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Tony1

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Everything posted by Tony1

  1. Yes, I'm sure they were over a grand each a while back- that's why I was surprised to see them now at £500. They were so expensive that they were not, for many people, a feasible option. Self-built units looked a far better bet, with an off-the shelf BMS for £50 to £100, plus a plastic box to house them, copper bars, etc etc. You've been able to get less reputable 100Ah batteries with a BMS for that kind of money for a while now, but not a decent quality name like Sterling. I can't understand why their lithiums would fall in price by more than half, when everything else in the world is getting really expensive, but I were buying lithiums now and I wasn't clever at electronics, I'd go for the Sterlings all day long. We know that the 'long wire' parallel/lead acid method works ok for charging them with an existing alternator, as proven by several knowledgeable members here, so at this point I'm starting to think its as good as chance for electrical novices to get into lithiums as we're likely to see for a couple of years. Especially for the liveaboards with solar panels that work really well with lithiums, they're a proper game changer when it comes to keeping the boat electrics powered. Even today I got a tank of fairly hot water from the solar, although its clear to see that its beginning to wane for this year.
  2. On a related note, for those pondering swapping to lithium batteries, I noticed yesterday that Sterling are selling 100Ah lithiums for about £500. They'll be pretty good quality, there is a decent BMS built in, and you'll get a full guarantee etc in case of cell defects/failures. So if you're frugal and could manage on a 300Ah bank (which would give you at least 180-200Ah to play with on a day to day basis), you're in business for a grand and a half - plus a long piece of wire to parallel them with a lead acid battery (or a suitable resistor), plus a battery monitor. Surely the price is only going to go up, and fairly soon? Now could be a good time to get into lithiums, methinks....
  3. Dammit man, there's only one kind of shilling we'll tolerate in this country, and its not spelled with a 'C'. And there are 21 of them to a Queen's guinea, by God. Why don't you just fit VTOL jet engines on the boat, and be done with it? (but seriously though- if they ever figure out that VTOL thing for narrowboats, do let me know. That would be the coolest thing ever)
  4. Aaaah, I see. Oh dear. In that case I owe Alan an apology for my overly sarcastic reply.
  5. This is the kind of namby-pamby approach that will just make things worse. We need to get serious about this. All bow thruster buttons should be electrified. Nothing lethal, of course (for a first offence). Something akin to a police taser would do the trick. That way these incompetent layabouts will still have the option to use their infernal bow thrusters. But if they do press that button, its going to really liven up their morning.
  6. I've seen a couple of boats doing exactly what Howard described, but I realise now that it couldn't have happened, because it is forbidden. The various engines and gennies I've heard running until 11pm and beyond never really happened either, because that's forbidden as well. Its a good job those half a dozen speeding boats that passed this morning were actually forbidden from speeding, otherwise they might have been speeding and caused some damage to the banks. And they definitely weren't plonkers, or indeed plonker's [sic], so it's all fine.
  7. Good point. Nobody likes animal cruelty. But there is an alternative. There are tens of billions of young layabouts cruising around town centres on illegal escooters at this very moment, mowing down innocent pensioners by the thousands. Or worse, wasting time in gender studies classes, or some similar woke-ish nonsense. All we have to do is to (literally) harness this vast pool of untapped labour, by lashing a brace of the young blighters to each boat. Boats of 60ft and over would be allowed two pairs. Think of the reduced carbon emissions. Think of the fuel savings. I say strike now, before the government cotton on, and throw them all down coalmines- or set them to building Spitfires.
  8. This is genius. You need to market this idea asap- some type of horse-based animal pulling a canal boat...
  9. Of course common sense tells me you're right, but losing my bow thruster felt like I was breaking up with an attractive pop singer. It was just an ornament for my ego. I never really needed it, and I never really liked it that much, and it impeded my development as a human being. But if I had a new bow thruster tomorrow, I'd be pressing that red button like it was going out of fashion.
  10. I had a bow thruster when I first got the boat, and I thought it was great being able to get the bow away from the many weedy, reedy banks that I inadvertently got stuck on. Then my wonderful bow thruster broke. Then I realised that bow thrusters are the work of the devil, and used only by villainous cowards who should all be shot. For the religious folks, I would remind you of the old psalm about it being easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than it is for a boater with a bow thruster to get into Heaven.
  11. Yes- this was at Chester locks, although I don't recall there being a photographer. I've now deteriorated to the point where I keep a separate stock of 'civilian' grade clothing, for use when I visit shops or pubs, when I know that normal people will get within a metre of me. My wardrobe system has been refined, in that a given shirt may be taken off front line duty after a visit or two to the shops, but it may still be perfectly suitable for cruising duty, which usually doesnt involve close proximity to civilians. This fragile rotation system was stretched to breaking point with the long, hot, and of course sweaty days of this summer, with shirts often not being suitable for cruising after even a single trip to the shops, due to excessive perspiration, and most evenings would see a shirt or two flapping from the stern in an attempt to dry it out after yet another wash. The whole business of wardrobe management is hugely complicated by my not having a working sense of smell (due to the Australian flu), and by my policy of buying two of any shirt that I like. This had led to several toe-curlingly embarrassing moments when I've realised I've selected the wrong shirt for a trip to the shops. So, instead of rocking up at the Co-op in a crisp clean shirt like a normal person, I've inadvertently selected the horrible sweaty shirt of the same colour that I cycled 8 miles in the previous day, which now assaults the senses of passers by as violently as a chemical weapon attack. Even after I thought I'd lost all vestiges of shame, that still made me wince.
  12. My brother holds the opinion that I have already hit rock bottom in terms of personal appearance and general cleanliness, but I think there's definitely scope for more grubbiness and squalor in my existence.
