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Detling

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Everything posted by Detling

  1. Just a thought, the 'offence' of wrong license and thus wrong BSS and insurance only occurs whilst the renter is in residence. Between rentals the boat is merely an empty private boat on a mooring and assuming compliance with mooring and movement rules then the boat is perfectly compliant. In order for CRT to remove the boat for non compliance surely they will have to prove the resident was not an owner or friend but actually paying rent in a commercial way. This opens up a new can of worms about barter.
  2. I can't see how you connect 2 positive and 2 negative into a Victron 12/3000/120 as mine only has one hole for positive and one hole for negative cable. Mine has I think 70mm welding cable run for about 3 meters to the battery bank, Remember also it is very unlikely in a canal boat to run anything over 1 KW for more than a few minutes, probably the largest current for a long time is the charger onto depleted batteries ie 100A+ for 30 mins or so before the batteries start limiting the current. Even the washing machine only heats for a few minutes the rest of the time it is just the motors.
  3. The 2013 BSS covers 240V connections and standards you need to ensure these are followed or exceeded otherwise your insurance cover may not pay up for an incident however unlikely, they tend to look for escape routes these days rather than pay.
  4. A solenoid valve which is energised when the engine is on will use "free" power from the alternator so will not have any effect on the batteries, It is also easily available UK threads, not US plumbing threads and is fairly fool proof.
  5. Remember to double that for a 12 volt setup i.e. 60-70 Ah a day. That is what I would call low my daily varies between 100 and 150 Ah depending on things like charging the laptop, using the toaster for a slice of toast, etc. Also how much TV time or how much time in the pub.
  6. You mentioned that the genny is German in which case it will be 220V and not 240V as that is the European standard and so 211V in not that far out.
  7. Seconded any night really, the Folly is popular
  8. You could use a tracer 20 amp for the existing panels and put the new ones through the 30 amp controller, these should work together with no problem. As stated earlier the current from a string of panels in series will be limited to the lowest rated panel in the string, Different panels types will produce different voltages in the same conditions and if you put the panels in parallel the highest voltage panel will power the system and the lower voltage panel(s) will just be ignored. Two controllers onto the same battery bank have the possibility of one 'trumping' the other when the SOC is 90% + as one controller could output say 14.3 volts and cause the other controller to think the batteries are full and stop charging. This depends on the controller program and two from the same manufacturer is probably as close as you will get, remember this will only be an issue for the last few percent of charge anyway. Tracer controllers are rumoured to be happy with a slight overload in watts/amps terms but to die instantly if over voltage is applied. I have 300 watts connected to my tracer 20 amp unit an it has survived the summer well max current seen has been 17.7 amps but I don't sit and watch it. The panels are fixed flat so won't get to max output unless I move a long way south or tip the boat at silly angles. Max voltage out of a solar panel occurs at peak sun level when the panel is cold, not an easy combination anywhere but a cloudy morning after a frosty night with the sun bursting through near midday in April/May is probably about the worst.
  9. On my travels I have noticed that many of the new shiny stainless steel water points are now without their padlocks, in fact the only ones I have seen recently are the ones by the office Brum. Did it not occur to CRT that these expensive padlocks have a scrap value of 3-5 quid and if anyone wanted a nice brass lock for their allotment shed then they were there for the picking. I hope that my licence fee will not be spent replacing them with expensive locks to be nicked again.
  10. I know of a marina that has a 180 day limit but start counting from 1 every time you come in through the entrance, a few weekend off to the pub is all that is needed.
  11. the moorings at the bottom of the farmers locks in Aston science park are OK and there is a winding hole there to avoid reversing, cuckoo wharf is Ok but only a few places and close to motorways..
  12. If the batteries are the same age the others will probably not last that much longer before developing problems. Manufacturing tolerances these days give similar products similar life expectancies ( think of 4 light bulbs in a single fitting, one fails after 3 years the others will usually fail in the next 6 months).
  13. But those of use who cruise get fed up passing miles of moored boats on tick over. Maybe if you changed the system to 'we pass at full speed ' and if you aren't moored properly tough then OK.
  14. And as boaters do not have landlines we have to pay to call the 0800 number on our mobile phones. Why not have a normal 01, 02 type number that is included in our standard 'free' calls on our contracts.
  15. Knowing the area well there are rows of moored boats on both sides of the Medway with a channel between them probably about 150 meters wide. These lines of moorings go right round a long bend which is quite tight to a ship of this size. This ship will have had a captain with a masters certificate and probably two certificated deck officers with many years of experience, Due to ship being based in Rochester and doing this trip several times a week the master may also hold a Medway pilots certificate. As to how do yachts get dismasted or damaged by several thousand tons of steel side swiping them I wonder if tthe questioner has ever seen a boat collision. Don't forget as they were stationary and have been there for years, any impact is not their fault, and the master is obviously trying to downplay the incident.
