Big COL
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Posts posted by Big COL
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Polystyrene versus Polyurethane.
In all the debate on these materials there has been no mention of the differing U values in the materials, the U value being the rate that heat passes through a material. I would have thought that this would have been a deciding factor, for example 60mm of polystyrene has the same U value as 38mm of polyurethane. To compare like for like in thickness will prove to be expensive, but as you only need 60% of the polystyrene thickness if using polyurethane then the costings come down a little, and you are using in my opinion a better material.
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I feel a monty python coming on
Gas, electricity, central heating, hot and cold running water, and you still think you have it hard, huh.
When I were a lad you had to walk two miles with a bucket if you wanted water, and just a piece of string for the handle, holes in yer socks coudnt afford shoes yer feet used to stick to floor in the frost, 'ands were blue when yer got back, and then yer got a bang round the ear from yer ma, cuss youd spilled too much water, many the time I had a gu agin as there wernt enough left, and you think you got it hard?
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NB Magie
"An empty fridge or freezer will use a lot more energy than a full one. If the fridge is half empty fill it up with beer!"
I don't see the logic in that, please explain.
John Squeers
John
Your tugging on legs again
The logic in this only applies if the freezer or fridge is loaded with pre-frozen or pre-chilled food, otherwise any energy saved is used up freezing or chilling the goods down to temperature. Fridge economy can be obtained overnight by turning the stat up higher, the contents have given off the required heat to reach normal settings, and the heat loss overnight will be minimal as the door is closed for this period. Any heat gain will be offset by the colder contents, and the stop starts (short cycling) will be reduced.Short cycling is the main cause of a power drain, the start up currents are high and if this occurs too often the power drain is considerable. Thermostat temperature differentials tend to be around 1 degree C which to my mind is too short, if they were at 2 degree C you could halve the start ups where the high current draw occurs.
This is where the gas fridge scores over the electric fridge, as it has no compressor to run, but I still wouldn't have a gas fridge for all that.
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I was informed yesterday that BW has prohibited the removal or insertion of boats at lock sides until further notice. I believe its to do with health and safety in public places. Has anyone any further information on this?
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Chris
Mobility on wet floors is a problem on terra firma, add to this the factor that the boat's floor will be slightly mobile, and the danger increases. We have all experienced how difficult it is to walk in very wet areas ie swimming pools, public showers, and there are always warning signs (danger wet floor).
Any foot grip that is Incorporated into the flooring, to be effective enough to work, will also become a dirt trap, and will never look as clean as the rest of the floor. The sanded walk way on the gunnels is a good example of this.
The extra problem with large shower areas is that you introduce a lubricant in the form of soap, which then tends to nullify the effect that the flooring grip gives, this is not a problem when in a cubical because you cannot move much, but in large shower areas where you can move, it does become slippery.
I assume that the shower area is to one side of the boat and any through traffic will not be stepping down and up to pass through, don't laugh, I worked on a boat where this was the case, a owner self fit, and to pass through the boat you had to step down and up to pass through the bathroom. I wonder how many medals he won for design with that one.
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Oliver
If the mixer valve is of the cartridge type, just remove the cartridge and immerse in descaler.
If not you could turn off the cold feed to the pump, disconnect the hot feed to the pump,switch on the pump, pour descaler into the pump through the disconnected hot feed until it starts to flow through the shower head, switch off the pump and very quickly stop off the the hot feed at the pump. This will leave you with a solution of descaler through the pump and the mixer. After the required time turn on the cold feed start the pump to flush out the descaler and reconnect the hot feed.
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Oliver
It sounds as if the mixer is scaled up with lime scale. Its dangerous to swap the supplies to a mixer valve as the cold supply is normally a straight through supply controlled only by the on off knob. It can result in a serious scalding. Your test by swapping the supplies, has proved that the cold path is clear, this is why you got the hot water and has also shown that the path for the hot water is some how restricted, ie lime scale, this is why in normal use you only get cold water. You could try and descale it or change the mixer element for a new one. I am only second guessing this but knowing the locality it is a very hard water area.
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Paul
What started all this off, have you just linked the stove into the existing circuit. The reason that I ask is that in all the posts you never mentioned the header tank, and it set me thinking that you may have used the one in the gas boiler, which you say is valved off, I'm thinking of the safety aspect, and need to ask just to set my mind at rest.
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Hi Big C
Where abouts are you?
The boat is in Kingfisher Marina, 4 miles south of Stoke Bruerne.
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Richard
Danny did the installation, and he was the one who told me how to control it.
Offers still open to see a demo.
Maffi
Thats the very reason we had the power pack. Its running a washer dryer while cruising and works very well.
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Richard
Open invitation to see a working demonstration.
Who did you talk to at victron? Talk to Danny at Victron UK at rugby.
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Richard
I can assure you it does. it was a problem to begin with as 160amps is to much for my present battery banks. To overcome this the remote panel with the victron has a shore power limiter. As you reduce this so down comes the charging rate. I set this by watching the charging amperage on the battery management meter which reduces as I reduce the shore power limiter, which when set at 2amps brings the combined amperage down to 100amps. very clever these inverters.
I should add it also has a Beta alternator controller fitted.
