Ace of Spades

Indeed, as I say, devil certainly in the detail. If my supposition is correct however and if suppliers switch to white (both big ifs I admit) then prices may fall as the general diesel market has a greater need for white over all, hence wholesale prices are lower, once duty is reclaimed and if (there I am with that if again) supplier pass this on, then prices could actually drop

This may not be as bad as it seems, reading between the lines here, it sounds as if the plan might be that we all have to use white but then can claim back the duty for fuel used for domestic use. Of course this does mean we will need to front the higher cost, but will get the money back. The devil of course will be in the detail.

I suppose at the end of the day until the budget is announced it is all speculation anyway, but if the legislation is worded the same as the consultation then there is a disconnect between the terms from a view of our usage, I.e. domestic and static, as our usage is domestic not industrial, but clearly is not static. I supposed there is a degree of interpretation there

Going back on topic, I’m not sure actually how much this is different to the previous proposals. I’ve not got access to The Times article, but reading elsewhere, this seems to be basically what was in the Red Diesel Consultation that started in 2018, so I read it as, as we suspected the current system of using Red but self declaring will end, but it does state that “Red Diesel used for domestic purposes in a static situation will be unaffected”. The concern here is the “in static situations” part but again the consultation document make much more reference to business and industry. I suspect therefore as I’ve said, that the static bit aside, this is probably nothing more than we already knew. That theoretically (supply issues aside) a boat with 2 tanks could continue to use Red for domestic heating and power generation. edited to add: I know that even if I’m right, having to have 2 tanks means this is little consolation to most.

Tony Brooks many thanks for taking the time to write a very good explaination that really did help. in fact many thanks to everyone. I will research NiFe batteries, don’t know anything about them. Outside sockets sounds like a brilliant idea, probably wouldn’t have thought of that. Will add that to the list, thank you. We are I would say still very much at information gathering stage, and are weighing up whether to have a boat built or buy a used boat, either way we would probably be doing major works. Sure this won’t be my last question and I’m really looking forward to sharing my journey.

Yeah a good philosophy to be honest and one that SWMBO is always telling me I ignore too much!! Unfortunately as we will both still be working we won’t have the luxury of be able to cruise all summer long so although we won’t be permanently tied up in a marina and will be out as much as possible, as I said probably finding somewhere to moor for a week locally and commuting, some periods of marina living in the summer will be inevitable. Obviously we can’t stay out for weeks on end as we couldn’t probably move far enough without falling foul of CRT ( and of course I also have no desire to become an inconsiderate continuous moorer ) so will have to return to the marina.

Many thanks for the replies. I suppose there was a degree of naïvety in wondering if there was a way of automating the process - but I have no problem with human input - as you say, its what its all about!! Just to clarify, we will be living aboard. Probably another silly question but I can see how setting the voltage of the charger lower than then solar controller would prioritise the solar to charge the batteries, and would I assume then switch shore power when voltage on the solar drops off, but out of interest what would happen if the power draw was greater than the solar was producing? Would this cause a switch to shore power in this set up? That said, probably just turning the shore line on and off as necessary is probably the best answer. I assume it would be possible to have some form of internal "master switch" to save actually having the physically disconnect the line. (Please don't laugh if that's a standard fitting!!)

Hi All First post here so go easy on me!! We are early on in our journey that will hopefully see us eventually take to the water and I am trying to research as many things as possible. This great forum and other searches has been able to answer most of my questions so far, but there is one question that I am struggling with is as follows: If you have a good solar array (well good in summer at least!!) is there a way for the on board electrical system to favour this over power from a shore line when hooked up? I.e. it will use electricity generated from solar before pulling additional power needs from the shore line. From what I can find out, it seems solar will charge your batteries and therefore power 12v items, but any 230V needs will simply pass through the charger/inverter and power sockets directly. As a bit of background - we eventually want to set up a boat that fits our expected cruising pattern. Basically I envisage being marina based (unfortunately we both still need to work so CC'ing is simply not an option) however we most certainly want to get out and about, so will probably take the boat out in the local area over a weekend to moor for a week and commute from there before returning to the marina (plus holidays etc!!). Living and working in the Stoke-on-Trent area means we have lots of lovely canal options within easy commute, but could not move enough to legitimately CC. Therefore our desire for lots of solar to help with power needs when away from the Marina. However it seems such a waste to not use this energy when on a shore line. I did find a topic that kind of touched this, but didn't really answer the question, and was from something like 12 years ago so I suspect things have moved on somewhat since. Hoping someone more knowledgable can help.