LadyG

nope, most large value things are drop shipped, and it said up to 35 days, what goes worry me is that another item has not arrived, I did try phoning, must try again

I've bought it from a UK marina, and used both Paypal and a credit card, should be OK. Most of the bigger Chinese businesses use a UK business address now, also they are very keen on getting five star ratings, so any problems and they deal with it. I think the main problem is the manufacturer packing as I see a few complants, I'm not unduly worried, yet

There you go, I did not realise they were gas, and I wouldn't have a gas fridge, I managed to get what I wanted under £480, but I think it's still in China!

yep, I've got enough now thanks

I have taken interest, and stood over the guy most of the day, [I checked he was OK about that], but it is a lot to take in, I did suggest he looked in the bow area when he needed a 50 amp fuse for the solar controller, [only a single pole breaker came with the solar kit]. There indeed was a 62.5 amp fuse, in a little plastic holder where it had been put by electrician number2, but not actually connected to anything. The electrician did very well with communicating and advising me, but there is a big stretch between what he knows about narrow boat electrics, [forty years], and what I know [one year ]. He could not have known that I knew the isolator in the bow had been disconnected, so he just sorted it and made no comment. Before I took the boat over I asked my brother who was local, to get the owner to help draw up a conceptual drawing, or indeed any drawing, I asked him to start at the alternator, he just refused, not much more I could do about that.

I needed the key thing to put all three battery isolators at the stern ON, and as that particular isolator had been disconnected by electrician number2, I just removed it, not realising that electrician number 3 [the current one] had re-connected it and wired it properly, that must have been while I was out shopping. So each electrician told me a different story aboout the activity at the bow, but each was correct, as the wiring was changed by each of them, I had guessed that that could be the explanation. Anyway, much relieved. I've found the missing fifth isolator key, and they are all ON

Eureka, this morning I turned the battery isolator switch at the bow to ON, this isolator was not previously functioning, but aparently it is now! Electrons flying in from all parts of the universe! Presumably the inverter which I used to charge tablet, phone, and mifi had been drawing amps from the bow batteries all yesterday, which accounts for the voltage dropping, little by little. @Richard10002 thanks, got your last comment, the new solar was only installed on Tuesday afternoon, so yesterday [Thursday] was the first fully charged day, plus overnight usage], the Epever, is showing 13.1 volts .. I think this is voltage from panels [PV voltage?], the controlller is outputing 4.1 amps, indicationg [to me] that the batteries are fairly healthy. I don't use anything like 110 amps even when on shorepower, the fridge is the worse, of course, it will run about 20 hours a day in hot weather if left on, so I just try to keep it as a cool box. Now I have plenty of solar, I have put it on first thing [bright sun], and after an hour or so it can be turned off for a while. The electrician tell me that the new solar controller feeds in to the Domestic, which is on the same positive busbar as the other two battery banks, so as long as all are ON, they will all get a steady trickle of magic electrons today. One would assume that's how it should be ................... so we have progessed significantly. Thank goodness, I thouht we were going backwards again!

I found Sadolin [the most expensive one] was the best thing for boats, it's coloured, but be careful, don't go mad with strong colours.

Good for you, but I can;t see any reason to start with things that work, when there are so many things that dont, it was agreed with the first eletrician that he would sort the batteries, I left him to decide how to go about it, agreed on agms, he wanted to select thm and buy them, two months l8ter he fitted them, he then never came back to me., I sent him money, he still never came back to work on my boat [he worked on other boats]. Did not answer his work phone. The next electrician decided to clean the fuel, OK, but at his rates I could have bought the tools and done it myself, which I did for the oil change.he looked at the electrics and did a bit of battery testing of discarded batteries, all dead. Checked lights, looked at all the electrics, suggested I buy a generator, sell my solar kit, charge battery with alternator. Next week he installed a Victron invertor in the bow, his choice and never discussed abandoning the bow batteries. He spent three hours going out to buy a cable for a new fridge, told me it was oversized DC cable, but it was in fact undersized, so that was about £120 doing something useless, He wanted me to buy an absorption fridge, when in fact I could not use the existing 12 volt compressor fridge due to lack of solar, absorption fridges are not the best.

