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Stephen Jeavons

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Posts posted by Stephen Jeavons

  1. 5 hours ago, Tony Brooks said:

    Are you sure about that? Into a resistive load I agree but a motor tends to be a speed dependant inductive load so the faster it runs the lower its effective resistance. That may well give a higher current flow at lower voltages. Water pump motors have been known to burn out with undersized wiring. Not sure about the Danfoss setup though.

     

    Still does not explain that 20 amps runnng though.

     

  2. 7 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

     

    Why should I? It runs quiet as a mouse!

     

    All I said was, it doesn't have a fan....

     

    Maybe you can't hear the fan cos its seized from all the dust ? 

     

    Actually, modern ones have the heat-exchanger underneath (crazy idea cos heat rises) so need the fan. If yours has a conventional heat-exchanger up the back, it may not have a fan.

  3. 8 hours ago, eggpie said:

    I've checked the connections from the isolators forwards, and remade all of them (except for some previous soldered ones where the 16mm2 cable joins a short piece of 6mm2 cable behind the fridge). Could those be creating resistance? 

    Anything such as a bad connection which adds resistance into the circuit will reduce the current draw not increase it. Both my Shoreline fridge and freezer each run on a 15A breaker without problems.

    My money's on a tired breaker as stated earlier.

  4. 19 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

     

    As is commonplace, boaters confuse the requirements of the several standards applying to boats in different circumstances. Including those giving you the above advice., and it appears, your BSS inspector.

     

    Had you said 'yes' to the solid wire question he may well have just explained what to be careful of and still passed your boat. It is not 'good practice', but it is not a fail either. Had he failed it, you could have appealed and won, I think.

     

     

     

     

     

    On the BSS website under the heading "The Boat's Wiring" it states this:

     

    "New or replacement cables should be multi-stranded and of the correct size as determined by reference to Table A.1, ISO 13297 - check with your competent installer."

     

    So from that I take it that OLD cables don't have to be stranded. All a bit vague isn't it cos you could install single core wiring everywhere and just say it is old wiring? They couldn't fail you.

    Badly worded requirements are worse than useless.

    • Greenie 1
  5. Sounds like my BSS inspector was wrong as one of the first things he checked with me was whether I'd used domestic (flat twin and earth) cabling for the mains wiring. I hadn't as I'd been told this before by more than one individual. I thought the reason was that single core copper wires are prone to damage by boat vibration which is why they say never to solder wires either but crimp and tag or use screw fasteners

     

     

  6.  

    Quote

    I'm struggling to find an engineer in the Herts area so I might have to do it all myself. 

    Where in the Herts area are you? There is a guy that I use who does a lot of work on canal boats in the Rickmansworth area and surrounds. He is also part of RCR I believe. Very knowledgeable generally. He should be able to help with most things. PM me if you'd like to contact him. If he can't do the electrics, he's sure to know someone who can in the marine world.

     

     

  7. 16 hours ago, Richard10002 said:

    The batteries then supply 12V DC directly, and 240V AC via the inverter.

    Er, so that means you have created 240v AC right. As blackrose mentions above, this is the same thing. Is the earth for that 240v grounded to the hull? (Do generators ground the Neutral leg like the mains? I don't have one so not sure) 

  8. OK, I see where you're coming from. As we haven't seen how the wiring was done on "that" boat, it's pointless to speculate on the potential (no pun intended) risks. I would still use an earth. 

  9. 12 hours ago, jenevers said:

    But he isn’t bringing mains cables into a steel box (if by that you mean a landline)as he’s completely solar and Genny powered from what he says.

    But the Genny is producing 240V isn't it? Same as being on mains so the risks are surely the same. Doesn't matter where the power is generated, 240V is 240V

  10. An update on the alleged stolen boat. It wasn't stolen after all, the numpty got so pissed at the Festival, he'd forgotten where he moored it. Apparently, this chap is well known for this as it's happened before. :D

    • Haha 2
  11. 13 hours ago, WotEver said:

    Yes but (vanishingly unlikely) the stud could come adrift from the hull. Your nylock nut will keep everything together but no longer connected to the hull. Has it ever happened? Probably not, but best practise and all that...

    T'aint a stud. it's a stainless bolt through a hole drilled in a rib of the boat followed by the wiring lugs, a spring washer and a nyloc nut. That lot isn't going to come loose. However, just to stick with convention I may separate AC and DC by drilling a second hole :D

     

    • Happy 1
  12. Anyone know anything about a boat that was allegedly stolen on Saturday night from the Ricky Festival area? Someone came charging round our mooring in the wee small hours but didn't mention the circumstances other than it was a 30-something foot narrowboat and the owner's dog was on-board. Didn't hear any more about it yesterday.

     

  13. 15 minutes ago, catweasel said:

    The explanation I was given: Should the nut come loose, in the event of a 240V short to earth, it could find its way back up the 12V earth and put 12V stuff at 240V potential. 

    Like you I had a single stud to begin with, but changed it to two.

    Got it!  I have a nyloc stainless nut along with a spring washer on top of all my tags so unlikely to come loose. I understand the principal though

    Many thanks for the explanation.

  14. I like the idea of variable output ( OP's first email) and may be considering the Webasto Evo 5. Boat came with an old, non working 5kw Eber. I don't feel like spending the money to have it refurbished and then to sort out all the old attachments, many of which need replacing. More than one person has advised me to toss it in the skip as they give too many problems. I'd also like to work it in parallel with the electric flow boiler which we use when moored at our residential spot and plugged in to shore juice. A few 3-port valves to switch between the two.

  15. Assuming the shore power connects to the same point as your generator i.e. on the south side of the galvanic isolator, then it's the same thing. It shouldn't make any difference as you're not using the shore earth on the boat. My system is exactly like this except that I have an isolation transformer instead of the galvanic isolator

  16. That's clever (not). An item with a fault (framing the live) will make the frames of every other plugged-in appliance live e.g. a microwave oven, iron, electric kettle. Some of these items have exposed steel. Sounds like a nasty accident waiting to happen 

     

  17. Yikes! Assuming he has 3-pin sockets on his boat, I wonder if this means he hasn't wired up the earth pins on any of them. Also means he has no earth leakage protection if he plugs a faulty power tool in.

    Guy's a nutter

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