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James
The way I have it configured it can do as it supplies a victron multi inverter, with the engine running the inverter sees that there is a mains voltage present, and switches over to the charger. This then combines with the 90amp alternator output, to give me a total of 160amps charging availability, which is controllable as this to much for my present battery banks
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James
This is horses for courses. It depends on how you intend to use your boat. I have in my 70' trad the Beta 43hp with three alternators, one 45 amp/h that charges the start battery, one 95 amp/h that charges the domestic batteries, and one 3.5kw x 230volts Electrolux travel power for mains electricity.
We intend to retire to this boat and in doing so designed it to be able to cope with the power demands that maintaining all the creature comforts will put upon it.
I've had my share of roughing it, an easy life in comfort (some chance) is what I will be looking for as I cruise the system (and no, that doesn't mean bridge hopping). It may well be in France, at the rate this country is going to the dogs. So decide what you want to do with your boat and design it accordingly.
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Dor
(Bridge shufflers)
That seems to be the common complaint from all over the system.
Eugene Baston from BW says the reason is simple: "If we had a bigger canal network, perhaps there would be more room for everyone, but we've only got 2,000 miles of water and that means there's limited space. And the number of boats is increasing every year."
2,000 miles x 5,280 feet per mile =10,560,000 feet divided by 70' =150,857
That the number of 70' boats the system would hold in single file, any one know the number of licensed boats?
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PAUL
Its called gaining experience. you know T shirt, video, book.
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Paul
OH YE OF LITTLE FAITH.
Great to see you have cracked it, you may still have to bleed the rads again as the system settles down. but at least its working.
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Colin.
I thought living on a boat is supposed to be a simple way of life, there must be other low energy devices, mains powered frying pans and George Foreman griddles and the like, if a one kilowatt limit was self imposed there would be no problem. Anyway I am starting to warm to the naked cooking thing.
John Squeers
John
Tesco do a nice disposable barbecue with a stand, all it needs is hood with a fan and your away. Not to sure about the Naked Chef theres already one of them,
Seriously though we bought a cobb barbecue at the Crick show last year, fully insulated, and it will cook a whole chicken with the veg included, I didn't think you could advance a barbecue any more but this one is quite versatile have a look at the link and see what you think.
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John
I met a family on a gas free boat last summer and they were selling it. the main reason was the range that was in the boat for cooking was oil fired, and by the time it reached a sensible temperature to use they were nearly naked. His opinion was great in winter, but was fed up living off sandwiches in the summer.
I would think there must be some insulated ranges to eliminate this problem as there are plenty of people who want gas free boats
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Chris
Victron have an inverter that tops up the shore supply, this would lighten the drain on the battery bank.
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Paul
If you still have no heat in the rads then there is something else on the system causing a problem, either there is air trapped somewhere, or there is a problem with the pipe work where you bypassed the gas boiler, because as you describe the system set up it should work.
Its difficult to work out whats going on not having seen the pipe work so can we establish some basic facts and then go on from there
1 With the pump running and the stove running are you getting hot water on the return to the stove. ie the pipe that comes into the bottom of the stoves boiler.
2 If there is no hot water on the return how far is the hot water getting on the flow ie the top pipe out of the boiler.
Forget about the pump pumping air, this is a flooded system if there where any places that air could get in then it will leak water when the pump is not running. The pump is only there to move the water round a loop, air in the system is the most common cause, it gets trapped in places you would least expect I have had enough experience with this problem so know the problems well enough. Don't get disheartened you will get through this.
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Timbo
1 Why would the highest pressure be at the lowest point?
2 What positive resistance does a boiler cause bearing in mind that on most systems on boats the pump is overrated for the boiler performance and usually need slowing down.
3 On a closed system that has had the air evacuated from it how does the pump suck air in any opening in the system will leak water?.
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John
On a pumped system natural convection does not apply, as you normally come out of the boiler and drop to low level behind the boiler and then run flow and return at low level, the rads and cal are just tappings off a large loop of 22 MM pipe. the pump can go anywhere in that loop as long as it is configured to keep the water moving in the correct direction. The only downside to pumping the flow is that the pump has to handle the hottest water on the system, the advantage of having the pump on the return after all the rads is the water has cooled a little.
If you were converting a gravity system where the flow is running at high level then yes you are then right about natural convection and the pump needs to be at low level on the return.
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Paul
If the pipe in your picture from the boiler is from the top connection on the stoves boiler then this looks ok, the inlet to the pump is under the motor and is connected to the flow from the stoves boiler, and the outlet from the pump which is at right angles to the motor is connected to the rads. In this configuration you are pumping the flow (just for information) this should work once you have all the air out of the system. My only comment on this configuration is that the pump is having to handle the hottest water in the system, but it will still work ok.
water heaters
in Boat Building & Maintenance
Posted
Alys
As Paul has already suggested you may have the facility to heat your domestic water from your stove. This is assuming that your boat is fitted with central heating, and that the heating circuit is connected to the hot water calorifier.
If not then your idea of an independent water heater is the only route to go if you require instant hot water. You can fit an immersion heater if your calorifier has the boss fitted to take an immersion heater. As John has indicated this will depend upon the size of supply at the marina to your land line, most marina supplies will support a 1kw immersion heater, you can get 500w immersion heaters,this will be slow in heating the water but will do the job overnight or during the day if you are away from the boat and not constantly using hot water.