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Ukiyo

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Everything posted by Ukiyo

  1. Hiya Gareth! I also love LED lighting but there are of course issues as there are with all the different kinds of lighting really. I think it's a good idea to try things out bit by bit like you have so you can get a better idea about things. LED's are, as you suggest, a more focused form of light and even worse they are often made up of multiple little bulbs too which can cast interesting shadows. It depends on the kind of LED bulb you are installing. Diffusion can be partly a function of the fixture in some cases. This is why some fittings have those white plastic covers that let the light through. If your fixture features no diffusion of any kind then you could maybe add cheap baking paper in front of the bulbs somehow to diffuse the light. Of course it not only diffuses the light but cuts some of the light output too. I'm not sure what sort of fixture you have. The Disc type bulbs are often for G4 fixtures but it can vary as to the amount of space inside the fixture for a bulb. In any case there are other designs of G4 bulbs than the disc ones. This is what I love about the G4 option because there is a nice diversity in the bulbs and also the connectors are easy to use and adapt to a fair few situations. There are some interesting new bulbs out there. Check out this one that seems to have a single high power LED and some built in diffusion: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/G4-3W-12V-Crystal-Warm-White-1-SMD-LED-Down-Marine-Light-Bulb-Lamp-Brightness-/111684802620?hash=item1a00eed83c:g:KJUAAOSwrklVbDb6 There also seems to be some new technology they are calling COB which looks interesting. Check out these new kinds of G4 disc which seem to not only be more powerful but have some kind of built in diffusion: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/G4-5W-18-COB-LED-Crystal-Lamp-Spotlight-Spot-Light-Bulb-DC-12V-Wram-White-White-/381479447805?var=&hash=item58d1f26cfd:m:mFB3-AMM2okF9UGL08sbP_w These look fun as they attempt to emulate a filament light bulb: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-5W-G4-COB-Filament-LED-Light-Bulb-Lamp-Warm-Pure-White-AC-DC-12V-130LM-P5-/181917339507?var=&hash=item2a5b1e4f73:m:mKw4EfICTSu5wUW8oo9q0Ww All of these bulbs are only 99p so you can afford to experiment a little bit and try different things to see what you like whereas spending £13.99 on some LED's seems a lot more risky to me.
  2. A lot of sensible stuff being said in this thread. I would try one before you go changing out all your light fittings. Sometimes the details about these things are not entirely accurate in terms of light output etc. ...and there is the question of is it worth it and will you end up with something worse. Flo tubes are already pretty efficient. I have a friend who much prefers the blue LED lights than the yellowish ones so taste can be a factor too. You might even want different colour temps for different parts of the boat and usages etc. Personally I like all the G4 type bulbs that sell for about £1 on ebay but I guess you need to have a fixture they would work with.
  3. Yeah! Good idea, lots of them in a big circle so I can keep track of it properly.
  4. Wanted to thumb this up but not enough thumb credit left but it definitely made me laugh.
  5. Always amused when people people living aboard talk of people living in houses! Lots of people live in flats of course and a flat would be a much more sensible guess given London and the hallway has lights on 24/7. Although you would also be guessing wrong. To be fair it's more of a corridor than a hallway. Planning on fixing up a boat to stay on. Whatever I have come up with will be quite an upgrade. I'm very much enjoying chatting to people about their setups here and seeing photos of their beautiful boat kitchens and stuff.
  6. I'm not sure he is doing that much negotiating. I think the other parties just said no and that was the end of it. More like a short chat, but you are right he should get back to England and find someone who can control the weather to sort things out. To be fair to Mr Cameron he has (along with his party) been trying to discourage people from using solar power, I guess because he knew it would be this unreliable. I mean who knows when the sun is going to shine or the wind blow. (I mean other than weather forecasters and google and stuff) Personally I never would have guessed they would be moving the sun about all the time like this. It does seem quite impractical. I just want them to put it back and stop messing with it.
  7. Already got some although they only come on at night (which to be fair is most of the time at the moment) but it just doesn't seem to generate enough power. I'm tempted to put my panels on my door in the hallway though which is generally well lit 24/7. That might work but would probably be a bit of a give away. In any case I've not really come across lights that are as good and economical as the sun. Although the lights are handy when it is dark and you are stumbling around. Okay I'm really glad it's not just me. I had a falling out with some Sun Cult types recently and I had wondered if they might be partially responsible.
  8. Loafer that sounds like a great plan although it also seems like I might miss a bit of the sun coming back maybe. I know when it went away it wasn't on such an easy to remember date.
  9. I'm almost entirely reliant on Solar for power at the moment. Some time ago my solar controller suddenly went into load disconnect mode and has only just started to come out of that mode more recently which is ironic as today is the winter solstice! I realised after a while that this was because they had moved the sun and now my North facing panels couldn't pull down so much energy. This happened last year and I remember the power did come back at some point. A friend of mine reckons they will put the sun back where it should be after a while too. So I'm wondering does anyone have any idea when the sun might be back where it ought to be and my panels will start pulling in the power again. I wish I had taken notes when it happened as then I would know when it might happen again.
