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Theo

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Everything posted by Theo

  1. Hm... 900kVA. Do I run a mobile paoer station on a narrowboat? 900VA it is. Nick
  2. I have just looked up my spreadsheets and find that for my Kipor rated at 900kVA I have been getting an average of 87 hrs per 13kg bottle of propane. HTH N
  3. That's all very interesting. Perhaps I won't add that to my list of complaints, which, I have to say, is rather long. N
  4. I am coming to that conclusion but will open it up at home when we get back. Living without a fridge in this weather is not easy... But we are going along with no. 1 son and family on their hire boat and that has a workign fridge so life is still pretty good. N
  5. There was welding work. The solar controller can be explained by the wong reconnection as described in the other thread. The inverter has been showing signs of failure for a bit even before Theodora went in for painting. The indicator light had been unreliable and there was an occasional beep from it. It was working after the paint job and survived until 5 days into the present cruise. All the fuses looked ok but when I tried to take them out (they are 35A rated) i needed pliers to remove most of them and then broke the holder when removing one of them. It rather looks as if even if it was repairable before it no longer is. 😢 N
  6. Thanks. I haven't checked the fuses! I will do that next but since the fault has been gradually appearing over the years, starting with the indicator light not working, I don't hold out much hope. I'll be back... N
  7. Just at the wrong time our inverter has ceased to function. It's a 3kVA PSW, has done three years' liveaboard duty and is now seven years old. When I switch it on it goes "Beep" and then nothing. The little green indicator light doesn't come on. If I leave it switched on after five minutes or so it starts repeatedly beeping and still produces no output. It's a Sunshine Power Inverter 3000W 12V Pure Sine Wave and can be viewed here. My present thought's that it is dead, defunct, turned up its toes and no more but it would be good if it was repairable. Does anyone have any thoughts. It cost me £399 and I see that it is still sold at the same price. I am inclined to get another of the same. Is this wise?
  8. Thanks Iain. That makes good sense. I am using the recommended relay. It was all supplied by Gibbo. (I wonder where he is now. I do miss his contributions) Nick
  9. I rather think that the answer may be in the set of instructions that Gibbo wrote: Do not be alarmed and assume a fault if the battery paralleling relay is alternating between connected and disconnected. This is not a fault in SmartGauge or SmartBank. It could be that the system is doing exactly what it is supposed to do. i.e. preventing cross discharging between battery banks. But it is possible that it is the result of either incorrect settings (connect and disconnect voltages set too close) or far more likely, a charger that is simply far too small for the total batteries in the system. Even with a charger that is too small, it is usually possible to find a compromise in the settings that allows the system to operate until the charger is replaced with one of the correct size. It may be that Gibbo advised the connection to the domestics to avoid this. The solar panels will often look like a very inadequate charger. Nick
  10. My Smartgauge/Smartbank Advanced has worked faultlessly for the last 13 years. When I fitted my solar panels I asked Gibbo (the designer of SG) if I should annect the output of the controller to the engine battery/alternator's side of the relay. He said no, connect it to the domestic side. This I did and all worked well while we were living aboard. When we stopped living aboard I relied on the solar panels to keep the batteries topped up and this they have done very successfull. I always return to Theodora to find the batteries at 100%. Except that the percentage refers to the domestic bank. The engine battery has not been charged and I have to use the emergency connect to sart the engine. Questions: What is the reason for Gibbo's advice? If I connect the solar panels to the alternators/engine battery side will it not keep the engine battery topped up and then energise the relay to keep the domestics topped up? Any thoughts? Nick
  11. I was reminded of this fact when I was testing the solar panels by covering them one at a time! Thanks Mr Detling. N
  12. Only one company AFAIK but they were local to Tardebigge an seemed to do a decent enough job on their fleet. One lives and learns. N It looks like the Victron, then... I will check the specs but I think that it will cope with all six panels in series which means that I will have to reverse the correction that the boatyard made. Thanks for all the thoughts and advice. N
  13. We decided to splash out on a paint job for Theodora and now we have a problem. I had a phone call from the boatyard, who will, for the moment remain nameless, in which they said that they had corrected the wiring of the solar panels. What was wrong with it they did not reveal but I had wired them up ten or so years ago and they had been working OK since then. I return to pick up my boat and notice funny readings on the display. We have six small panels and I had wired them up in two series sets of three with the two sets in parallel. I did that to keep the imput voltage within the working limits of the controller. The silly b*****s had corrected my wiring and put them all in series so they have destroyed the controller. The upshot of this is that they are buying me a new one. What brands to people advise? The old one was a Tracer 2210RN. Should I buy another or is there something better or is that one OK? If it is is will be really easy to swap. Nick
  14. Well that was good! I was impressed by his speculation on the dilation effect. N
  15. The more articles like this that there are the better. Perhaps it will dissuade a few potential "livie in London Cheaply" people. N
  16. And here's another clone claim: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/the-english-elm-is-an-asexual-clone-imported-by-rome-6xff5b8znh8 I don't know what to think now! I had heard the Roman import claim before and that is what I took to be incontrovertible truth until now! N
  17. Here's one https://www.avelandtrees.co.uk/index.php/2017/08/planting-elms-in-the-british-countryside/ Note that it refers to English Elms. Other types of elm can be grown from seed. N
  18. Highly unlikely to be resistant as is is a clone of the "parent" and, therefore, genetically identical. That's why elms are so susceptible. They are (nearly?) all clones. Apparently they can't be propagated from seed. I don't believe that foxes kill for the fun of it and waste their prey as many claim. When we kept chickens three of them were killed by a fox. He took one and left the other two. I left the dead chickens lying where he left them and sure enough, he came back and collected them on successive nights. N
  19. I could bear to listen to him! Poor chap. N
  20. A good indication of this sort of fault is dead fish and human swimmers floating about near your boat, and possibly a sharp tingle as you get on or off. N
  21. You're all very rude about Mikunis. The Mikuni MX40 which was fitted to Theodora is still going strong 14 years after buying the boat. It displayed aberrant behaviour when we first got it but it has performed well after I did a bit of diy serviceing on it. Twice I have had the problem of it refusing to start but a quick rub over the photo transistor for sorted that. I have had almost no trouble with the glowplug coking up and when I have a quick rub over with a wire brush sorted it out. The trick with the glowplug is to make sure that the littel hole at the boss end is plroberly clear. I have found it very good doing the job for which is was designed: it preheats my BMC 1.5 nicely. Nick
  22. That would be while it manoeuvred around as it prepared to anchor while is waited for passage or for the pilot cutter to catch up wth it. N
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