Ian and Di

Hi Dave, We had sky do a regular installation on our boat, which admittedly we havent got around to moving yet. The installer put one dish on the mooring with a fixed permanent line of sight, he put another on a pole at the back of the boat so we could point in in the right direction if we decide to cruise. The upside is that it works really well, although only after I reinstalled the cables, as the guy who did it had no idea of how to deal with the tidal mooring. The downside is that we would not be able to watch and cruise together as I think you can with the flasher satfinder kits. Ian

That's great, thanks for your help. Ian

It is a contract 125 litre I think so thats 27 gallons. It's the weekend so I can do some experimenting with the tank. I'm assuming the boiler is generally heated by the mains in any case, although with my knowledge of this that may not be true. Will have a bath a leave it off overnight and see what happens to the hot water level by the morning and turn them back on if I need to. I guess the basic question is whether my electric boiler actually needs an immersion at all for standard use, or I just need to use it as and when? Thanks for all the help so far... Ian

Hi Ian, Thanks for this, you're right about the protech thing. Havig turned one off earlier it appears the top line is still quite warn, the bottom one was cold and leaking very very slightly. I presume I had turned off the overnight supply? I'm not sure what mosel it is, according to the manual it is an unvented hot water storage cylinder, but its a contract STD model. I'm still confused as to why the lights remain on whether or not the switches are on, although I guess this may just signify whether there is hot water? Is it safe to turn both switches off during the day, and just put the thing on overnight? Also, if they are both immersions can I turn them off and if I do, how long would the water take to warm up again. The boiler is not connected to the heating so does it make sense to mostly keep the immersions off? I don't have a chaeper electricity period either I don't think, its just a flat 11p per kwh. Is this any more help? Thanks Ian

Hi all, I got a bit of a fright from our January elecetric bill - £200 for 2 and a half weeks. We have no gas on board and the barge is pretty big, we've also been using 2kw plug in electric heaters, but I am trying to find ways to reduce our consumption. Our boiler is a 3kw Ariston Unvented protech system and has two switches attached to it for the hot water. These are unlabeld. Above the switches is a red light. When you switch them off the red lights are remaining on for the time being. I have now switched one off and not the other but I am wondering if anyone knows what they are? Is one an emersion and one the regular boiler switch? Alternatively the manual says something about having an always on switch and a nighttime only switch - so could it be these? They had previously been on all the time, but I'm wondering whether this meant we had the emersion on constantly. Incidentally we pay 11p per Kwh which I think is fine. I have read the boiler manual but I'm afraid I'm not much the wiser. Many thanks for any help. Ian.

Hi all, Ian and Di here, this is our first post. We have just bought a lovely barge on the thames and have big skylights in the roof (1200mmx640mm). We have no idea how to cover them up, given there is one in each bedroom we are very keen for a decent solution before it starts getting light early and have thought about pleated roof blinds for the inside or maybe shutters for the outside? I'm not even sure you can get shutters for them, I know that I could probably make some temporary solution but given my general DIY capacity this may not be the best idea. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks Ian and Di "Lily Margaret"