  16. The costs will depend on how discharged your batteries are and how full you want to charge them. Once your 5 domestic batteries are over 80% charged your alternator is unlikely to put more than 40 amps into them at 14.2+ volts, the generator will have the same problem. I find that the last 20% (according to smartgauge) for my 5 domestic batteries takes over 2 hours often 3 before smartgauge reads 100, and the current drops to below 4 amps whilst cruising. So if you wish to fully charge your batteries the last few hours will be cheaper via generator as the batteries will limit the current, If you are only looking to bulk up the batteries to about 80% the higher current from the engine will offer a shorter charge time and free hot water.
  17. I agree I think the OP is suspecting the wrong cause of his pitting, he has no shore power to create a electrolysis problem and that is highly unlikely to attack only a few places on the base plate and not the waterline which is the usual target after the prop of course. More likely in my opinion is some physical abrasion caused by a brick or steel rod stuck in the mud at his mooring.
  18. I have a small 20 watt panel connected via a split charge diode. The batteries are the starter and the bow thruster battery, these are feed by one alternator, the second alternator charging the domestic bank. As it is a small panel it does not need a controller and the 0.7 voltage drop is not a problem, the idea is to keep the batteries topped up mainly in the winter when the boat can spend several weeks with no attention. If you use a voltage sensitive relay to connect the banks they will spend most of the day connected, as even on a dull day in winter the mppt is going to provide about 13 volts, enough to close the relay. I can think of no way of connecting both controllers to both banks that keeps the discharge currents separate.
  19. Thanks for the ideas, I was wondering about the strange behaviour this after noon going down a flight. It is a very useful indicator that you can open the gates.
  20. Thanks you both seem to agree I need to change it.
  21. Hi, When I bought my boat the engine was serviced and the antifreeze checked, this was almost 2 years ago so I think I may need to top it up, check the strength etc. The coolant is a very pale yellow in colour and I obviously can't top up with the blue stuff used in the central heating. How can I find out what to top up with as trying to drain the system including the skin tank will be difficult to say the least as well as expensive, and I have heard that I cannot mix types but don't know more than that. The engine is a 2007 Isuzu 43 if that helps I don't know if it has aluminum in it or is all steel.
  22. I have the same inverter and the 30Ah is perhaps a bit high, I seem to use 24 Ah per day. My fridge will not work with AES enabled LG fridge can't remember the number.
  23. "We are finding with our current set of Varta batteries that they like to be used. They appreciate a deeper discharge every now and then. They seem to perform better after a deeper discharge and then a full recharge. " Today I had a chat with my neighbour who works in the UPS and standby generator industry. He said that they have stopped using wet cell batteries as they can't get any 'old types' any more. All the current supply have characteristics similar to those described above, they seem to lose capacity easily, but in fact they haven't if you use them fairly hard they recover capacity over a few days. What seems to be the cause of the issue is the continuous trickle charge and lack of real work, His UPS batteries basically sit on a charger, like our boats on a shoreline or with solar, and when required to work are asked for about 300 amps (each battery) for about 10 minutes while the diesel generator kicks in and takes the load. This may only happen once a year on the annual test, and wet batteries no longer cut the mustard, they just haven't been worked enough. They now use only AGM as this still works in his situation (incidentally he charges at 100A per battery up to 13.4 volts ouch! ) the discharge is fierce and lasts for several minutes I suppose a bit like using a microwave or kettle via the inverter. They used to use lead acid wet until recently as they were cheap as chips and worked for about 5 years, the AGM's seem to be good for longer so far 6 years and counting. The UPS set he was installing last week was 60KVA with a 24Volt battery bank of 20 batteries, on load takes about 250A per battery until the diesel cuts in. it has a 1000A charger for heavens sake, makes my boat set up look puny. 60KVA is deemed enough for about 12 domestic houses but the hospital has 5 of them!.
  24. You also need to remember that a boat 12 volt supply is any voltage between 12 volts and 14.5 volts depending on if batteries are being charged or not. My daytime voltage is rarely below 13 volts as the solar is charging the batteries. There are also often voltage spikes in a boat caused by pumps and fridges switching on or off, very short in time but quite possibly well over 30 volts. All this makes using a boats 12 volt supply to power expensive equipment directly dodgy. Items designed for use in cars, which have a similar supply are fine but they will have supply smoothing and overvoltage protection built in. A 12 volt television is usually designed to run off a smooth accurate 12 volt supply, not a 'dirty' boat supply. If you fit a dc12 volt to 12 volt converter to smooth the supply there is no problem, otherwise you will need to find some way to protect your kit. If you only have things connected after dark and don't run the engine you should have no trouble.
  25. 200A bus bar not sure it will be strong enough. The Inverter on full chat can pull nearly 300A and the engine starter crank current will probably exceed 500A. Just a though.
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