magnetman

Earthing in Boats is not complicated. Just take a lead from the battery negative, add a spike and put it into one of the geranium pots carried on top of the cabin.

Just below the Desborough cut where the white broads cruiser is in this image. They now have a new wide bean canal Boat there and a better caravan but refusal of planning permission to build is consistent. I just don't get it given that all the other plots have dwellings. Obviously with the rather massive RTS flood alleviation scheme in the pipeline there will be some discussion but everyone else there has already put chalets and bungalows on their plots.

Thames Meadow at Shepperton. Also called Coway Sale.

There is a really bizarre story with a small plot in an area of land by the Thames. It is an area described as 'plotland'. Lots and lots of little chalets and bungalows some with residential PP and some without. In all there are about 50 of them. One of the plots has no bungalow or chalet just a caravan. a moored Boat and a shed. It really is the 'odd one out'. The owner keeps on applying for permission to build a bungalow there but always gets refused despite every other plot having already been built on. I was intrigued and found that this has been going on since the 70s. They always get refused. Seems bizarre.

It is interesting how the title of the thread has so little in common with the discussion. Did someone perhaps think 'home' was a synonym for 'house'?

There are voltage settings in the 'expert mode' on the Victron app. One always disables the charger when changing settings. Enabling the charger after this will usually put it into Bulk charge unless of course the voltages are being altered by another input.

I want to do this on my 9ft wide saloon launch. Keep the wonderful Diesel main engine and add a couple of electric motors as wing engines with their own little weed hatches. Big 48v alternator running off the main engine tailshaft. Generator in the gas locker. Plenty of solar. If fancy paints a feast it costs no more to paint it fine. Yeah !

It makes no difference whatsoever to me if it works or not because I don't own any lead based batteries. I am just idly questioning whether it is worth having this sort of system. Maybe it is. Being 'right' or 'wrong' makes no difference to me. They are usually pretty good. With any luck !

I installed a bath on that Boat. It got used quite a lot. Never serviced the Morco no. There were 4 of us on the Boat.

If you change the figure to 300mV instead of 30 for a short time will the upper battery voltage increase/decrease appropriately? That would be a way to ensure that the thing is working properly. Assuming the top voltage shown in the history page on the app is correct.

I don't use hot water. The engine will produce it when I move the Boat but I have transited beyond the need for this excessive luxury. When I had the woman and kids on the Boat it was a Morco as that means on demand hot water with no tank but jesus h christ on a jesus h bike it used a lot of gas !!

I agree but of course spending one's own money on something does introduce a psychological element. Someone who does buy something has made a judgment and taken a financial risk. Someone who doesn't has made a judgment but not taken the financial risk. So the person who bought the item is more likely to need to justify it than the person who didn't. The question, which @Tony Brooks did allude to earlier, is whether the temperature compensation thing is actually worthwhile on ordinary canal Boat installations. I don't think anyone is arguing that it is desirable in large scale battery systems like UPS and telecoms but these systems also have other complex arrangements including automatic topping up of the water.

Also interesting to know how the Victron app calculates the voltages. On the 'trends' page there is definitely smoothing (clue is in the word 'trends') but on the history page there is a maximum. I suppose the question to ask Victron is what is the time period used to get this value.

Does it work? It will be a while before temperatures start dropping a lot. Would it be worth changing the compensation thing experimentally to a large value and see if the max voltage changes correspondingly? Just as an experiment to ensure the arrangement is working correctly.

I wonder if it is the more expensive batteries which tend to have data sheets mentioning temperature compensation. Rather than being a luddite I am just always questioning things. Might it be that by adding lots of extra information to a data sheet the consumer may feel that the product is better than the one without the data sheet. There is an awful lot of subliminal marketing going on with these things. It is business.

The more complex a system gets the more there is to worry about. In terms of higher voltage presumably this results in water use in lead acid batteries. Do people always have a water topping up regime in place? How will the battery end up failing in this situation of high voltage charging? The fact the OP was concerned about it seems relevant. Its a bit like engine temperature worry gauges. In the old days engine manufacturers would coat certain parts of the engine with a paint which will begin to melt at a low temperature and alert the user to a problem using the olfactory nerves. The eyes are not the correct sensor when it comes to temperature. Its either got to be touch or smell or possibly the hearing.

If we are to argue about the the length of a 1 metre piece of steel it should be in French.

I never realised lead acid batteries of the 12v type needed be charged above 15v in cold weather. Obviously there is the routine equalisation thing but it seems to me there must also be a water consumption question in this topic. Presumably the battery warranty has something to say about watering.

One thing I particularly like about living on a Boat is the fact one does not need to concern oneself with land use as no land is being used. Land access is required on a routine basis and I do often have concerns around whether the Boat is an erection but generally speaking it seems to me that land use leads to all sorts of problems which eventually end up resulting in major intercontinental wars and the need for significant defence expenditure. No thanks !

this seems to take us back to the OP where @blackrose was worried that the voltage was around 15v. And this is in the summer. I did note that the total production on the Victron app was 21kWh so I wonder if these panels have been in place during winter previously Also if it is as you say 14.8v then why would this need to be temperature compensated? Surely one would just set the top voltage one wanted and leave it. The temperature compensation seems to me to be introducing an unnecessary extra element in the charging process.

4:1 glue lined heatshrink over the other end of the spanner.

The hull is a negative earth.

The first one.

There will also be choice supportive bias associated with this kind of topic. Obviously. I love a bit of choice supportive bias. Its brilliant. Also known as post purchase rationalisation. Its a wonderful phenomenon.

I know about solar being more efficient in the cold. Lower sun often means less solar because of shading unless one can find a very open location. Also there is the pollution effect when the sun is lower. Unless one is to significantly reduce power consumption then solar does not fulfil the requirements in winter unless it is a very large array. I am not 'rubbishing' it I am questioning the need for it. There is a difference draw your own conclusions !