PeterF

You will need many more charging points than water points, we can go up to 10 days between water, but normally do 7, and I expect that daily water refills of half an hour are not common.

I checked mine by removing it from the pipework (I have a valve to isolate the sensor) and then connected some clear plastic hose I had lying around to the sensor, then I could add water with a kitchen jug and test it and recalibrate it by filling the hose to the same height as the water tank. I had to wind some insulating tape around the hose to get the outside diameter to match the pipe. Washed it out with clean water afterwards and refitted.

Lead carbon batteries that we are talking about are AGM batteries with the negative plates tweaked by using a lead carbon "alloy". These are the Leoch, Northstar and Victron types. Trojan are now marketing a lead carbon flooded deep cycle battery for solar and off grid for PSOC applications. Therefore, in my view, these are not new chemistries, or all new types, but just incremental changes to normal batteries. One thing that is perhaps making people cautious is the history of the Elecsol carbon batteries which failed to meet their promises. These had something to do with carbon fibre, I can not recall their details, but I believe the lead carbon is totally different.

The scientific papers that I have briefly looked at state that the addition of carbon affects the surface of the negative electrode at the microscopic level which promotes the formation of smaller lead sulphate crystals during discharge and the smaller the crystals, the easier they are to convert back to lead during charging. By reducing the build up of large lead sulphate crystals, which are the ones which are harder to reconvert to lead, irreversible sulphation is reduced. The reaction remains the same, the carbon appears to create a physical disruption to the surface which affects the crystal nucleation and growth which shows it is not all about the reaction only.

Or for an end of jetty mooring so you have an open view on one side of the boat.

If it is a CRT long term mooring that was auctioned then you can get people paying different rates for identical moorings depending on how much competition there was at each auction and how much people were willing to pay. The winning bids were sometimes a lot higher than people who were at the mooring prior to the auction system were paying.

Went up Big Lock on Wednesday, as we pulled up a boat was entering the full lock. The offside gate drifted open as it can do. The helmsman stayed in the boat on the nearside whilst his mate with the windlass used the bottom gates to get to the offside. Whatvwas unusual was that he did not walk over the balance beam, but climbed down a bit so his feet were on the horizontal timber below the balance beam and kept his hands on the balance beam for support.

??????? 1st post says boat on the Middlewich arm so when going down to the boat to fit panels collect them from somewhere very local.

Aqueduct marina chandlery now supply Victron panels as far as I recall.

I thought that 360 to 375W solar panels are about 1m x 2m so you will need 8m total length. Suggest you check this because if you are limited to 6.6m then you may have an issue with one of your base assumptions. However, if you have found some panels with a much higher yield per square meter let me know. The recently publicised Mothership Marine 57ft Narrowboat "Shine" was almost completely covered in solar panels and that was 1.8kW.

We are having a new boat built next year and our fitter uses DIY kitchens. I agree with Richard, we went to the showroom and spent several hours mooching around, got help and answers to questions but never any hard sell. They have a huge range of cabinet widths so you can make up runs of cabinets to almost any distance in 50mm steps. They also have some nice end of run curved and angled units. Nearly all their door ranges have a varnished option as well as lots of painted options.

Hurlseton bottom lock is planned to be rebuilt to the correct width this winter, will be closed from 4th November to 27th March so 7ft boats should be OK after spring 2020. There may of course be other pinch points, but this worst one should be gone.

The Hybrid marine system (standard engine with parallel electric motor) has a remote control option for engaging the electric motor in forward or reverse. I believe it inputs directly into the motor controller which avoids the need for mechanical control of the throttle lever. The downside is the £15k or so extra cost for a hybrid.

