Cas446

Aston marina, just south of Stone.

It's not all about the inverter, you need batteries in good condition to start with. Have you tried your setup with the engine running, I.e. with your alternator supporting the voltage when the fridge kicks in?

Can someone provide some photos of an anchor point they have on a NB that isn't the T stud? Just to get an idea of what a suitable anchor point should look like.

+1 for Steve Hands, my experience was also very positive and he was very happy to discuss in length afterwards.

Search for Crewsaver Lifejackets.

I am sure it won't be long before we have to fill out induction sheets and start signing bits of paper. ..and thus just like being at work!

Germany has lots of very well organised low level corruption. Small businesses carve markets up so they can coexist. They are clever and don't usually get greedy. It's the norm and it is accepted. It works very well most of the time.

That's very useful to know.

How sensitive is the oil level on the PRM150? Is it vital that the oil level is maintained exactly on the dipstick line or is a little bit either side not a big issue?

Anglo Welsh at Great Haywood. The 65 foot Golden class ones. I hired Golden Meadow from Trevor many years ago which I think had that layout and to my surprise a log burner. I noticed a few years ago a sister boat at Great Haywood - they may still be available. Sorry if I am mistaken - its late.

Use an old laptop power supply with a dc-dc converter from ebay with variable voltage set point ~£15. Better to use your existing charger first and then when it drops into float - swap over. There are various tutorials online about modifying switch mode power supplies and cheap float chargers to get a higher output voltage.

Attach aluminium u channel to the underside of the panels using some nice stainless steel nuts and bolts with a few spring washers, do not tighten them up fully. Then attach magnetic 'magpads' see ebay, three per side, so six per panel, you will obviously need to drill the aluminium. Attach to roof along the length of the boat. The loose bolts allow the aluminium u channel to tilt slightly thus allowing the magpads to sit square with the roof. The height of the aluminum u channel allows the underside of the panel to clear the curve of the roof. Results in a very secure fit, but obviously they can still be thieved. Adjust the bolts to get a rattle free fit still allowing the u channel to tilt. Fixings are all hidden, looks really neat and tidy.

A problem I have with my combi is the marina supply I use is very poor, during the day the voltage can drop down to 170Vac. My combi has an under voltage disconnect of 160Vac which cannot be changed. This is fine for battery charging, but no good for running regular mains kit. With a combi that does not condition the shore supply you are stuck with whatever you get, with separates you can choose to convert AC-DC-AC to get 240Vac.

The most annoying thing on some hire boats, but not all, is pathetically small coffee mugs, no pint glasses and then really tall unstable wine glasses. The last being particularly annoying as they can't be stood anywhere on the boat except the deck so you end up dancing over them to get in and out of the boat. So big coffee mugs, a load of pint glasses and some short wine glasses so that they can be stood on the curve of the roof. Haven't read many of the other posts so apologies if already mentioned. My only other grumble was a ridiculously smokey engine we had once. It was so bad my eyes used to water and get really irritated when in locks. When I complained they tried to fob me off with 'all boats are smokey' which is clearly rubbish and just meant they knew there was a problem. I think the engine must have been changed since then, as it appeared on tv recently and it looked fine.

Yes I meant to say standby not shutdown, massive difference technically, but the concept is the same. ..and they can fill in the gaps if the quantity of renewables is high enough, ie like Spain.

You want carpet moth treatment, you drop it in a bucket of water and it gasses everything. My parents used it just as they left their house to go on holiday and they said it killed all the spiders as well as the moths.

Hydro capacity is tiny compared to solar and wind. The idea is that at times of high wind and strong sun we can turn the polluting power stations off. In years to come battery technology will be able to fill the gaps, or renewables produced hydrogen. Renewables only work when combined with something else.

My smartguage works very well with my solar. A simple voltmeter is good at indicating SoC of a battery under low levels of discharge or at rest. A voltmeter is not good at indicating SoC under charge, however at all times a voltmeter requires interpretation based on knowledge of charge or discharge. The Smartguage simplifies this and with clever algorithms based on previous discharge cycles and battery type characteristics provides an SoC at all times. However under charge or heavy discharge the Smartguage is just guessing, but guessing very well. The beauty of a voltage based SoC device is that at any time, if the device can recognise that the battery is at rest or very near to it, then it can re-calibrate and thus always remains accurate (enough) by creating multiple reference points. An ammeter is useless at providing SoC during discharge but good during charging, i.e. high current not charged, low current charged given a large charge source. Therefore amp counting devices rely on the batteries becoming fully charged regularly, if this is not the case then they become inaccurate. The key disadvantage with amp counting devices is that they can only re-calibrate when the batteries are fully charged, and as we know a single reference point is not very useful, so a second reference point is required which is the user battery bank size which cannot remain accurate. So if you want it old school, use a voltmeter to estimate SoC when discharging (but only off-load or light load) and an ammeter when charging and start a stopwatch when you reach minimum current. Or fit a Smartguage and obsess about something else.

The large scale onshore wind industry is following behind and will be all finished by 2019. Fingers crossed that the Chinese don't destroy our country with their Nuclear reactors.

Yes but the subsidy was there to attract people into the industry. The problem is the sudden and sharp politically motivated drop which is irresponsible and causes businesses to fail with large debts.

I do 2, but I connect my charger to the domestics. When I equalise the domestic bank, I pull the rj45 cable out of the back of the smartgauge to stop the smartbank relay closing thus preventing equalising the starter battery as well. The smartguage alarms but this can be cleared with no fuss.

Just been through the old 240v vs 12v fridge and choose to spent £60 on a 240v fridge instead of £550 on a 12v one. This made sense for me as a holiday boat with 200w solar so no extended off-grid time without running the engine. Decided to take some actual load measurements using clip over CT and fluke. The fridge is a Currys Logic 68s12 although the online price seems to have gone up to £80 now. Good quality, much better than I would have expected at that price. @240v standing load when compressor running is 150mA. It cycles for ~20mins in an hour. @240v starting current with cold compressor 'out the box' was 5.4A, dropping to 4.5A when warm, so that's 1.3kVA dropping to 1kVA. Converting that to 12v means, ~3A when compressor running and average of 1Ah per hour. My inverter (old Sterling badged blue box 1.5kW) is fine with the fridge. Compressor starts with same characteristics as when on mains, inverter does not make a sound when the compresssor starts and does not register the load. Inverter has 0.7A standby load so total load average is <2Ah per hour. This replaced a 3-1 gas fridge which consumed 6.8A continuously @12v and produced lots heat at the back for very little chill inside. Hope figures are useful and make sense.

I used Canvasman and I am very pleased with the result. Not exactly sure on price as I bought a cratch hood at the same time. Depends on location of boat and the quality you are after, up to ~£600. Have a look at their website. Chris