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just done a search for water cooled solar panels and found this http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2090447913000403 I think I'm on to something here... let canal water trickle over the front surface (panel at an angle) which will cool and clean the panel, maybe beads of water will act as magnifying lenses looks like i'll have to wait until next year to prove this tho...

well my thinking is if you had a small say 12v low power water pump circulating canal water over the panel would the output go up more than the water pump takes? sort of something for nothing

On a hot sunny day your solar panel is producing say 100watts. You cool the rear of the panel down from say 40deg to 5deg, does the output increase? If so by how much roughly?

Would a 1 in 8 slope be okay and can you have any horizontal runs?

yes its looking rather flawed and I suppose a thermo syphon pipe 40ft long wont work...

yes. the erberspacher is at the back of the boat, replace this with a circulating pump then T into central heating pipes which pass close to the stove at the front so it should be a simple modification. I have to run the stove at its absolute minimum at the moment otherwise the cabin get to hot so spreading the heat should help to reduce dampness, which will involve driving the stove a little harder (should make the airwash work - its a 1430) well that's the thinking

the concept of this idea is the boat has central heating powered by a erberspacher which when I got the boat about 4 months ago had not been used for years, the system has been drained and it is noisey. so I'm thinking a back boiler hooked upto the central heating pipes and a water pump to circulate. I don't like running the engine which warms the airing cupboard so this will do the same to a lesser degree but hopefully stopping damp forming at the back of the boat. the flu coil would be 4 or 5 loops, sort of more visual than functional, a bit like the Vulcan sterling engine spinny thing

are you sure? fitting a back boiler (inside the fire) by nature will make you run the fire harder to heat the ever cooling back boiler with exhaust going up the flu. when I measure the stove temp the bottom of the flu is hot, the sides are hot so has anyone actually tried this?

can you remember if it has actually been tried or is it speculation?

good call, thanks. was going to use regular straight tube but now I see there is a difference

I'm fitting a back boiler to a morso and I was thinking it would look nice to have 15mm copper pipe wrapped around the flu 5 or 6 times to further heat the water. so looking at ideas how to fabricate this, my thinking so far is to fill a pipe with sand or salt, solder closed both ends then somehow wrap it around the right sized mandrel. I'm not sure if a bendy spring pipe bender would get stuck forming a 4 1/4" diameter coil. will it cause the flue to tar up to much I wonder?

does anyone use watchpower for the maximum solar range of battery controllers?

Good photo nipper got any others?

interesting. I'm running an experiment with my car, an old P reg vw Passat 2ltr petrol. I converted it to lpg about 75k miles ago. when I got the car I changed the oil + filter, approx. 3 years later it still has the same oil which is still brown, it rarely needs topping up and the engine doesn't knock tap smoke or rattle. I'm thinking the filter could do with changing but I'd like to be able to open it up to see whats in there. I just wonder if the oil change is a myth drummed into us by the oil companies.

not quite a stoppage but a bloody stiff swing bridge! I found going to the opposite side of the bridge gave far more leverage so once you get it moving hop on and swing it on the side with the handle oops K&A sorry peeps, long day and the kronies are creeping up

Had a B31 plunger in my youth

we're above the lock, going for a chug newbury way weekend, well as far as the bridge! whats yur boat called? carl n di

whtat bike is your avatar?

if you'd like to watch your Vulcan sterling engine doing its thing you can reverse the way it runs so it can be turned around. you need a torx T10 screw driver and a pair of soft jaw pliers

give us a wave Bunny, I'm on Quordon No3 at Aldermaston, the 1st boat you see!

I've just got one of these sterling stove fans, I spoke with the manufacturers last week about running the engine backwards so you can watch the mechanism and still have warm air blown away from the fire. He's sending me instructions on what to do (slacken a screw on the crankshaft and rotate through 180) but I will clarify if anyone's interested. Also he's developed a retrofit fan blade that delivers twice the airflow, he said keep an eye on the website early jan http://www.gyroscope.com/StoveFans/

Spoke to manager at abc boat hire at Aldermaston and the bridge needs to be lifted off with a crane which is proving tricky as there are houses that use the bridge so it could take weeks to sort out. He's got 4 hire boats stuck the wrong side of the bridge

Hey nipper can you post a link to th k&a Facebook please, can't seem to find it

Heard today the swing bridge at newbury is closed for maintenance. Anyone any news when it will be functional again?

Super wad fantastic mm mmmm phase 2 next... well chuffed