arcsyst
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Posts posted by arcsyst
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That worked well, didn't need the corks, caught about a litre of antifreeze/coolant in a bucket. Now to the workshop to strip down my 4yo heater for its first service!
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My idea is to shut off all the radiator valves and have a couple of corks handy to plug the pipe where it transits through the engine bulkhead.
I'll let you know!
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Apologies if this has been asked before but I am about to service my webasto following the excellent instructions listed here. However my heater also runs the central heating so I am concerned about not draining down the whole system. I haven't dismantled sufficiently to get to the plumbing yet but there appears to be some kind of isolator valve on one of the pipes. Would this be the normal setup in your experiences?
Update: Got access to pipework and it appears that there are no valves, is there any shortcut to draining down?
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The reason for the warning is that allthough the connector will carry the rated current when mated it will not make or break cleanly at full rated current.
The same applies to many connectors, quite often there is no warning notice. Having said that you should always turn any supply off before connecting or disconnecting ........
Is the reason precisely.
Elsewhere there have been comments along the lines of if you don't cover it the electricity has nowhere to go, or it 'just heats up the panel' - a solar panel is not really any different to a battery, if you don't connect it to anything nothing happens.
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Fallwood Marina has some spaces
Thinking of mooring here with a 57ft nb, how far would one have to go in either direction to wind? I guess Calverly or Armley, could you wind above Newlay 3 rise?
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Your comments regarding batteries looking after themselves are surely not necessarily true during the constant current cycle of a mains charger or alternator, i.e. before the regulating voltage is reached.
A high current charge source will easily allow the max recommended charge current of 10-13% of battery bank Ah capacity to be exceeded. Plate surfaces will become saturated particularly with deep cycle thick plate batteries having less plate area in contact with the electrolyte than equivalent starter battery. This current will be limited eventually by gassing that will allow the voltage to rise to regulated levels, but some grid corrosion will take place on the positive plate particularly at higher ambient temperatures where the regulated voltage needs to be lower. Hence the importance of temperature sensors under such regimes.
Its this corrosion that needs to be quantified in terms of battery longevity. Its been suggested that the balance between quick charging and battery longevity is similar to dancing on the head of a needle. I suspect that despite the guidelines issued by Trojan in this case, the effects are not as drastic as they might be, but there seems little doubt that high charge currents do reduce battery life to some extent.
I suspect more batteries die from sulphation due to inadequate charging however. I'm a believer in an occasional'gentle thrashing' to desulphate and equalise the cells.
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"These also apply on most inland freight waterways. "
Given that hardly any freight is carried on canals now is this valid?
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I would be slightly worried about the fire/explosion risk of having 1500AH of batteries. That equates to 64MJ of energy. Or in layman's terms a lot!
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Anyway, for a routine 250AH daily consumption min 500AH batteries would be barely adequate, except that it depends on when that 3kwh is used. If during the day, the solar will help provide some of that power - and if you really do have 1kw of solar, then in fact most or all of it! However if most of the power is drained in the evening /night then I would suggest 6x Trojan T105s giving 675AH at 12v. You could always buy 4 x T105s and see how it goes, if you routinely get below 50% SoC then get a third pair.
Methinks someone doesn't understand KWh vs KW
Yes 500AH would be a minimum normally but I was working on the principle that the load is spread over 24 hrs albeit not evenly, and that during some of that time there would be available power from solar/cruising so you wouldn't (necessarily) have to budget for the whole load. However - you are right insofar as batteries only lose capacity and having an extra couple never hurt.
I had a charging problem on a new boat that caused very early sulphation of the domestic batteries but I added them as a second 'set' on the other side of the boat (for balance!). It is quite surprising how they have recovered from being sulphated, and the extra bit of capacity helps out the new batteries too so hopefully prolonging their life. I know mixing old/new batteries is controversial but mine seem fine with a well controlled charging regime.
I know, I have 2 Sterling Pro-digital chargers, plus 2 Sterling alternator regulators, but I wouldn't necessarily say that the alternator regulators (or alternator to battery chargers) are a "must".
OK point taken, I revise my advice to " Just using the standard alternator is never going to work well" as they are not designed to do the job being asked of them; they are designed to charge a car battery that has had maybe 1% of it's charge used and thereafter power all the 12v gizmos in you car.
All this is pre-supposing that you do your charging when cruising, it's irrelevant if you rely on solar/wind/shore power of course (edited as I realised I was speaking from a cruisers point of view!)
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Me thinks your figures are wrong or charge rate is inadequate
What figures?
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The theory with wet batteries is that you can push the charging which will cause the batteries to gas which would be unacceptable with sealed batteries as it would cause water loss but with old school batteries you obviously have the ability to replaced this lost water. Depending on the location of your batteries topping up can however be tricky. The sterling charger has option for unsealed batteries. BTW i have no connection with said company!Where's me popcorn?
Edit: One suggestion from me is that (assuming you are going to top them up occasionally), then buy wet lead acid batteries rather than sealed. My understanding is that because they can be charged to a higher voltage they perform better than sealed. This also assumes you have the type of charger that can be set to 14.8v (max) for wet batteries as opposed to 14.4v (max) for sealed. Some of the cheaper 3 stage chargers without battery type settings are pre-set to 14.4v to cover all types, so if you have wet batteries you never get benefit of that slightly higher voltage capacity.
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1Kw of solar? Are you signed up for feed in tariff?!
