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Up-Side-Down

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Everything posted by Up-Side-Down

  1. One of the main proponents of the concept also markets what he calls a Bank Manager: https://www.emilyandclarksadventure.com/bbms/buy. There are several YouTube videos put out under his banner introducing and developing the concept and people can draw their own conclusions as to whether it's a road they might want to go down. Having explored it I decided very definitely it was not for me, although certain aspects are quite seductive on a first meeting!
  2. A strategy that, one day, will lead to a very interesting conversation with a BSS examiner!
  3. I find this rather curious having stumbled across it a day or so ago. Can anyone throw any further light on the situation?
  4. As a corporate member of the IWA you would be eligible for cover for just about everything boat-related through them. I can pretty much guarantee that savings to be made with them will cover your corporate membership fee several times over. As a boat on the Scottish canals you will find that many of the business/charity craft around you are IWA insured. https://waterways.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/08-Insurance.pdf Quickest way to get the full picture is to contact Neil on 01494 783453; neil (at) waterways {dot} org [dot] uk.
  5. 'Doing the right thing' gets harder day by day and sustainable living will always be something of a compromise as the observations above bear testament! In my view the best boat heating compromise comes down to Ecoal or HVO in some form of 'diesel' stove. At 90% carbon neutral. with low NoX and PMs (including the insidious PM 2.5s) HVO takes a lot of beating. It gets rid of all the dust associated with burning any form of solid fuel and is totally 'self-stoking'. It burns much, much cleaner than mineral diesel and, once the hydrogen used in the manufacturing process is green, it will become pretty much a 100% carbon neutral fuel. Now that the joint IWA/RYA/CA HVO working group has succeeded in persuading DfT that all HVO consumed on inland waterways boats (regardless of whether used for propulsion or domestic purposes) attracts the same subsidy, it's going to become much more attractive (and less complex) for marinas to stock. The Group is now working on making it more affordable and available across the entire recreational boating sector to embrace lumpy water boats, and commercial vessels operating in Class C tidal waters, as well as inland waterways craft. The current RTFC 'subsidy' arrangements are no longer working to make pricing competitive against mineral diesel, so a new mechanism is clearly required. This may well be built on the back of the George Eustice amendment to the recent Environment Act (October 2023) which allows for a 12 month consultation period to find ways of making HVO affordable to rural house dwellers looking to fire their oil boilers with the fuel rather than having to invest in what (very often) is unviable heat pump technology.
  6. But taking the bigger picture, just look at all the valuable discussion and knowledge that has been culled from around the subject. CWDF at its very best.
  7. I can't help feeling that solar-powered cruising and the prevailing stoppage regime will prove to be highly compatible ...
  8. I believe this is worth more than a quick glance: https://cadalcraft.co.uk/about/
  9. From the boat perspective, when you boil it down to basics, HVO is pivotal ...
  10. That's certainly a damned good starting point. In fact I wouldn't mind pretty much finishing there!
  11. I think most of us do. It's probably deeply embedded in our DNA! There just happens to be a big 'HOWEVER' that sooner or later we'll have to come to terms with. And that will be a struggle ... a big one ....
  12. Off-grid, fossil-free and not burning stuff is a real challenge for us all but I think, potentially, marginally easier for those living on boats. But it does involve compromises, giving up stuff and accepting an element of inconvenience. As we're all different (and so are our circumstances) we each play with balancing a slightly different equation. The fact that, in our different ways, we're having a crack at it is the key thing in my mind.
  13. Let's say that all your heating, cooking and hot water came from 90% carbon neutral HVO, as a starting point in winter ........ (oh and we could envisage a brave new world where surplus renewable leccy was used to {inefficiently} produce hydrogen to manufacture the HVO, thereby making it almost 100% carbon neutral) ......
