Col_T

We have an MV Hydro 5 diesel water heater on board, which provides hot water to the calorifier, a heated towel rail and three radiators. It has 5 year antifreeze / corrosion inhibitor, and there is an expansion tank in the system which is pretty much at ceiling height. My understanding is that the antifreeze element of the mix will last pretty much indefinitely, but the corrosion inhibitor should be topped up periodically. Some questions arise: How frequently is ‘periodically’? Is it ‘merely’ a case of drain ‘x’ amount of fluid from the central heating circuit and adding the same quantity of new corrosion inhibitor into the expansion tank? If the new inhibitor is added into the expansion tank, will it ‘self-mix’, or will it not circulate as antifreeze seems to? Is there a better place than the expansion tank to add the new inhibitor - I’d prefer to use the expansion tank as it seems the easiest place to get to, no breaking connections, etc.etc. I suspect that what I refer to as the expansion tank should probably be called the header tank, so sorry for that!!

I don’t disagree with you, Howard, and I may well be being naively optimistic! However, I for one would find a repository for that kind of information very useful, not least because it can be very difficult finding things again, even using the search function!

I’d go for a “yes, but . . .”, the ‘but’ being that it should be restricted to how to diagnose issues. Fr’instance, how to determine whether an alternator is a nine diode or not, how to check the output of an alternator, how to check that a water pump is functioning, how to set the pressures for a water pump. Things that shouldn’t trigger long, unnecessary debates / arguments.

There are many marinas, in the Midlands and South, where you’ll pay about £3k to moor a 57’ narrow boat. What’s the ‘premium’ for a wide beam, 20%?, it starts getting very expensive.

Splitting hairs - Blackrose hasn’t said when he originally decided the battery monitor was correct, so he will check to see if it still is. There is, therefore, plenty of opportunity for a significant time period in this case. 😀

Seems perfectly logical to me, as there are many things that change and / or wear over time,, meaning that what you once knew may not now be accurate.

Insulation materials have improved over the years, and replacing insulation is a major job. On that basis, it is reasonable to guess that a lot of used boats do not have adequate insulation - by which I mean the insulation installed could be improved. Your surveyor should be able to tell you what insulation has been installed, and may be prepared to provide an opinion on whether it is adequate.

GIFs? No, not under any circumstances, and if you think you need to add one to inject humour / add sentiment / soften a message or for some other reason then you should reconsider what you have written and what you want to say.

@jonathanA - thanks for that answer, even I can understand it!

Genuine question. Signals on optical fibre networks - are these encoded on a beam of light? If so, do these not travel at the speed of light. If the signal is not encoded on a beam of light, are they just electrical signals and what is the advantage use of optical fibre gives?

We moored at Kings Norton, just after the guillotine lock late May this year. As @Stroudwater1 says, I wouldn’t leave a boat there unattended for a few days, but for an overnight stop it’s just fine. Certainly we had no problems.

Ah, okay. Is the ‘drift’ slower with lithium than with lead acid, or about the same? Fr’instance, would one fully charge LA every month to reset the SoC whereas it would only need be once every three months with lithium - numbers plucked at random from thin air!

I don’t actually have lithiums, and am probably unlikely to ever get them, but out of curiosity a question regarding Ah counting on lithium batteries, specifically LiFePO4 batteries. Possibly / probably wrong, but I thought that the Ah counting inaccuracies on LA batteries was due to their internal resistance, which meant that significantly more charge current was needed to replace the current taken by the loads. This then accounted for the ‘drift’, SoC vs voltage, seen by Ah counting devices . Given that lithium batteries have much lower internal resistance than LA batteries, which is why they charge so much more quickly(?), wouldn’t this mean that Ah counting is a viable means of determining SoC on lithium batteries?

Yup, someone’s here. He’s got no idea about waxoyl or bow-thrusters, but that coating looks pretty good from here. If it’s kept the rust at bay so far is there any need to do anything else?

Which is fine. I managed a complex EDI messaging system for best part of 10 years - I can’t write code, I don’t understand data networking. Project management is an entirely different skill.

We came off the Ashby on Sunday. The first 2 or 3 miles after Marston Junction were the worst, with levels low enough that anything much above tick-over wasn’t really viable as it led to breaking wash and the propeller stirring silt. It seemed as though the nearer we got to Shackerstone the more water there was.

Thanks for confirming that.

@Sea Dog has it right. The batteries were new July 15th this year, as the previous set had been on the boat since late 2014, and were replaced because a couple of voltage related issues with our 12v fridge caused me to lose confidence in them. No known problems with either alternator, except the engine alternator needed it’s drive belt tightening a tad, or circuit faults. As a genuine question, is installing a VSR a good solution to

We’re moored by Hawksbury Junction at the moment. Water Taxi to/from the Basin seemed busy yesterday and today, pretty much full in fact. The fact it’s not raining probably helps!

Many thanks for the replies, especially @Tony Brooks, whose first comments put the whole thing in context. In all honesty, I’ve never seen anything close to 70 amps on the ammeter, even at first start-up, but then we are very light electrical users, have a reasonable size battery bank (4 * 110Ah), almost always cruise for about 4 hours and have solar for the beginning and end of each day.

To avoid the use of split charge diode, with attendant voltage drop, on a single alternator engine? Thanks for the info @BEngo - it’ll stay fitted.

The engine is a Beta BV 1505, with two alternators - 70A connected to the domestic bank, and 45A connected to the engine start battery. At present, the domestics and engine start batteries are connected by a voltage sensitive relay and, because I don’t completely understand electrics, I am considering removing the VSR. My understanding is that the VSR will switch the output from one alternator to the battery being charged by the other alternator when the relevant voltage is reached. In my case, the output from the engine start alternator will be directed to the domestic battery bank. However, what I think will happen is that, once both alternators are supplying the same battery bank, one of them will drop out - stop charging - because a voltage limit in it’s regulator has been reached. If this is correct, I’m not sure that I see any benefit in having the VSR fitted. Any comment explaining where I have this wrong would be much appreciated.

tells them it’s a ‘live’ email account.

I’ve heard it said that the K & A is probably the only canal where a gang-plank is a necessity.