rogeriko

Dont forget pretty much all narrowboat diesel engines will run on 100% biodiesel. They are the old style mechanical fuel pumps and not the new common rail injector system. There are plenty of websites that will tell you if your diesel pump is biodiesel compatible. I make my own from old frying oil that I buy on ebay and with the cost of chemicals it works out at about 33p a litre. Biodiesel with the exise duty paid can be found for around 1£ a litre

You say "after it had a soaking recently" what does that mean? Did you drop it in the canal or did it just get wet sitting in the rain.

Is there any chance of getting shore power for about 48 hrs. A good long slow charge should wake the batteries up and bring them into Healthy Status.

If you want to detect charging current ONLY then the shunt should ALWAYS be put in the positive lead coming from the alternators. Anywhere else and you will be detecting other currents. The shunt is kind of like a fuse it will get slightly warm at full power rating, If you put it in the negative lead and there is an overcurrent event anywhere on the boat the shunt will overheat and could set fire to something. I am an off grid solar installer I am used to working with large batteries and large inverters and large currents. Pictures of my work https://www.flickr.com/search/?q=mykonos+solar+wind

Me I like all those needles that bounce around much prettier.. Get yourself a few of these connect them everywhere. Only 8 pounds including shipping from Shanghai.

Dont forget the voltage on the D+ varies depending on charge level of the battery. D+ is fed from the regulator inside the alternator, if you connect both D+'s together without isolating diodes how can the regulators work independently?

On a diesel engine the pistons come all the way up tight against the cylinder head, there is no room for a slightly open valve.

On monday I will go to Pontycysyllte Aqueduct to check them out. Probably same company/men.

Unfortunately its impossible for all the valves to be closed at the same time so one of them will have hit a piston, thats the thump you heard when it stopped. If you are lucky just a broken rocker or two. But probably a bent valve as well. I just changed the cambelt on my VW golf last week,now that was a tricky job there's only one inch clearance at the end of the engine!

These guys have been measuring and checking every inch of the Aqueduct for a week now. One guy underneath and one in the boat, they have all sorts of high tech equipment in the boat. They have been there for days in the strong winds and rain. Also the work on the tunnel is progressing, new bricks in all the holes.

It takes quite a few amps to maintain a battery at 14.6 volts as soon as you start drawing power the voltage will drop. Obviously if you have 1kw of solar charging at about 600w and you turn on the lights the voltage wont drop but when a cloud comes over the mains charger will kick in.

My car and van both run on homemade Biodiesel, works out at about 30p a litre and thats with buying the used cooking oil on Ebay and the cost of the chemicals to process.

Setting the MPPT charger higher than the mains charger wont work because as soon as you start drawing current the battery voltage will drop and the mains charger cuts in even if your batteries are full. Therefore you are always drawing mains power only a little from the solar. In the morning your batteries will be charged by the mains, expensive, and then when they are full the solar will just keep them topped up. In a proper off grid system the charger only cuts in when the batteries drop to 50/60% but you must have good batteries, like forklift batteries, if you want them to last a long time.

Modern electronics fail all the time you are supposed to buy a new one every year. The latest Iphone update from Apple has knocked out the wireless internet connectivity on a large proportion of the older Iphone 4's, If you go to the Apple store to get it fixed they will tell you you have to buy a new one. If you heat it with a hairdryer and then put it in the freezer for 10 minutes it will work again. Be a good citizen pay your taxes and spend all your money on consumer items!!

casper ghost The Llangollen is blocked at chirk to fix the tunnel and there are 3 large pumps bypassing the dry tunnel to maintain a flow for the canal downstream. Obviously it is not enough. The canal normally has a good flow over the aqueduct but now it is much slower. They are going to be fixing the tunnel for a while so if you want to move it might be difficult.

Every boat that's ever hit the walls has taken out the brickwork its going to take them months to fix this. They finally got it empty and somewhat cleaned out only to find great big holes all the way through. The pumps are working continuously to maintain the flow. They have numbered the damaged areas, only 420!! The locals say it has never been emptied before but I don't know if that's true or not. You can see how the brickwork wraps around under the water making a complete tubular tunnel.

I would use at least 2 of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ZP-100A-Stud-Mounted-Rectifier-Diode-100A-1600V-for-Battery-Charge-/191274903332?pt=UK_BOI_Electrical_Components_Supplies_ET&hash=item2c88df6724 When the Chinese rate something at 100A they are actually good for about 30/40A. They will get extremely hot when passing the full 70 amps and must be bolted to a large heatsink at least 6 inches square with fins otherwise they will burn out. At high amps the voltage drop will be more than 1 volt but about .6v when the amps decrease as the battery charges.

They just started today sunday 23rd I guess it will take at least a month to work through the tunnel doing the brickwork. 500m is a long way brick by brick. They just cleaned the outside of the Aqueduct by absailing up and down it.

Here is some photos of the work emptying the tunnel to start work fixing the brickwork. 3 large pumps to bypass the tunnel and keep the water flowing for further downstream. Quite a setup.

Its really no argument the COP of a peltier coolbox is 0.4 and the COP of a compressor fridge is about 4. What that means is that a coolbox uses 10 times more power than a compressor fridge to do the same thing.

Just for battery charging its much more efficient to use a 12/24v generator direct to the batteries. This is just the first example that came up on Ebay I don't know anything about this model. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SALE-LPG-PORTABLE-GENERATOR-50AMP-12v-BATTERY-CHARGER-MOTORHOME-CARAVAN-BOAT-/191354215316?pt=UK_BOI_Industrial_Tools_Generators_ET&hash=item2c8d999b94 There are many more larger more professional models available.

I would be interested too its just what I need as a generator for my house/farm. Do you have any way of lifting it into my van, it must weigh half a ton++