  13. The idea of washing sheets in my little plastic machine has an air of implausibility about it, but it seems I merely lack ambition. I feel inspired by your successes, and am now determined to experiment with a sheet. That said, I'll be passing Tattenhall marina in another week, and they do have the most wonderfully-kept array of washing machines and dryers, and at very reasonable prices too. It would be rude of me not to use them, and their equally wonderful showers. The whole venture can be woven around a visit to the very nice cafe they have. I tried the sausage and egg on toast on my last visit, and I seldom miss an opportunity to get my grubby paws on that kind of thing when I pass close by. The Morrisons public machine cost a criminal £9 for 45 mins of barely-effective drying, and I think £6 for the wash, so this keeping clean business is starting to become a bit expensive. I think its time to let myself go.
  14. Since you have thrown down the twin tub gauntlet, it is now mandatory that I post a derogatory reply. I have to point out that these portable washing machines are a bit limited in terms of capacity. I have one, and I can only really fit things like shirts and small clothing items into it. Trousers are possible, but require some supervision and intervention in the washing process. Larger things like sheets I haven't tried personally, but I have the deepest scepticism about the prospects of success with such large items. On the other hand, I used one of those public washing machines outside Morrisons last week, and even my impaired nostrils could detect a whiff of unpleasantness in some of the clothes that came out. So there is that.
  15. I'm sure you'll have considered this, but worth mentioning just in case its slipped down the list of considerations: I would check out the 'resting' current draw of any potential new inverter (ie when its on but there is no load on it). Obviously its more of an issue if you prefer/need to have the inverter on 24/7, as I would guess you do. Mine is a 2000 watt model costing under £250. It was a cheap and cheerful Amazon purchase, but is still running fine after a year, and it has a resting current draw of about 0.5 amps. That's still 12Ah used over a full day of course, but I have a 240v fridge so I have to leave my inverter on all the time. And some 2000 watt models seem to be significantly worse than mine. The higher power models (say 3000 watts and above), understandably have higher quiescent current draws. Those sorts of figures are irrelevant in the summer, of course, because you'll have more solar power than you can use in those months, but come late October and November, it might perhaps eat into the meagre solar that you are able to collect, and that might force you to use the domestic hookup supply more often than you would with a lower power inverter. Still, all that said it's not a major issue, just another one to consider. I've heard of a boat installing a dual inverter setup, where they use a lower power (and low draw) inverter as default, which is left on 24/7, and they switch over to a more powerful inverter when they want to run the washing machine etc. Its a bit of a palaver just to save money on electricity, but maybe in some scenarios it's felt to be worthwhile?
  16. Back to my answer- to be honest I don't really care.
  17. I'm sure you're right and there probably is a lot of pointless waste involved in the ad campaigns, but my own take on it is that when looked at against the background of a disintegrating NHS, a vastly understaffed and failing police service, potentially a decade of austerity that will make the last ten years look like a land of milk and honey, and now an incoming fuel bill crisis that will mean great misery for millions of UK people this winter, I'm not sure I have enough emotional bandwidth to worry about CRT's efficiency.
  18. I'm lucky enough that I've never been touched by any form of depression, mild or severe. So I've never been in need of a 'cure', or some form of healing, but I still get a unique feeling from being in a natural landscape- and especially a mountainous landscape, or a rugged rocky coastline. I suspect that on a deep and animalistic level, human beings don't really thrive mentally from living in large, overcrowded concrete cities. I've thought for a long time that for humans, living in cities is like chickens living in battery farms (but much less extreme). We can see and sympathise with the suffering of these animals (or at least some of us can), and yet we ourselves often fail to see what our own needs are, as animals. We continue to live our lives in cities, where millions of us don't get to experience a truly open and natural landscape for weeks or sometimes months on end. Canals and city parks are really just a stopgap, a sticking plaster over the psychological issues caused by a lack of natural landscape and by overcrowding. Almost anyone who has stood on the top of a mountain or a seaside cliff edge will know that unique feeling it gives you. That feeling is very difficult to describe, and to understand. But we all have that feeling when we stand within a vast mountainous landscape. I sometimes wonder if that is the feeling that a factory-farmed animal experiences when it is first released into an open field. The animal probably doesn't understand why it feels happier to be in an open space in natural daylight, just as we don't understand exactly what it is about the mountains and the landscape that affects us so much. We can't even explain what the feeling is, really. And for inner city dwellers, walking a canal towpath perhaps briefly gives them a bit of that feeling of a battery chicken being released into an open field.
  19. Yes, thanks, I was aware it wasnt a proper water filter, that was why I used the phrase 'strainer type mesh thing'. I hadn't even considered the idea of protecting the water pump with one of those- that does sound like a worthwhile upgrade. I lost my sense of smell a few years ago and its not easy for me to distinguish filtered water from unfiltered, but I do remember there was an improvement when I used a filter years ago. My current reasoning for considering a filter is that one of the pieces of 'red tape' that might be thrown on the bonfire very soon is the water quality regulations, and I am concerned that the quality of tap water could deteriorate to the point that many people will default to drinking only bottled or filtered water.
  20. A woman emerged very sour faced from a side hatch I passed last summer, and said she'd just found a dead wasp in her tea, and that she was certain it had come from the water tank. With this episode in mind I did think about getting one of those strainer type mesh things that removes larger particles (and wasps), but I never got round to it. Every few months I throw some water purification tablets into the tank at the beginning of a fill, but it is drinking-quality water that comes from the CRT taps, so any water problems are going to arise from deterioration that happens with the tank itself, e.g. rust. I'm hoping that exposure to any stray bugs will be character-building.
  21. Tony1