I have my absorption voltage set at 14.2V, which is at the lower end of the 14.2 - 14.6V range. I normally use around 30-35% of the 400Ah capacity and on starting the engine the current goes up to 100A at 14.2V, alternator already being limited by the regulator and after 3 hours I am down to steady tail current levels of 5-8 Amps is then maintained without reducing any more if I am travelling for more than 3 hours. They exhibit a drop off in charge rate towards a tail current as standard LAs do and this period also seems to be faster than LAs. This fits with the claims of about 6 hours for a full charge from 100% DOD at 14.2V with 80A bulk charge for a 400Ah pack. You can get faster recharge by going to 14.4V or 14.6V, but at reduced life, I have not felt any need to set my voltage higher to use the remaining 20A or so my alternator will produce at cruising revs when warm.

Northstar recommend a 100% charge every 2 weeks if permanently running partial recharges for their lead carbon. I have a set of the Leoch 100Ah batteries, less than one year old so too early to comment on longevity.

The three I am familiar with, Salterhebble, Todmorden and Huddersfield 24E all have paddles.

A few years back the guillotine went through a period of failures and repairs, and at one point it had a temporary chain hoist attached to the top beam and top of the gate and CRT lockies only operated it for a few hours a day and it took perhaps a month for spares to come. When they repaired it I believe they lowered the gearing making it slower, but putting less strain on the drive motor. This lock empties and opens the gate on a timer not a float like at Todmorden for example and if only one paddle works then it tries to raise the gate before a level is made. We have over nighted plenty of times in the lower basin and never had any trouble, but we have never left the boat. We met one boater who had left their boat for a few nights in the lower basin and when they returned all easily removed brass ware, spare ropes, fenders, plank, pole etc. had been taken. I recall the burnt out GRP cruiser on the long term moorings above the top lock, but as said above that was many years ago.

The lead carbon batteries most companies are selling are sealed AGM batteries with improved negative plates using lead carbon.

I do not believe that the equalization charge is anything to do with desulphation as the voltage is only 14.46V, neither will it be to cause gassing to stir electrolyte, again too low a voltage. I believe it is advised to equalize the cells, lead acid batteries normally get the cells equalized during the final tail current charge. However, there is a risk (theoretical or actual, I do not know) that permanent PSOC operation may allow the cells to diverge. I mostly operate mine to full charge, but if I have a day where I only travel for a couple of hours, then I am not worried if I do not get a full charge. The same applies if I moor up for a few days, I limit the engine run time to about 90 mins. In terms of topping up standard lead acids, a real pain as I have to disconnect and lift out some batteries to get to the ones behind, not an ideal layout.

I have installed a bank of the 100Ah Leoch batteries but have less than one year to date so much to early to tell. I believe that the Leoch number of cycles chart is for full charging each cycle not the partial state of charge operation. If you check the Northstar Blue+ batteries that predate the Leoch batteries and are made in much the same range in the taller telecom style cases, they quote optimal charging giving circa 2000 cycles at 50% DOD and about half this for lesser charging regimes. Northstar also suggest for PSOC operation that they are recharged to 95% and that every 2 weeks they receive an equalization charge. See Northstar Blue+ lead carbon manual. Northstar give a lot more technical details on the operation of these batteries than Leoch. When I asked DBS Leoch what the recommending charge parameters were they just said, choose the AGM setting on your charger. The other good point about these is that they have a lower Peukert effect than standard lead acid batteries, so do not loose as much amp hours when discharging higher currents, nor does the terminal voltage fall as much, which helps reduce the amp demand for a given inverter output power. Victron also sell lead acid batteries and their cycle figures are more in line with the lower Northstar curve. Unless you are on a shoreline all the time I can not see canal use achieving "optimal" battery charging conditions. Leoch Northstar

Yes, it was still Gordon at Calder Valley last year, he also took over Shepley Bridge from Brian ?? a few years ago.

Saville Town, Calder Valley Marine do diesel, nearer than Sowerby Bridge. Have used them before, but not this year.

Base plate has never been coated, and the 4 anodes are equally consumed, typical locations 2 at bow, 2 on rear swim.

17 year old narrowboat, 2 pack coated when new, been blacked with bitumen over that regularly to cover scratches, spent most of its life in a basin without shore power for any of the boats, original 4 anodes still have perhaps one third remaining, hardly any hull corrosion. The basin also has a good through flow of water rather than being a stagnant side basin.