Up-Side-Down

.......... then we certainly won't be referring to their Eber....... cousins!

More a suggested reason for thermal insulation in the engine bay ........ if indeed that's what it is!

Thanks Nick.

400Ah of lithiums for £1k or so: where please?

I would investigate: 1) Lead Carbon batteries 2) Victron Super Cycle AGMs which can accommodate 100% DOD, albeit with a reduced life cycle: https://www.victronenergy.com/batteries/gel-and-agm-batteries (see the Super Cycle pdf at the bottom of the page) More expensive to purchase but whole life cost works out considerably cheaper.

Calorifier and associated plumbing in engine bay?

Impressive!

That largely depends on which day of the week it is .........

But then remember that SC actively discourage boats from moving!

See timeline below. CCT have specifically asked people to stay away and be content to share the activity from comfort of their arm chairs. The Viewing arrangements around the site are very restricted and pretty much limited to the nearby Ocean Swing Bridge which needs to be kept clear fro local access. CCT will be publishing lots of material in the coming days OceanActivityTimelineFINAL2.pdf

They also build exceptionally good boats as well, particularly for the specialist trip boat and community boat market. I speak as the trustee of a SCIO (Scottish Charity) who took delivery of one of their vessels about two years ago. We pretty much carried out the basic design ourselves having had experience of 'chartering' a boat locally, so knew what we wanted. Crafted Boats were excellent in translating our very specific requirements into the finished boat. This is a wide beam that it has worked hard ever since its arrival and it has not in any way disappointed! Just thought it was worth mentioning!

Exactly!!

TIMEA and their FaceAche page is another (far less structured) way to go for instance. There is probably the makings of a sound and far more realistic model to be built on here.

I'll second that request. I'd also appreciate some clarification here too please. I believe that the Sterling device is a is straightforward , one way battery to battery charger. A Buck/Boost device does a whole lot more ...... but I can't quite get my head around what that is and therefore where the difference(s) lie.

Correct. You're better at pin pointing the precise location than me!

That's Branford Barge Owners' Farndale H on the top end of the A&C either this September, just after the breach at Goole was repaired, or on one of the early runs last Autumn when the contract for carrying sea-dredged sand from Hull to Leeds kicked off in September 2020. She's an ex Harkers (hence the 'H' suffix) black oiler with three of the tanks cut open to form holds to carry aggregates. Other tanks have been retained so that she can be water ballasted for her return trip, light, and still get under the A&C bridges. She was originally built in the Harkers yard at Knottingley and has been fairly recently re-engined with 440 hp Cummings diesel.

See page 14: https://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/html5/reader/production/default.aspx?pubname=&pubid=d192940e-f732-42bc-a9d9-6fbce501da9a

Yes, as is stated in a subsequent post it comes in 'clear' form (indistinguishable from water) and with the red dye. At the pump it is currently £1.50/litre for white and £0.88 for red. Unfortunately we are now dealing with new stock just delivered in by tanker (ship) to Stanlow. The previous stock was going out at about £0.72/litre and there may still be some around. This is an unfortunate rise when the escalating price of mineral diesel had finally started to give HVO a price advantage. In the course of trials over the winter, I've used it satisfactorily in my Dickinson pot burner and it has been used in a Mikuni, an Eberspächer and a Webasto as well as a MX50 which is the Mikuni replacement from the same importers who have conducted their own satisfactory trials. All show a significantly cleaner burn. Subsequently both Eberspächer and Webasto have given their own (somewhat grudging) OEM approval to the use of HVO in their appliances with the proviso that they must be new installations. Read into that what you will as I'm slightly at a loss! As for using it in your PJ boiler in your cottage, you know the score and will obviously have the kit. I have no reason to believe it is not other than you have outlined (speaking as a retired installer of oil boilers). I wouldn't hesitate. A lot of trials work was undertaken over last winter and OFTEC, as you would expect, have been involved. There is just the thorny RTFO/RTFC issue to be resolved which is where the IWA SBG are turning their campaigning attention. I know my local Fuel supplier – James Bilsland of Glasgow – conducted their trial so you could speak to them or OFTEC for chapter and verse.

Point taken Ian ......... and pretty much understood. In a past life, as a plumber, I'd regularly turn up on a job to find the same electrician there. He never tired of repeating that electrics worked in exactly the same way as water flowing through pipes. I wasn't convinced then ........ and I'm not convinced now. He also used to insist that the reason that I couldn't find myself a reliable mate was that my tool box was far too heavy. There might have been more truth in that!

Ah, as in 60W an hour! I've always just thought of it in terms of the amount of leccy that goes back into my batteries in the average winter's day. Thank you.

Sorry if I'm being dense (or just plain ignorant) here but please could you explain the relationship between a winter output of 1.5kWh/day and the figure of 60W average you go on to quote?

I accept that you make a 100% watertight case for lithiums, whatever way one comes at it. There will be many of us, though – probably driven by cost – that will hang our noses around the compromise solution hence, for instance, my introducing the hybrid battery set up into this thread. My reason was simply that the bulk of the energy storage would be in LA technology (lead carbons in my mind) with an expensive lithium up front. I also accept your perceived shortcomings in this concept as more than a possibility but it looks like the guy in question has made a success of it. What I would like to see explored further in this thread is LA technology (and its hybrid forms) in relationship to a decent PV array where absorption and float is left to the sun and does not depend on highly inefficient and lengthy periods of generator running. As and when navigation authorities instal regular charging points for electric craft there is a second option for getting absorption and float more efficiently. I'm certainly familiar with one electrically-powered nb that although he cycles his LA batteries on a daily basis when cruising, he's happy to let his generator provide the bulk charge and looks for absorption/float once or twice a week from shore power. Throw in a wee bit of equalisation from time to time and this battery bank is still looking very happy on this regime after 5+ years extensive cruising throughout the system. There is no PV in this set up, just reliance on that once or twice weekly marina hook up that hopefully will be replaced over time by more and more bank-side 32amp outlets. I suspect that Lead carbon would be even more amenable to this regime which has proved itself to be effective with little capacity loss due to sulphation.

You're almost there! An all diesel boat fuelled by HVO is the probably the closest you'd come to the KISS approach to sustainability. You do have a very good point there.

i) Pls could you reference a source of an alternator load dump clamp circuit. ii) Is it possible to simply dump surplus load into a calorifier? iii) How about simply using a Battery to Battery charger from the start LA battery to the lithium's with a lithium setting?

Thanks for this IanD. I'm only too happy to do the reading and much appreciate you sharing the links.