    On Grid

    Thanks again Jen, that's one thing less to have to think about. With the growth in solar usage and off grid tech in recent years, the gear to do this sort of job will be around by now. To be honest I'm surprised there aren't more threads here about solar hot water. My guess is that its because there are so few CCing liveaboards (what is it- maybe 6,000 of the total 35,000 boats?)- and of those, not many have enough solar panels to make it a subject of direct interest. Boaters who dont live aboard full time tend to cruise a lot more, so they dont need solar hot water, because they have the engine running most days anyway. To a degree, the same issue deters them from investing a lot of money in lithium batteries, and you can see why.
  22. Tony1

    On Grid

    Thanks very much Jen, that'll go on my 'to consider' list. I would rather take power directly from the panels, instead of having the batteries do the work of taking it in and then passing it out to the inverter. At the moment it feels like a lot of Ah for the batteries to be processing on a daily basis, and it will probably be a factor in shortening the batteries' lifespan by at least some degree. I don't have the electrical nous to consider doing this job, so it will be one for a professional. The 12v elements are only 300 watt, but at full chat on a midsummer day the two MPPTS can put out almost 100 amps combined for short periods (at around 13.5 volts), which if I understand it right is about 1350 watts- more than four times the power rating of the 12volt element. So I think I need some way of limiting the amount of power that is sent to the 12v immersion element. The other concern is a thermostat. At the moment it uses a 240v thermostat that switches off the 240v supply once the element gets up to the correct temp, so everything seems fairly safe. My worry would be this- even if I can get hold of a thermostat switch or system that will disconnect the thick 12v cable from the MPPTs once the water is hot, wouldn't a sudden disconnect damage the MPPTs or panels? The MPPTs do have a tiny port for a control wire, and that will act to switch them off safely (which is what I currently use to switch them off when the batteries get to 80% SoC). But I would need a way for the thermostat to send a 12v signal to the MPPTs, via the tiny control cable into the BMS port. At the moment, with my very limited understanding of electrics and the potential issues to manage, it seems like its not worth getting into the cost and hassle of converting the immersion to 12v (and whatever I put in would have to get past a BSS inspector next year), But never say never.....
  23. Tony1

    On Grid

    I do fear I'm making it sound more complex than it needs to be, with my extra backup method for charging control. I dont think any other boaters use this sort of approach based on SoC, they just control their charging based on the voltage, and it works absolutely fine for them. And when I'm the only boater who is doing a particular thing, its usually a safe bet that the thing I'm doing is either unnecessary, or downright dangerous. I probably caught some form of lithium fever (its definitely a thing), but I left the system in place even after the fever wore off.
  24. Tony1

    On Grid

    You are spot on about the timings Tony- the batteries are usually back up to 80 or 85% by 11am on a really sunny day. I'm not clever enough to wire in a automatic switch to divert the solar to the immersion heater, but I did get Ed Shiers to connect my immersion heater up properly so that it runs from the inverter, and it has a manual on/off switch. If I know its going to be sunny all day I actually run the immersion early in the morning, which helps to run down the SoC a bit more, and I then have hot water earlier in the day. It only takes about 30 mins to get the water to about 40 degrees (hot enough to wash in), and that seems to use about 40Ah, but it doesn take too long for that to be replaced on a sunny day. Of course the solar hot water will be no more once we get halfway into September, but I'm enjoying it while its here, and in any case the stove will be a decent source after that. I'm hoping the fridge and other things will continue to run on solar (at least on most days), until mid October, and on some sunny days even into November. When I'm feeling brave and clever enough, I'm going to fit a knob that will allow me to control the amount of current going to the immersion heater. I think reducing its load from the flat-out 80 amps down to say 40 amps will reduce the stress it places on the batteries, and hopefully maintain their 10-year plus longevity.
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