PeterF

Nor when the engine is running with the gearbox in neutral.

Notice arrived in email today that Tuel Lane is being closed immediately as water level has become critical. Hopefully, CRT will still be able to pump water into the Sowerby Bridge pound from the river to keep the Calder & Hebble in water.

Used Vactan on the rust in my engine bay (cruiser stern) 10 years ago, it is now time to do it again, just bought a new bottle. I have been pleased with it as it has lasted well on the whole.

Fair enough, I just thought I would put a warning in for the less technically savvy. Mine are in series, quoted as 23.9V open circuit x 2 = 47.8V, I originally bought a battery isolation switch but on second thoughts as I was so close to the rated 48V I decided to change to a higher voltage rated switch.

On mine I have the bolt in midi fuses for a positive contact. Midi fuse holder, Midi fuse Most battery isolation switches are rated for max 48V, which many solar installations with panels in series exceed, the Salzer is rated to a much higher voltage.

The cells in parallel are all interconnected at each positive voltage level, you do not have say 4 parallel strings of 4 cells in series, so if you have this battery with 16 cells of 3.2V in a 4 x 4 grid, all the first 4 cells in parallel are tied together at 0.0V and 3.2V, the next 4 are all tied at 3.2V and 6.4V etc. The cells in parallel all then keep the same voltage during charge and discharge as long as the stack is built properly with good joints between the individual cell terminals / tags.

The BMS manages this as the battery reaches close to full and the charge current starts backing off, the BMS will feed small currents into individual cells so that at the end of charge all cells are at the prescribed voltage. My RC plane lithium charger will deliver up to 40A through the main charging leads to the battery +ve and -ve and can divert up to 2A through the balance wires. The BMS connects to each cell +ve and monitors each cell, so even if one cell tries to go undervoltage during use, it isolates the load rather than waiting for the whole battery to go undervoltage. What is really required are slightly more intelligent chargers for lipo that sense the BMS going to end of charge and shutting down in a safe manner.

Oops, should have written series, I did the volts for series and wrote the wrong word.

2 x 180W, after the prompt from Tony, wired in parallel so around 40V and 9A. I will have a good look at internal, remove some light fittings and see what is above the ceiling lining or consider making a small channel for the wires down to gunwhale level with some oak trim that does not protruse much and hence will not be a head or arm hazard.

Tony, thanks for the reminders, yes I expect to need 6mm2, I had originally thought parallel, but new I have read up panels in series is best. Matty, the cable I linked was an example of the type and agree it would be too small. I have no roof conduit in my boat, I could run it under gunwhale, but again not sure if there is a conduit or I would just box it in. I would still need to get it from roof to under gunwhale without looking a mess. Putting it along the roof is the simpler option, which I have seen on lots of boats.

Thanks to both of you for that info. I have done some more searching, the stuff looked like the cable in this link, although that is not rated as outdoor cable unless protected. The clear outer sheath will not be UV resistant. However it will provide some mechanical protection. SY armoured flexible cable. I have only linked one example of this, not necessarily the exact number of cores and conductor area.

I am considering fitting solar panels and these will have to be mounted on the front half of the boat. I expect to run the cable back along the roof before taking it inside to avoid having to make a hidden route internally. I have been looking at installations on other boats in passing during my current journey and a lot of these had only a single cable running over the roof with what appeared to be a reinforced translucent outer sheath and obviously at least two cores. I have tried to find such cable as it will be neater than having both a positive and a negative wire, but have come up empty handed. Does anyone know of this type of cable. The other thought I had is, is it just reinforced plastic hose with the two standard cables run through together.

The biggest power draw on the washing machine is heating up cold water, not the motor turning the drum. I installed a washing machine on our boat over the winter and put a thermostatic mixer valve on the water supply, taking from both hot and cold feeds. I set this up for just over 30degC by filling some saucepans from the hose with a thermometer in and run 30degC washes. The heater is never called upon so we only ever see the inverter pulling 30 to 40 Amps for the motor. I turned the engine off during a wash cycle once, when I had to wait for an hour at Bingley locks and new I had warm water.