I wnt for an interview in London, it was very high power [Whitehall], I got a bit nervous toook a gulp from the gleaas of water, i nerly spat it out .... chateau thames embankment

I do understand the amp thing, but I only have three appliances , for comms,, the tablet, the phone, the mifi, all tiny the new fridge is maybe 5 amps but it wont run 24 hours at 5 amps [120amp hours], it probably wont run more than 10 hours a day, I'ts a compressor fridge, it the most efficient I could find that fitted in the space, and it is the same as the old one, so should be easy to chnge over. It is extremely difficult to get accurate information from anyone about the fridge they are selling, I swerved one make 'cos it was tested at 18 C!, Yes there is a water pump, and a shower waste pump, these were all covered in th bimble power audit, and I did a power audit and I also checked with Bimble before I bought the kit. I'm confident that the 2x275watt panel ,, the 40 amp controller should cope fine with the pumps, I am really using very little power, the fridge is usually off due to lack of solar [up to yesterday] and inefficiency in fridge. I can assure you that in spite of your doubts, i know morethan most folks in this marina. The electricians have actually commented on it, but obviously I a asking on here about things I don't understand! The batteries are very difficult to access, some of them i just cannot reach, they are under the well deck. I have studied for a year, about boat electickery, but I just would not touch the electrics on here, I really have removed more than I have put on so far, well, I paid someone to remove them safely. I try to avoid 240 volts appliancs, except the kettle, and then I need to be on shore power. The existing charger is 1960 design, a battery cooker. Manual operation. I would not touch any of the wiring on this boat, it's far too complex, as for telling the new what to do, I tried the other way and ended up eight months after buying the solar, with it still sitting on the roof. Now we are cooking by gas, this guy not only had three steel boats, he also does fitting out, on his own and on other folks baots, he is not only genuine, he is listens to what I want, no problem, and he loves boating, and electricity, he is making up some bits and pieces for me so the finished job will be both accessible and look professional.

I do understand the amp thing, but I only have three appliances , for comms,, the tablet, the phone, the mifi, all tiny the new fridge is maybe 5 amps but it wont run 24 hours at 5 amps [120amp hours], it probably wont run more than 10 hours a day, I'ts a compressor fridge, it the most efficient I could find that fitted in the space, and it is the same as the old one, so should be easy to chnge over. It is extremely difficult to get accurate information from anyone about the fridge they are selling, I swerve one make 'cos thet tested the thing at 18 C!, it is never below 22 in summer in summer. Yes there is a water pump, and a shower waste pump, these were all covered in th bimble power audit, and I did a power audit and I also checked with Bimble before I bought the kit. I'm confident that the 2x275watt panel ,, the 40 amp controller and should cope fine with the pumps, I am really using very little power, the fridge is usually off I can assure you thhat in spite of your dubt, i know mre than most folks in this marina.

You don't think I have asked locals, of course I have, most of them ran away. I can tell you every boat electrician within a 20 mile radius! I've been looking for ten months for someone to fit the new solar sytem, the last electrician suggested I sold the kit and stayed with the existing one, but use the alternator to generate energy, this is what you are dealing with: presumbly he obviously was not able to fit the solar. He messed about, with things other people could do, when I specifically said I wanted the electric sorted. This current electrician was personally recommended by the BSS man, again he wnted to start on the easy jobs, but i insisted that ws pointless, you don't gain system understanding doing the easy jobs. Folks re asking me for nitty gritty details, I don't know. I know things are not as they were, but if is an intentional alteration r unintended, I do not know. I just asked about moving the bow batteries to the stern, and got a whole stream of queries which I can't answer and even if I could I'd be no further forward,

I am definately not connected to mains. The old solar system was replaced with the new system, two days ago, and since then things have changed, I don't know how I can be expected to understand the system when all these electricians with 20 to 40 years experience each, don't know, they tell me different things, but it might be that they have altered things. I am sure that the new electician has definately changed the battery wiring in some way. I have now put the battery isolators [elephant ears ALL to ON, and I now see the LED in the bow is starting to rise, this is not logical, and is not what it ws doing last week. How can i possibly tell which batteries are charging just by looking. I can't get in to the batteries easily, and I put boots on the positives to sto them shorting , yep i meant a charger, I thought I edited that.

For information: the LED that is reading 12.19m is nothing to do with the solar controller, but before we put the new solar and solar controller in it used to show 13 volts and more on a nice sunny day. Since installing the new solr controller there is now a spare wire [twin DC red and black] of unknown function, it is "live", and I guess it is actually supposed to be wired to the LED display in the bow, or at least maybe it used to be.............. maybe it should be a "load" from the solar controller, I am grasping at straws