3Kwh = 250Ah so conventional wisdom would say at least 500Ah of battery. But a lot depends on your charging regimen. Deep cycle for sure I'm not convinced spending mega bucks on high end batteries is money well spent, personally I spend about £1/Ah and replace them when they start to die.
My view is spending money on good chargers is more worthwhile. If you cruise then a Sterling A to B charger is a must, it will charge your batteries properly in much less time than any alternator will.
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I concur.If it's probably bedded in with sikaflex, marineflex or stixall it won't allow a path for water or air underneath so no rust.
That is another consideration, but I'd have thought any panel in direct sunlight would get pretty hot. I think I'd want to check the temperature difference with the panel laying on the roof and then with a gap underneath before making a decision.
I don't think the paint could have been very well bonded to the steel or undercoats in the first place.
I repainted the roof from black to cream the temperature difference is massive - 10's of degrees cooler. I have two panels and can't decide whether to series or parallel them so by way of experimentation I have designed a relay module that puts the panels in series when the output is low and parallels them in good sun. I'll report back later!
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I just carry on motoring until it becomes clearer who is going to get to the bridge hole first. Often it turns out the other boater decided to slow down in which case I've saved both of us some time messing about each going ever slower and waiting for the other.
If they carry on motoring too I'm entirely happy to give way.
MtB
I'll add that to my 'upon meeting other boats' protocols then!
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Never mind pass on the left, what about the 50/50 calls at narrow bridges there should be some signal for 'giving way' many's the time I've been in a Mexican standoff both waiting for each other then both setting off together on the T&M. I tried a tunnel light flash but no-one (unsurprisingly) gets that.
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I'm about to do this job myself, 2 flexi panels onto a cream roof with Sikaflex. I was planning the same technique as peterboat [pu around the edges then ziz zags across the the panel finished by sealing the edges.]
I've not used this stuff before, is there any special cleaning/prep required? It's onto newly painted Craftmaster Coach Enamel.
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Hi arcsyst, all,
I've just stumbled across this post. I'm fairly new to boating having acquired my first narrowboat in January 2014. I work in software and have to travel a lot (alas not normally via boat), and so I have been looking into things like remote monitoring, 3g/4g, GPS etc. I've just purchased a Raspberry Pi today to see how a boat-net system might all fit together. Last week I installed 120m of CAT6 cable (in a 17m boat!) with the intention of using it for temperature sensors, cameras and a boat-intercom. I'd certainly be interested in having a go with a prototype monitor if you still have one available?
I don't have a shore connection at my mooring, but I have sufficient solar power (288W) to supply a few hundred milliamps.
Best wishes,
Martyn.
Hi Martyn,
Thank you for your interest.
A lot has happened since October! This project is quite mature now and I have a production product that is being well received, As it only uses 2 watts of power your solar panels should easily cope; if you contact me directly I will send you the latest brochure.
boatmon@TheITBoat.co.uk
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I'm not sure you can get your key out too early.
All of these type of locks normally hang on to your key and prevent you turning it back to the vertical position until the sequence is completed (gates shut sluices closed).. They emit a distinct 'click' at the point you can get your key back.
So if the sensors don't detect the sequence has finished i normally open the gates open the sluices, close the gates and close the sluices again and this normally sorts it..unless you do that you can't get your key back.
That's my experience, on a side note the top gates at Ferrybridge weren't closing in 'sync' every time; one gate sometimes closed well before the other preventing a good seal on the gates, open/close a few times closed them properly.
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Yes I was surprised that they weren't locked off, it appeared that these manual hydraulic sluices were in the intake to the electrically operated one so effectively shutting it off. I did wonder if this had been a deliberate action by CRT to stop passage as the river had been in flood a day or two previously,
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I had the misfortune to be stuck here at the weekend (30/3/2014) due to the lock not filling. A helpful local resident (eventually) proffered that an earlier boater had been 'messing around' with the manual paddles feeding the intake sluice from the river (behind the lock keepers tower). I found both these paddles closed, opening them immediately solved the problem.
My reason for posting is two fold:
1. What is the correct position for these paddles (open or closed)
2. If you get stuck here (or maybe other places too) go check these out!
I left these as I found them, but reported it to CRT.
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The belittling started in post #10 when you 'belittled' Grace and Favour's advice in post #8, so you merely got as good as you gave I'm afraid.
WTF? I simply expressed my position as someone who is not risk averse I did not/do not intend to ridicule/belittle anyone's view. Quite the contrary I have been educated to the diff between a flood lock & gate. I am entitled to my view/position, it does not mean that I don't take on board other peoples points of view - that my friends is a bigot.
Done here.
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Fwiw I started out with a genuine question and desire for information, along the way I tried to, lets say, be a little lighthearted in honour of the festive season. It seems however that some posters either don't have a sense of humour or prefer to try to belittle other posters; a phenomenon I have noticed before in this forum. To those I have nothing more to say, to the people who genuinly have tried to help I say thank you.
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Just driven over the Aire at ferry bridge and it looks very swollen.
Of course that is not between lemonroyd and Leeds so all may be fine and dandy further up,
Leave him to it I say as he is clearly a know all.
For God's sake go get your teddy bear, did Santa not bring you a sense of humour this year?
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Have you done much river boating?
I like to tease! Did once go down the Trent with waves breaking over the bow in a stiff breeze (gale?)
Webasto thermotop servicing with CH
in Boat Equipment
Posted
I take your point but it has only run 1500 hrs.