Tony Brooks

I think it is fair to point out that for people who have direct or indirect experience of surveyors' apparent incompetence you're reasoning may not meet realty. The only surveyor I would have a small degree of confidence in would be on recommended to me by several independent people and employed by myself. Otherwise, there can be a suspicion, if not a fact that the surveyor won't "rock the boat" and potentially lose subsequent work. I would certainly treat any surveyor's report commissioned by a vendor with a great deal of scepticism and would not consider it as adding any more confidence than my own eyes would give me. My surveyor did not know the difference between a pressure switch and thermostat, which is a very minor mistake, but if he did that how sure can I be that he could recognise a bad weld, use his thickness gauge/sounding hammer and know where potential weak spots are likely to be. @Alan de Enfield had a very expensive mistake by an incompetent surveyor, for one, but here are other examples. Enough to cause a degree of scepticism about surveys and those who undertake them..

No point in trying to persuade you there is a difference between a straight no and "it may well work with a load of caveats and be unwise". Especially when documented examples exist or existed of people doing what the OP asked about. You have made up your mind, and if anyone was trying to be argumentative it was you in your post I quoted.

There are other differences when seen on a mobile, as an example the "view new content" "button" changes form text to some kind of pictogram and into a different place on the screen. Basically you are saying that the developers decided it needed method to alter the display layout to suit and implemented it. If that had not been done at an update or version change mobile phone users would have a more difficult time access the forum. I am wondering what changes wearable tech will bring about. My point is that the forum action and display can't stay still without disadvantaging users of new tech. That is fine by me as long as it does not make the forum more difficult to use for older users on older tech.

Absolutely, imagine the eventual outcry if there was no optimised for smartphone option. Think how many that would in effect shut out of the forum because the PC version is too crowded and awkward to navigate/read.

A bit like the hire boats returning to the basin on turnaround day. We got stuck ages waiting for one to clear the trough, only to find another entered, so wait again. This went on for ages. I think they need traffic lights.

From what I can remember there were some progressively finer filters involved with the CHP project and I suspect the oil needed heating to reduce its viscosity.

True, but the RN project was aimed at users with fleets of vehicles that they serviced in house. Think agricultural estates and larger transport firms.

Agreed, that is why I raised the question about the difference between text and title. I think to make FAME one needs caustic soda as well, and then it needs washing and settling to remove the chemical residues. I can't see any way one could safely convert used engine oil to a diesel fuel on a DIY basis. I think it would need a catalytic cracking tower and heat, like they use in oil refineries. Then there would be disposal of waste.

No, the answer is yes, but with all sorts of caveats, that make it unwise. As far as cooking oil is concerned, I understand the Broads Authority trialled in their patrol boats and ran into cold weather problems and at one stage when fuel price went silly some taxi drivers got done for using cooking oil. I also know that certain boaters used cooking out, but DPx pumps had to have a helix machined into their main shaft to ensure adequate lubrication. I also know the RN combined heat and power unit is not a figment of my imagination. This is all I could turn up on Google for it: Issue 56, Winter 2007/2008 Russell Newbery Register https://www.rnregister.org.uk › RNRN56 CHP unit (combined heat & power) for domestic use, more on CHP in the next issue. So if anyone has issue 57 it might throw more light on it, and it was said to run on used engine oil. Diesel engines will run on a wide range of fuels and very early ones even ran on coal dust using air blast injection, so the answer to the op is not an outright NO, but yes, with a load of caveats making the answer yes but suggesting it would not be wise to do so. I would certainly never get either anywhere near modern any form of rotary injection pump, and doing so is likely to cause bad diesel knock at the least. Actually there is a mismatch between the thread title and the initial post. The title talks of bio-diesel which we know is mixed into all diesel fuel, while the question specifically mentions cooking and engine oil. Properly produced bio-diesel, FAME or HVO will be fine with the caveat about FAME storage times (I don't know about HVO), old cooking or engine oil suitably filtered will run diesels, but it is probably not a good idea, trying it while without filtering would be a very, very bad idea and may wreck the injection system.

It seems that LFP and thus probably sodium batteries do not stratify like lead acids and do not sulphate, so equalisation has no point and is not needed. If I am correct it would be better for them to say that.

Probably not, which is why I specified the odd weekend. You need a shore line powered battery charger.

