hounddog

Your fantasy is amusing, if a little disgusting. So you believe people look at crowdfunder and say 'yes, i've got spare money, do have some' as if by some form of hypnosis? Do you do it often?

Given that 1. people don't just give away money on crowdfunder at random 2. she has been given £4,000 already and 3. analworld is quite ready to rush to judgement without facts perhaps there is more to the story than we know.

I've corrected this for you.

Yes. Like I say, I'm really happy for you that you've made no mistakes or bad judgement calls and needed help in your life. And by the way, when my boat sank it was as a result of my avoidable stupidity.

When my boat sank, no end of people rallied around and helped me out, without asking my for any money - including professionals who could have charged £1,000s. Crowdfunder is simple a modern way of organising that. I feel very happy for you that you've managed to reach such a ripe age without making any stupid mistakes or needing anyone's help to rectify them. Or maybe that's not true and you're just being nasty about someone who is in trouble.

Well done Nigel, it's refreshing when someone puts a point of view from a position of knowledge.

Don't patronise me. Conversation over.

A+++ is < 22kwH/yr so 1,833 AH/yr @ 12V so an average of 5AH per day although that's meaningless without know what the daily usage is in the summer when it's most useful.

I thought that was described as 'negotiation'. If there was some form of negotiation or even a willingness to engage in it I am sure the positions would change. People tend to get more radical if everything they say is discounted. I have seen this work with CRT in a local context. In fact the dialogues between CRT and London Boaters seem to be achieving workable systems (on both sides). You'll see what I mean then?

Trouble is, when you get the kind of slagging that, for instance, the NBTA get whenever they are mentioned, which is ill-informed bigotry at worst and condescending sarcasm at best, when really they are saying exactly the same as you, constructive dialogue is a long way away.

Sulphation is what happens in a battery, the conversion of lead to lead sulphate, as it discharges. It's a necessary part of the chemical reaction. What wrecks batteries is the hardening of the lead sulphate crystals so that they cannot easily be turned back into lead if the battery (as you correctly say ) is left in a partially discharged state. Hence it needs recharging before this happens. It is our (myself and colleagues) conviction that an amount of solar keeps the batteries in a state of 'chemical flux' and helps to prevent the hardening of the crystals and thus extends battery life. I say 'conviction' because a real life A-B test is difficult to arrange so we have only observation and deduction.

It depends, it's not that simple, which is why the '50% rule' emerged. For instance, if you discharge to 75% and charge every day you may have, for instance, 350 cycles before your battery needs replacing, if you discharge to 50% then maybe 170 cycles. But need to charge every two days so the life is the same. By looking at the graph you may find discharge to 30% gives only 100 cycles but you only charge every 3 days. Assuming your charging has no cost obviously charging every day from 75% is cheapest but really each charge has a cost and the added inconvenience may have a 'cost' too. Personally I'm a 30% 3 day kind of person. As i can count on one hand the sets of batteries i've been through in 30 years it works for me. An interesting fact is that the time spent charging in my examples will be roughly the same because charging from 75% the current drops much faster.

As for the '50% rule'; most people's usage is reasonably predictable so 'charge to 80% every 2nd morning (or whatever interval you need) - when most people charge their batteries whether by cruising or generator - is much more useful than discharge up 50% - which could be in the middle of the night. Sound advice is to supplement with a weekly long charge and a monthly equalise, but i can never be arsed with that, solar seems to fill the gaps nicely.

So how is that different to 'charge hard to 80% then carry on charging slowly to 100%'? No analogy needed. Especially in these days of 40A chargers and solar power. The reality is, if you don't live aboard the 2nd stage is easy, if you do you'll never complete it. Seems easier to understand to me. I'm not quite sure how i fill a sponge fast to 80% and then why do i need to trickle the rest? and why will it clog up if i don't fill it straight away? Confusing.

He lost me with his insistence that discharging below 50% SOC would 'cause damage' rather than being a point on a DOD versus cycles graph. Like you I struggle with water analogies, why not describing a water system with an analogy of electricity? Plumbing, head, pressure and flow restriction are just as complicated when looked at in anything other than a superficial way. There's also no place in this analogy for the most important battery charging fact; that if you leave them partially discharged then 'damage' will occur.

Yes, you have to take your hat off to bedazzled. They've been selling bulbs at around 3-4 times the usual price by a combination of a bedside manner and a few scare stories. Pretty clever really.

Fix it. it will be something simple. If it's the leak off side you can bodge something to take the diesel away. if it's the high pressure side it will be immediately obvious where it's coming from. Certainly take the covers off and the side case in front of the pump and have a look with it running. Changing the oil every few days will cost you a fortune.