IanD

You were both wrong, there's negligible difference... 😉

If you're doing something that will fit in -- and works in an air fryer, not everything does! -- then an air frier uses considerably less energy than an oven. But it has to come out of the batteries and be replaced (solar?), as opposed to just burning some gas on most boats, and does mean a reasonably hefty inverter and batteries are needed. If you have these anyway (and the space to fit one in), they're a great idea... 🙂 If you're cooking something bigger (like a roast dinner) which won't fit into the air fryer all at once, an oven is a better bet.

Could be, it was a *long* time ago... 😉

Mine was originally painted signal red (my request!), but once on the boat I found this was too orange. It was then changed to Ruby Red (RAL3003) which looks much better -- and turned out to be what Finesse normally use... 😉 (other band is RAL9001 Cream, looks better than white)

People build and install things on boats -- and everywhere else -- for lots of reasons, not just cost-benefit. Why have an expensive trad engine when you can have a cheap secondhand modern diesel? Why pay the extra for a hull from one of the premium builders and fit it out expensively when you could get something superficially similar from a cheapo builder? Why have an inverter at all when you can make do with much less electrical "stuff" on board, if that suits your lifestyle? Why have an expensive comfy sofa or bed when you could have a much cheaper one? A modern electrical setup with things like LFP batteries/inverter/solar/big alternator+controller/generator does cost a lot more money than a "traditional" narrowboat one with a few LA batteries, but means you can treat the mains more like in a house with whatever appliances you want -- but in the end it's a matter of convenience/preference, not absolute necessity. If you don't want to do this or can't afford it, then stick with "traditional" electrics, neither approach is "wrong" or "right". Going the whole hog with massive LFP batteries/inverter/generator just to get rid of gas for cooking really doesn't make sense on a conventional diesel boat due to the cost; the reverse is true on an electric/hybrid (like mine) where all this exists anyway as part of the propulsion system, but there are only a tiny number of boats like this on the canals today due to the very high up-front cost... 😉

If you've got gas on the boat it's a lot cheaper (and quieter) to use that for cooking instead of electric charged by an alternator which means running the engine. Do you mean your thermostat turns the inverter on and off? Surely it turns the *fridge* on and off? The inverter no-load power is drawn 24h a day unless you turn the mains off... But I agree that with decent modern inverters the no-load draw is usually small enough to be ignored -- at least, unless you've got a honking great big one like mine (60W no-load)... 😉

Anyone remember the experiment from chemistry where you spread a drop of oil on the surface of water and looked at the pretty colours and how far it spread? A very thin layer forms, which means a small amount of oil spreads an awfully long way given enough time... 😞

Residential moorings only at Preston Brook and Stretford Marinas though, nowhere else. Needing a grey water tank would exclude most canal boats though, especially steel narrowboats/wideboats...

There's a massive difference between powering low-power devices like a laptop (dead easy and cheap) and high-power ones like toaster/kettle (much harder and more expensive) -- and not just powering them (inverter) but where you get the energy from to recharge the batteries. If you're on the move all the time (hours per day) then recharging from the engine is fine, if you're moored and have to run the engine for hours per day that's not so good. At least in summer solar panels are an excellent and relatively cheap way to provide power nowadays, but they're not much use in winter. On most laptops the DC input from the mains adaptor isn't 12V, 20V or so is more usual. Doesn't mean you can't use an external DC-DC supply but care is needed. Many modern laptops now use USB-C for both power and external connections, any 12V-to-USB-C power supply with high enough rating will then do.

If you mean the gates opened by the drum winches, yes they're hopeless, especially in the rain when they slip. If you have enough people you can get one to stand on the slack chain to tighten it up while the other one winds.

Once you get up to "big enough" -- long enough to keep going between acceptable charging intervals in winter -- then more capacity doesn't help much, if (for example) it means running the engine/generator every other day for 2 hours instead of every four days for 4 hours. I'd say a battery bank that can support your boat power use for at least a couple of days is plenty, so it all depends on how much power you use. But if money doesn't matter, bigger is always better... 😉 (says the man who has the equivalent of a 2800Ah 12V battery -- but that's on a boat with hybrid propulsion and electric cooking, so not remotely the same case as the others here...) Also depends where you're going to charge from, if an engine/generator you certainly want the batteries to be able to accept all the current these can provide, and that might dictate the size rather than Ah capacity. Then there's the "should I go 24V or not?" debate... 😉