Staarek

Ahh "collection of stuff" all over my boat, in different places, in different containers...

Good point. During summer I was using low power immersion heater to warm up water and I was getting between 200 - 400 ah/day. When I wasn't heating up the water the batteries were full after 80 - 100ah.

I've got 6 of these, but mounted flat on the roof. So give or take 1400W

Yes it's 12V system. As you said it will be quite difficult to establish what the gain really is but I will be keeping an eye on current and old records for the next couple of months. The panels specs: Vmp 29.62V Isc 8.56A Voc 36.75V

Around 30V as long as I'm aware

Aren't these mandatory on commercial vessels?

I used to have Morningstar PWM Controller in the past, changed for Outback MPPT and tbh I don't think there is a significant difference. On the other hand, it's quite hard to compare it as we CC and we moor in places that differ in terms of sun/shade etc. I only started taking readings last Feb so soon I should be able to have more data to compare it. For now: 1-9 Feb 2014: 58Ah on average/day 1-9 Feb 2015: 56.8Ah on average/day I changed the controllers in May 2014

I've got 3 in total in different places on the boat. B&Q sells 2pack for £27 BTW.

Thanks!

Yes, it would be good to merge them...

This is form London boaters fb page. Very sad, but worth a read as many of us use generators and some of us have them "built in". http://www.maib.gov.uk/publications/investigation_reports/2015/arniston.cfm

It is very general indication based on 1 battery (I think). It's from a book "Essential Boat Electrics" by Pat Manley.

As others mentioned, you will need to know power consumption of the tv/lights. Once you know, this table could give you approx. state of charge.

One more thing, I know quite a lot of people (including myself) that started their boat adventure on a narrowboat and move to widebeam but I haven't met a single person who would change wb for nb.

Hi Macerator, I'm sorry to hear you had such a bad experience with Bluewater, from what you're saying it seems our experience was almost identical. The bit about specification sums up perfectly how they operate. In order to get customers they will promise (and sign under as well) anything you ask for. However, when it comes to execution, you could be unpleasantly surprised that they didn't do what you asked for. It happened to us as well, and even though we had everything in writing they didn't care. That was the fact that shocked me most, all of a sudden having things in writing didn't mean anything. As you said, with Bluewater you aren't getting “truly bespoke” boat, you are getting "Dave's boat". We also spent loads of money, time and effort to address the issues (some of them quite serious, check my previous posts if you're curious) with the brand new boat as Bluewater wouldn't do a thing about them, they just didn't care. We now also receive complements and people ask who build her, and as an answer I'm giving them "made up" boat builders name as there is no chance I will help Bluewater to get credit. We were also considering legal steps but we've been advised that due to their financial situation (they already had county court judgement against them) it was quite risky and we decided not to. BTW Please feel free to get in touch!

Adding to what others said already, it seems quite diy-ed to me. Also the engine might be a bit small. Otherwise it's cheap and not narrow, which is a good thing.

Upside down method all the way for me as well! I think it must be on of the easiest ways to start the fire.

In my option combination of both both systems (webasto/eber + stove) works quite well. I've got a stove with backboiler that heats up a small rad in the bedroom and webasto water heater as well. I switch Webasto on for about 1 hr before I arrive from work, so I'm coming back to nice and warm boat. After coming back I'm putting the fire on which last through most of the night and then Webasto takes over again for 1 hour in the morning.

One more thing, I've seen this boat moored there for a long while, they don't seem to bother to move. I'm not sure if that will affect new owner if he/she decides to CC.

Very interesting, thanks!

Just out of curiosity, is galvanic corrosion a problem with alu boats?

Thanks Gents. I think I will be keeping an eye on cheap(ish) 90ST's on ebay but since my unit is only a year old I'm not in a massive rush, also there is also the stove if worst comes to worst...