interest in making these things seem complex and dangerous... When a good bit of common sense is whats needed (plenty on this post - thanks) I'd be changing the stove myself except I want the certificate as there is a possibility of needing to rent out the property...

yes I must admit to having some difficulty with this business of liners. I can see why in the 70's when a lot of people converted from open fires to gas fires there might have been a problem, but I'm confused why houses that have had open fires/ranges/stoves at the bottom of stone/brick chimneys for years and years suddenly need these lining.... been no mention of needing a liner so far, but i think although its a brick chimney about 60 years old it might have a clay pipe liner - will have to shine a torch up I suppose...

thanks useful info. LOL - yes might have £300 cash but 'have' to write a cheque for £350...

thanks all rang 3 he was the only one who turned up.... Martin - thanks for the link - that should help me get another quote. defintitely worth getting another quote i think.