  14. If you can handle either 205 litre drums or 1000 litre IBCs then contact Ryan Abreu, Crown Oil, on 07585 792918; r.abreu[at]crownoil.co.uk. Crown will deliver by tanker in the Lancs/Yorks/Manchester area, while their subsiduariaries – Beesleys in the Midlands and Speedy Fuels in the Home Counties – will also deliver by tanker. I have been collecting IBCs from their Bury HQ for a couple of years now, alongside IBC pallet deliveries sent up here to Scotland. It's worth noting that two 205 litre drums sit on a pallet, so best bought as a pair to minimise transport costs. Now that the HVO Fuels Group (made up of IWA, RYA and CA members) have successfully lobbied DfT to allow HVO to be used for both propulsion and 'domestic' purposes under the RTFO (thereby attracting RTFC 'subsidy' across the board) 'red' HVO has suddenly become straightforward to purchase for ALL inland waterways use. The Group has now turned its attention to making the fuel readily available and affordable as, currently, it is 50% more expensive than gas oil. They are also lobbying DfT to extend HVO use under the RTFO mechanism to lumpy water boats so that all recreational craft are covered (and therefore treated alike). RTFO communique no. 14 – 2023.pdf
  15. Yep, it's 'gurgle' I'm after, not a 'whine' and a 'whir'! Are the Engiro motor and controller water- or air-cooled btw?
  16. Great! Thank you. You've mentioned this motor/controller combo before as I believe it's what you've specified for your boat. When I looked it up there is a note on the Engiro site to the effect that they don't sell to Joe Public, just into the trade. I guess you've found a way round this? You've also explained my disappointment when I recently rode aboard a Lynch-powered boat: I was surprised by the lack of 'silent progress' I'd expected and very aware of the noise emitting from motor and drive. Not the shush, hush electric boating I was expecting! To the OP, if this is all starting to get rather arcane and generally too eclectic for your taste, there is one very important takeaway from this discussion and that is that the majority of boat builders schooled in the technology and performance of the infernal combustion engine are (just like me) some way off getting their collective heads around all the ins and outs of electric drive. This means that there are, already, some disappointed customers out there who will have spent a lot of money commissioning their new electric pride and joy. I have met one or two of them. From my own experience, back in the diesel-day, it was not uncommon to come across newly-built boats with the wrong size prop fitted. I certainly owned one before I got Crowther's involved. This will have happened both through ignorance and because it's much cheaper to fit a common, off-the-peg prop than something a bit 'rarer' and therefore more expensive and harder to source. These two factors still very much prevail in the relatively virgin territory of electric boat building and while someone with the knowledge, experience and understanding of IanD makes it all look easy, he's currently very much in the minority as your reading on this forum will probably have already demonstrated to you. It's still very much a Caveat Emptor landscape out there where building electric boats is concerned. So you can't equip yourself with too much knowledge before embarking on a journey into this brave new, net zero world!!
  17. Once again, Ian, I'm indebted to you for your input. My problem largely revolves around (pun intended!) a lifetime's involvement with the performance characteristics of ICE and I find I really struggle to get my head around the leccy equivalent. So, there isn't really a gearing need when dealing with this sort of rev range?? I guess it only becomes essential when looking at the sort of speeds that a Lynch DC motor revolves at, hence them selling units in a cradle with a choice, in most cases, of three different gearings.
  18. Both very good points. In the first instance I guess Beacon Boats, who have a water-source heat pump in a hire boat, just are't hiring it out in the winter so the issue has not manifested itself. Now that you've pointed it out, I can see the contradiction re prop sizing. I'm in the process of converting my narrowboat from diesel to electric drive, fortunately starting from the position of having the largest prop that can be swung between my skeg and uxter plate, with more pitch than you or I have had hot dinners! I'm looking at a nominally rated 15hp electric motor to turn it and have been debating between direct drive and gearing things down with a belt drive. In its previous incarnation that prop has never turned at more that 750 rpm and the boat usually cruises with it revolving at around 375 - 425 rpm. I'd got as far as recognising that 'a prop at low speeds needs very little torque to turn it' (hence the motor could 'at this point' be tiny, in theory) but what is happening with the motor requirements as you increase the prop speed? If I've got it right, torque is power times speed, therefore it's as the prop speed increases that the demand for horsepower increases, so in choosing a motor one is effectively legislating for output at maximum performance and it's here that the 15hp (or whatever) is actually required.
  19. There would appear to be waste water being piped into the bowl too .....
  20. Lots of other useful, up to date, info on their site in relation to sustainable boating.
  21. Going back to the OP's original question, I don't think anyone has mentioned this useful guide published by the IWA Sustainable Boating Group: https://waterways.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/An-Introduction-to-Electric-Narrowboating-Issue-1-1.pdf
  22. You might be surprised! They don't take up an awful lot of space in an EV and, for those with range anxiety , they have become a 'must' in the winter months I understand!
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