The Stockton and Darlington Railway was not built to connect the coal fields of Stockton and Darlington, but to connect the coal fields of Darlington to the River Tees at Stockton for onward shipment. I also think one of the black and white photos of dereliction was a retouched photo of Elland Wharf after the 2015 Boxing Day floods, I would like to see it again to confirm though.

Same here with a C263. When I bought the spare cassette, I found it was cheaper to buy a refresh kit (cassette and a toilet seat combined, maybe some other bits and pieces as well) rather than just the spare cassette on it's own.

I fitted a double lip oil seal on mine to act as a weather guard, checked the ID of the casting and OD of the rudder stock and found one to match. There was enough of a recess between the tpp of the bearing and the top of the casting foe most of the seal to sit in. When I grease it some grease comes up into the oil seal, hence the greasy deposit on the top. Of course I had to remove the tiller to do this, which was more difficult than expected, but eventually came free.

Came through this morning, no signs of any spill

Travelled from Leeds to Rodley today, the lock keepers at the staircase locks below Rodley said something to us about it and there was some environment agency staff on site. They were considering if they needed to close the canal or not or use some movable booms and I have not received any emails from the stoppages service. If it is travelling downstream it has not got to us. I will see tomorrow morning.

My boat has a double thickness bulkhead between galley and kitchen with wall cupboards hung on this bulkhead in the galley and a cabinet in the bathroom, so it could be to take extra weight.

A few years ago on the Huddersfield narrow at Slaithewaite a hire narrowboat did not realise there was a slipway and ended up grounding the bows. It was a devil to get it back off again. Seeing this reminded me of it, sort if a reverse problem.

I believe that many of the adhesives require specific gaps between the two components, with the gaps needing to be tightly controlled, the adhesive is not gap filling. Very amenable to new build with well made components, but not to adding patches to an uneven aged surface.

Sounds like it is working fine. After one hour the hot water tank will be up to temperature and the heat demand will reduce, so the circulating water gets hotter and the unit shuts down so it does not over heat. I have four radiators plus hot water on mine, but the boat fitter put thermostatic valves on three of the radiators, if I use them to control the room temperature, the Hydronic shuts down after 90 minutes.

Has it got the circulating water up to the internal thermostat setting after that period, shutting down the firing until the circulating water cools down, and then needs to relight.

Quite an interesting topic, I moor on Calder & Hebble and have what was quoted as a 55ft boat, using the length quoted by the broker I brought it from, which was as stated in the original builders manual. I like the length because I can open lock gates whilst lying along the lock wall, no need for jiggling. We are now looking for a new boat so I measured the boat and came up with 54ft 6in over steel not including fenders. I measured it from the pontoon and bit by bit through the boat, with measurements within 1/2in of each other. Now I need to look for a 54ft 6in boat.

I think you have come up with the right answer even though your calcs contain a large error. You start with calcualtion of the heat capacity of the air in the boat, but the value for the specific heat capacity of air is 1005J/kg°C so your answer is wrong to be stated in kJ, is is just in Joules, out by a factor of 1000. q = (2 x 2 x 4m2) x (1.225) x (1005) x (17-2) = 295470 J Therefore the heat loss from the air is worth 0.003 kW The majority of the heat capacity in the boat is not the air, the air is miniscule in comparison, it is in all the 100s of kg of wood in the walls and furniture, the metal in the stove and cooker and other contents of the boat. The wood of the walls is closer to the inside temeprature than the outside because the insulation keeps the walls hotter. The boat is lined with 12mm ply, cabin is 4m long and 2m x 2m as per your calc, assume would density is 700kg/m³ and Cp is 1700J/kg°C q = (4 x (2 + 2 + 2 + 2)) x 0.012 x 700 x 1700 x (17-2) = 6854400 J which is 23 times the amount of heat stroed in the air. Then you need to start adding in all the other contents of the boat and this then gives you the thermal mass. It is the same as the old myth when looking in the fridge, "do not keep the door open long or the warm air will get in and mean a lot more electricty it used and the contents will get hot. The thermal mass of air is tiny compared to the thermal mass of solids because the air is 700 to 1000 times less dense than wood / water / butter and 8000 times less dense than steel.