  10. Thanks for the photo Alan. That really does have a lot of style in a nice compact space! Very impressed. So the microwave is a bush. Do you know what model it is? Perhaps you just need to find a microwave with the good old analogue controls for it to work with a modified sinewave inverter.
  11. This! I would actually feel safer with the little boat on the canal or a more inland river than taking the boat too far out into the wider stretches of the Thames right now!
  12. There is a slipway nearby oddly enough. I'm not there right now but the boat is not a million miles away from Eel Pie island but it needs to move on soon.
  13. Great posting! Yes I definitely want to get everything legal and BSS compliant and get the certificate. that's basically the end goal. As to the value of selling, that is one thing but there is also the value of using it too.
  14. Yes but you make that sound easy. Even if I get hold of a trailer then there is still the problem of where the boat goes to for the time it is out of the water. I assume being only grp and small it might be possible to get it onto a trailer without a crane or anything too?
  15. Thanks for the info Paul! I've been a bit off the map so sorry for the slow reply. Not sure I'm going to get one as it seems like a fabulous indulgence but I'd like to know the make and model of microwave if you remember. Who knows I might get one (I'm worth it!)
  16. I thought I would explain a bit better about the boat. The boat hasn't even moved for a good couple of years now and is in terrible condition. It has no license or boat safety or anything at this point and needs some work doing before it could get those I suspect.. It is presently privately moored on the Thames but has to move on which was why I was looking into the Thames as it wouldn't have to go far. It is a plastic (GRP) boat and only about 23foot, so maybe it could be trailered somewhere somehow? So yes I would love to go on a continuous cruise but it's not ready for that yet and it is in that strange not very legal boating twilight. I'd like to find a way to at least make it legal to visit the CRT places. Feel free to ask me more questions about it all! Freya
  17. Sorry I dropped off the map there a bit. I sometimes have sketchy access to electricity and internet etc. Thankyou so much for everyones great replies and suggestions!
  18. This was through an inverter? I'm guessinga big part of making that work will be about batteries that are up to supplying the draw even if it is only for a short time. Would love to have a microwave tho. Freya
  19. That is a great post Paul. Thankyou. I know my original question was a bit lacking in detail but that's because I don't go to forums to get the answer to something because with a lot of things in life there isn't one right answer anyway. However I find it useful to hear a variety of different opinions and also it's really great to hear other peoples actual experiences. I'm not quite sure what my future situation is going to be like but I want to improve on the current situation at some point and have a better standard of living. As Phil implied. Living shouldn't be just camping. Having said that I like that way of looking at things. For the time being I'm just camping! Right now my system is a bit limited in the ways you guys talk about and more. I only have so much space for my panels so I've used a slightly better controller to try and help. Perhaps the obvious next step would be to get enough panels to max out the 10amp controller I already have.
  20. If we are talking the cheap chinese ones then they are also fake. You can get cheap PWM controllers from morningstar tho and sometimes other places too. PWM stands for Pulse Width Modulation. It works by sending pulses down the wires. These pulses can be picked up with a simple FM radio, so an easy test to see if it's really PWM is to put an FM radio right on the cables and see if you can pick up the signal. It's kinda funny because they have gone to a lot of trouble to make it seem like PWM but they still fail the radio test which is easy enough to do. Hope that helps! The chinese controllers are still great value tho because they do work, and they are very cheap, they just arent PWM. George you are awesome. I will look into these. I will definitely also check out the meadotech stuff. Thanks very much Firesprite!
  21. I love hearing about what you are all doing with solar. It sounds incredible to me and is very inspirational! I've been what Phil would call "camping" for about 6 months now. Actually I've also been able to charge laptop and phone batteries in the library too, so that's kind of mains charging, tho I don't bring the marine battery with me I'm quite limited in what I can do in my current situation, especially now it's winter and the bas***** moved the sun, but I'm thinking if I'm able to change things then I could have a much greater potential capacity and you guys seem to be backing that up although I guess some of your power is coming from the engine in addition to your panels. Food for thought anyway!
  22. Hiya George, Yeah I wasn't even looking for a residential mooring but just somewhere to moor while I get the boat into workable condition but there are not really moorings of any kind available now it would seem. The boat yards are being converted to luxury mansions and from hear it sounds like the more temporary options in terms of a moving community has been moved on elsewhere.
  23. I know what you mean but the PWM controllers are also fake. It's really bizzare because they have gone to a lot of trouble to make them seem real and you would think by that point they might as well just have made a real PWM controller. Most of the chinese controllers are basically the same electronics in different cases. They say PWM or MPPT and cost different prices but inside it is the same stuff. Just a switching controller. Having said that if you get a really cheap chinese controller that can handle a lot of amps they can be great value.
  24. George your posts have all been interesting and really helpful. Bimble do have panels at a great price so I'm going to definitely have to think about maybe upgrading my Morningstar for more amps or getting a very cheap Chinese controller or something.
  25. I have to say some of this stuff is kind of mind blowing for me. Dish washers, freezers, even considering a washing machine is just wow! Is anyone here running a microwave? I can run my little DVD player and watch movies, charge my nook/phone, listen to my DAB radio. Run an LED lamp and it's almost enough to charge my tiny laptop. It feels like luxury! Freya
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