Model number please, it sounds as if it might be an SL3 or SR3. Bio-diesel is totally different form used oils. Cooking oil is chemically processed to make bio-diesel. If you try to use just filtered cooking oil you are likely to hit filter problems caused by any animal fates that got into the oil during cooking, and in colder weather it is likely to thicken/solidify and plug the filters. Goodness knows what any water left over form cooking would do to the injection equipment. RN promoted a combined heat and power unit to vehicle fleet owners running on carefully filtered engine oil, but it seemed to go very quiet. I think that you might have to dilute the filtered, used oil with diesel, and I understand that some boaters add used oil to their fuel tank. I suspect an SL or SR would run on either, but absolute cleanliness and careful filtering over and above just the engine filters is likely to be required, but like Mike, I suspect the longer term effect may be detrimental.

Which may well be true. I see a major problem is that most operating systems update themselves without permission for the users, although in some cases that can be turned off. This means the average user has no idea about the sheer volume of security updates that are issued. This includes the phone operating systems. There seems to come a time when just patching the security holes is no longer sensible so re-coding is required and at the same time making it more efficient or to make use of advances in hardware.

The thread is so old the person you are addressing may no longer be on the forum, but Victron stuff is good, and I can think of no reason that a 15 amp charger will not do the job you have described. However, you may find a decent solar installation does more good for the batteries than a charger that only works when the boat is plugged into the shoreline, especially if you only do the odd weekend during the darker months of the year.

I don't get the impression that this is what caused the kickback posts. I think that is very well recognised. It was, in my view, the talk of graphic designer and seasonal and themed graphics. It is back to the "if it works well for the majority why try to fix thing", and Rich seems to have addresses that in a later post, but we will see. It also has to be recognised that nowadays new and younger viewers seem to like flashy presentation that adds little, and even may detract from the usability, and anything that supposedly helps a minimal attention span. As long as the older members have the ability to select a presentation that is simmilar to the present one, i don't see a problem with offering a more "modern" presentation.

I think that is a cheap and nasty domestic halogen light fitting. Made from very light, coloured/plated steel. As I think was said far earlier, these normally have springy clips fitted to the so you set the clips upright and pushing the assembly inot the hole in the ceiling causes hem to snap down and secure the lamp. Nowadays it would use an LED. This Amazon add gives you an idea and one of the images shows the springs I was on about. I am sure you can get different coloured bezels as well. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0C3H3BYRY/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_plhdr=t&aaxitk=388e387f15b679d5659d99c136213d0a&hsa_cr_id=0&qid=1786203955&sr=1-2-e0fa1fdd-d857-4087-adda-5bd576b25987&i=aps&aref=uF8zLT2tch&ref_=sbx__sbtcd_asin_1_img&pd_rd_w=ALVjI&content-id=amzn1.sym.09d6149b-953c-4f4d-87fd-7e954d905289%3Aamzn1.sym.09d6149b-953c-4f4d-87fd-7e954d905289&pf_rd_p=09d6149b-953c-4f4d-87fd-7e954d905289&pf_rd_r=N51Z89CXMJBSA4GTY9GW&pd_rd_wg=iM4wY&pd_rd_r=68eaf601-a371-4a7e-9bab-927f2440c379&th=1 This link sends you to a site that MIGHT supply stuff that is a bit more voltage tolerant than Amazon vendors. https://www.atenlighting.co.uk/product-category/boat-and-leisure-vehicle-lighting/boat-leds/?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=24046983499&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI3-2lzK-RlgMVX6VQBh17zxJaEAAYASACEgLBRPD_BwE You need to take care that the existing wirirng is, in fact, connected to a 12VDC supply and not mains via a shoreline or inverter.

With modern alternators and a properly specified and installed charging system I think your feeling is correct, the modern alternators will provide a higher voltage than the standard Adverc can. They were excellent in the days of 13.8 to 14.3V alternators, and still are good if you are using a passive diode splitter (unless you have managed to get a battery sensed alternator), or have undersized/resistive charge wiring causing voltage drop. In my view the same goes for the other makes of "digital" controllers as well. I did the same as you when I needed a new alternator that was regulated at 14.6V. Any external controller will make it work harder so the alternator gets the opportunity to work harder and this hotter, but at least the Adverc only boosts the voltage (and thus current) in 15-minute cycles, so the alternator gets a chance to cool down.

😉 easy, just set the Victron charger and MPPT to do a permanent equalisation charge, because it seems no one now uses the engine to charge their fancy batteries. 😉

Although I would switch in the positive, just in case there is an internal short and the motor case is somehow connected to negative, like possibly by metal pipework

The Alde is a proper boiler, so there should be no problem with that, even if it were connected to the domestic water system, which by your description it is not.

I think that you will find that both the cut in and cut out pressures are both adjustable. I suspect the 20-40 psi switch will do the job - assuming your pump is around 2 to 2.5 bar.