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David Floyd

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Everything posted by David Floyd

  1. David Floyd
    I have been looking at moving marina next year, we are at Droitwich Spa Marina at the moment, and have been for 3 years and we now fancy a change of location. To do this I started making a spreadsheet of marinas that we had found and liked, well this got bigger and bigger and I needed to visualise this, so an export to google maps. Then I had to add as many as I could find.. now we have https://floydtilla.co.uk/uk-canal-and-river-marinas/ The question is now have I messed any… thanks David
  2. David Floyd
    Many years ago, I was a consultant on some connectors designs and we looked at many many designs, calculated max current flow etc etc. So I was looking at the connectors used for solar power and what jumps out is the MC4 connector, it seems well designed the installation with the correct tools is almost fool proof, I especially liked the way things click into place so you know they are well seated. So a little embarrassed to say I created a video of how to install them. It is probably my first video in 20 years. David
  3. David Floyd
    Thanks, I had missed that on the site, I will take a look and test a few configuration out. David
  4. David Floyd
    That looks like a very cool tilting system, very impressive, Midsummer will make them to the size I need but I will make sure they do what I need before hand. Thanks David
  5. David Floyd
    That is a new idea to me using magnetic mounts, I will see what I can find, not sure if they would be strong enough to for tilted panels. Good to hear 800w of flat mounted was enough, what output did you get in winter from these? Thanks David
  6. David Floyd
    We are planning to have a gap year cruising around the canal network in a couple of years time, we have both finished our careers and will be moving to the coast after a few adventures, we have just one more child to see off to Uni. That planning stage is now to the point of adding solar panels to the roof, I have made a few selections based of months of research and asking questions and I have started documenting the plan on the blog, at the moment we have looked at size and positioning https://floydtilla.co.uk/2023/03/13/planning-for-solar-panels-part-1/ Then how to mount them https://floydtilla.co.uk/2023/03/25/planning-for-solar-panels-part-2-panel-mounting-options/ then types of panels https://floydtilla.co.uk/2023/04/02/planning-for-solar-panels-part-3-types-of-panels/ There will be more to come over the next few months while we sort out all the other parts, but I am open to idea/options as we plan this install, please let me know what you think, what tricks I have missed that should be included. Thanks David
  7. David Floyd
    10 years in good enough for most things, do you know which switches you used? Hi Glenn 4L was what I was quoted by Black Prince in their documentation, but I will see how it goes with a bit of trial and error. Have not found any numbers in the manufactures info, it is very sparse on info. David
  8. David Floyd
    I was worried about the float switches getting messed up by the waste products, have you had any problems with them, I did find a number of ultrasonic solutions, but most did not like metal tanks.
  9. David Floyd
    Mine is a ex-hire black prince with a macerator pumped into a tank under the bed, has worked very well so far, but we have had to replace the macerator pump.
  10. David Floyd
    I have spent a little time working on a method of knowing when to pump out. I have looked at a few solutions, all commercial systems seemed very expensive, I even played around with some ultrasonics and a microcontroller. I now have the simplest and so far cheapest method, I am sure I am not the first to think of this. https://floydtilla.co.uk/2023/03/19/knowing-when-to-pump-out/
  11. David Floyd
    I have been working on a series of four articles on Batteries and Battery monitors based on my experience researching them and fitting one on Floydtilla.co.uk They are now complete and can be read in the correct order at:- Part 1 – Battery Monitors Why I wanted one https://floydtilla.co.uk/2022/03/01/batteries-and-battery-monitors-part-1-why-we-needed-one/ Part 2 – Battery Selection https://floydtilla.co.uk/2022/03/07/batteries-and-battery-monitors-part-2-battery-selection/ Part 3 – State of Charge and Lead Acid Batteries https://floydtilla.co.uk/2022/03/14/batteries-and-battery-monitors-part-3-the-state-of-charge-soc-calculation/ Part 4 – Shunts and Monitors https://floydtilla.co.uk/2022/03/21/batteries-and-battery-monitors-part-4-battery-monitor-the-shunt/ I hope you find this useful Thanks David
  12. David Floyd
    After much scanning for the PDF's I found this.. I guess evidence would be the fitting of the frost thermostat etc.
  13. David Floyd
    I have been looking at my insurance and have so far found this, I am now hunting down the "Conditions that must be met" I will report back when I find them. D
  14. David Floyd
    Hi Who is your cover with? I would like to check that out, I am about to review insurance for this year? David
  15. David Floyd
    This year has been very mild, but we are planning for the worst possible weather, the £10 was us staying over a weekend and I also left the inverter switched on, my mistake. Next year we will have more active temperature monitoring onboard, but more on that later as I develop it…
  16. David Floyd
    I have been adding a few blog posts on what we did to protect our boat while we are away in the winter, we are based in a marina with power, but decided to fit a frost protection thermostat to control our diesel heating system. 1. Frost Protection options with our Canal Boat 2. Winterizing final things 3. Eberspächer D4W Diesel Powered Frost Protection – Update 4. New Heating Thermostat and Isolation Switches I hope this is of help, we spent a long time looking for the most efficient method with what we had available at the time, always interested to hear what others would recommend. Thanks David www.floydtilla.co.uk
  17. David Floyd
    We have written and article for Waterways World that has been published in the October 2021 issue. See pages 64 to 66. The rest of the magazine is interesting as well 🙂 David www.floydtilla.co.uk
  18. David Floyd
    We have now completed our first canal/ river ring in floydtilla, full write up on the blog in 3 parts. see https://floydtilla.co.uk/2021/08/10/the-avon-ring-travelogue-part-3-back-to-droitwich-spa-marina/ we have originally planned to do this the year before COVID struck, but high river levels stopped us. David
  19. David Floyd
    I will keep an eye out for Willow.. thanks D
  20. David Floyd
    Sorry was not us, we are at Droitwich Spa Marina till Monday David
  21. David Floyd
    Hi Jimbobs We had hired a Black Prince boat before we started looking for our own boat, and we compared what we saw to what we had hired, most were very dark and seemed home-made. The hire boat you know should be well maintained as it is in their interest not to be called out during a holiday booking, they are also tough as they are handled by anyone with any level of experience. We had them remove a toilet as we had found we did not need two and also a larger kitchen was probably needed, I like to cook. The basic cost was agreed when we started, and they estimated about £1500 for the modifications, the repaint was included in the basic price, all we had to pay for extra was the survey, which I have documented on the blog. Black Prince could not have been more helpful during the process, they normally have a waiting list for their old boats, so get on the list ASAP, we waited one and a half years after paying the deposit (£5K) till we got delivery, it was slightly delayed due to Covid. We had a small problem with the paint on the roof, but they sorted this out very quickly. I would recommend them fully. David P.S. I haver not association with Black Prince apart from being a customer
  22. David Floyd
    Hi Guys sorry out and about at the moment, will reply in full later today. But FYI an article should be in Waterways World September issue if all goes to plan. David
  23. David Floyd
    You are completely right, my mistake, I have a few SIM's in for testing, I will update the page ? David
  24. David Floyd
    I have seen that, but there seems to be nothing much since the old site died David
  25. David Floyd
    That seemed to have died a number of years ago
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