Bob-18

Cross City line to Aston, cross the Lichfield Road and a few yards up Holbourn Hill - the canal runs "one house back" from the main road.

Looking at the DOMESTIC battery. The positive wires go off the the things they do already, via fuses, switches etc. No change. ONE connection only, and ONE, only to the negative terminal This connection goes to one side of the shunt. And on the other side of the shunt you have all the negative ("earth") returns from all the domestic kit. A connection to the negative terminal of the "start" battery A connection to the hull. (Obviously if you have some sort of BATTERY voltage monitor on the domestic battery that will be connected to the domestic battery positive and negative terminals directly - remember shunts work by "dropping" a tiny voltage across them, and the magnitude of this voltage varies with the current passing through the shunt...)

No mention on the spec sheet of the technology employed, or the use of blocking diodes, but a lot about the financial advantages and their warranty arrangements... Blocking diodes improve the performance when there may be shadowing of part of a panel, and can make it easier to connect panels in series on the long narrow layouts that are typical on narrowboats... The technology employed gives an indication of the "performance gradient" you might expect under different combinations of light and temperature.

Voltage, with knowledge of cell temperature is a far better guide than current. That said, both current and voltage do depend on the exact type of battery being looked at (AGM/flooded/gell etc). Most "decent" battery manufacturers publish data giving charge current/voltage/percent charge curves (in various formats...) But all agree on watching the rate of change gives as good a guide as any once you are approaching the limit - and its a LONG time, not just a few minutes as getting the last few percent in takes a very long time, and a lot of careful watching of rate and temperature.

Caps do fail, as do a few other things. Those with an experienced nose can often tell you what has failed just by the smell. If you do take the lid off (follow the advice about leaving it disconnected for a good time) have a look round for obvious charred/burnt/blackend areas or items. Its not unknown for a "non-vital" component to fail and the rest of the equipment to carry on working "nearly OK" for some time before coming out in sympathy. A couple of questions: Were you plugged into a shore line when this happened, or were you running off the engine (I think you were on a shore line, but...) Did you notice if the AC output was OK when this happened? (Don't bother if you didn't notice as panic in the face of smoke is a normal human action) I would be wary about trying to use this unit until I had an idea as to what had failed, and certainly if yo do use it DO NOT leave it running when you aren't around. Also, make sure there are no stray wires dangling onto live (battery) connections - it might just be as simple as dust getting hot, caused by an overload due to a stray wire in the wrong place. And make sure that all battery and high current connections are properly tightened.

Or a DC/DC charger - very handy when faced by the voltage drop over the length of a narrowboat, and probably a lower loss than the inverter/charger combination, on the other hand it might be more expensive...

Those figures for the output of the Lister are very, very peculiar!! Crudely speaking, watts = volts x amps, so 1.5kW is about the same as 1.5kva (ignoring the "power factor" of the generator). So is it a 1.5kw generator, or is it a 6.2kw generator?? (the speed is not really relevant in the discussion of power, only frequency) If it is a 1.5kw, 230v, ac generator the its not got enough output, but if its a 6.2kva (230v, ac) then its more than powerful enough.

One important thing to remember is that an RCD is not an overload detector, it is an earth current detector. As such an RCD will "hold in" quite happily for a very long time despite the circuit it is protecting being seriously overloaded. But the same RCD will "trip out" when the current flowing in the earth circuit is above a certain level, despite the power drawn being at a low level. There are devices which combine the function of an overload trip and an RCD into one unit "RCBO". These are gaining popularity as you only need one "slot" in the fuse box for them, but needless to say they are more expensive.

My nomination would be a few miles to the east of the OP's - the towpath through Ammington. Only ten piles in a boat's length? I stopped to visit a friend who's house backed onto the off bank, and counted ten in less than half the boat's length, and these were added to while I collected a sack of apples and had a cuppa. One was "deposited" by me as I stowed the apples on the fore deck, the owner thought I was joking when I offered to return it from whence it had come - ashing shovel was to hand....

No, the rating is the current the fuse is designed to blow at, not the power they are designed to cope with. The voltage rating is the "safe working voltage", above which they may not blow properly, but just arc away until something other the intended bit of the fuse fails. Before replacing do a quick check on the loads on each fuse - the max on the 7.5A fuse should be about 90w, and the 3A fuses about 40W - if the bulbs are "normal" tungsten/low volt halogens then just add up the wattage on each bulb on the relevant circuit, its a bit harder for LEDs as there are other things to consider.

Star, you an absolute STAR. Now let's see if I can give you a greenie...

Oooo burger :-(