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I found what I think is the ideal solution ot occasional beds on Narrowboats. I bought them in Ikea, but I think Argos do them now. They are "guest beds", and cosist of a metal fram with a springy wire base with a 2 inch foam matress. Despite their appearance, they are remarkably comfortable to sleep on, probably as they act a bit like a hammock. What is brilliant about them is that they fold up to 4 inches thick, including the matress. They can therefore be hung up under the gunwale and thereby take up effectively no space. Just tell your guests to bring a sleeping bag. Not a sofa bed I know, but an excellent way of putting up occasional overnighters.

Fitting a rad CAN increase the heat output from the stove. The stove will radiate only so much - a direct result of surface area and temperature. The rest of the heat goes up the chimney. A boiler can take some of the heat away. To prevent boiling, I once had a domestic system with a large wood-fueled multi-stove, in series with an oil boiler. (The oil boiler was just used to top up in cold weather - or when the stove went out.). Because the heat output of the stove was very high, it could easily boil if the rads were not on, even though there was a 28mm gravity syphon to a hot tank above. I solved this by putting a tank stat on the pipe immediately behind the boiler. If the water got to about 90deg it switched on the pump to dump the heat into the rads.

I too would be wary of installing one of these enclosed pumps under the floor. I use a Whale Gulper pump to empty my bath/shower. Compared to my experiences of other pumps it is far superior. Safe if run dry, pumps almost anything within reason including hair and bits of sponge (and the odd spider) without complaining and quick.

Saw a boat with a satellite dish on it: the owner pushes a button and the lid folds back from this box on the roof, the dish swings up and then automatically searches for the signal. Can apparently hold it while on the move also. Now that really is getting a bit carried away!!

I believe that low voltage AC (i.e. 240V) and very low voltage DC should be separated in separate conduits, and I think there is a minimum separation distance between conductors so your switch would be a no-no. But then you knew that really didn't you?

John: The isolator does have a removable red key, but was fairly substantial, with 10mm termimnal posts. I'm keeping it as a spare - just in case (my life is full of stuff that only half works, but "may come in useful sometime" much ro my wife's despair - however I have just fixed up my old boat radio in my garage, using an old transformer I found in the back of my garage and the diodes out of a 20 year old Scaletrix power supply that didn't work). I understand that electronic equipment such as a radio is permitted to have a permanent supply provided it is appropriately fused "as near to the supply take-off as possible".

I recently bought a new radio for the boat, which needed a continuous feed to maintain the memory (30 ma – so only 5 amphrs per week). Now my battery isolation was on the negative, so this meant I would have to run a separate negative wire back to the battery or change the isolator. The former would mean that when the power was off, the radio wouldn’t necessarily be off so ran the risk of sooner or later being left on. This situation draws considerably more than the maintenance current of 30ma, so I wasn’t so keen to do that. I decided it wouldn’t be too big a job to swap over the isolator to the positive (which is the recommended method anyway). Aquafax do a double pole isolator, which I used on the two positive battery cables, and a “powerpost” (basically a bolt set in an insulating base) which I used to replace the original isolator to join the negative cables. I also replaced some of the thick battery cables Why am I telling you this? After completing the job and starting up the engine, my charging rate had increased by over 25%. I have been concerned for a long time as to why my relatively new 110Ahr Elecsols seemed to have so little capacity, even after a days charging. Also very noticeable was the speed the engine turned over after only an hour’s cruising the night before. My conclusion is that the old isolator switch had a slight resistance – probably only an ohm or two- which affected the regulator enough to restrict the charge. As the resistance in the charging circuit is very low, a significant voltage drop could occur across a few ohms resistance in the switch. (This is of course why split diode charging systems often significantly reduce the charging capacity due to a 0.6 V drop). What is odd is that I have an external (Stirling) regulator with a battery-sensing wire. Theory says that this should increase the alternator voltage to compensate. Maybe it is because the resistance was on the negative side. Anyway, the moral of the story is: If you think your batteries don’t have the capacity you think they should, check out the components in the charging system: switches, relays and cables, for even a slight resistance that shouldn’t be there.

some modern taps are designed for "high pressure" systems, i.e. at mains pressure either directly or through a combi boiler. THe reason is usually they have small-bore tails which can restrict the flow on a system with low pressure, e.g. upstairs taps fed from a water tank only a few feet above. You shouldn't have a problem with a typical NB water pump, my galley tap is of this type and works with no problem.

Both my wife and I step across the closed to open gate on narrow locks without giving it a thought. I recently saw some americans through a lock and told them to hop on and I would finish off (i.e. close the gates). When he thought I was being over-generous with my assistance I said I could easily close both gates without walking round. His response was "This I must see"!

you can get a user manual and service manual from www.alde.co.uk, downloadable (quite large) in pdf format. Maybe your external switch runs a different pump or something which would heat the cylinder? There is a version of the alde that has a small water tank built in, but that doesn't sound like it. Otherwise your boiler soulds like the normal one, later versions being balanced flue with the "pagoda" type vent. (model 2928) Incidently, if you can live with undoing one gas compression fitting woithout thinking it will result in you blowing up half the canal due to your incompetence - the service notes give a detailed description on how to remove the burner assembly. You can then send it to Alde who will do a complete service for about £48 + parts (if required), and you should get it back within a week. Much, much cheaper than getting a boatyard to look at it, especially when they charge you £40/hr for their corgi fitter to fiddle with it.

Sorry if this is obvious, but is there a two-way valve somewhere on the Alde heating circuit? I only use my Alde for radiators at present, but am considering putting in a twin-coil calorifier as we do quite a few short overnight trips (just for a change of scene) which does not produce much hot waater from the engine. If I do this, I will put in a diverter so I can select heating, hot water or both.

I have known one or two people with split engines that told me "we are unlikely to get frosts so deep". Make sure your engine antifreeze is up to strength (how many times did you top it up with plain water during the year?

Now that is worth a LOL !

It is suprising how much does work on quasi-sine wave, even relatively sophisticated elecronics like DVD players. This is because they actually operate internally on low DC voltage, so if the power supply can cope then it should be OK. Some power supplies use relatively sophisticated voltage control which can be affected - it is a question of try it and see. Microwaves operate in a differnet way, but usually work if they do not have fancy electronic control systems. This generally means use one with a clockwork timer. Seems like you have been unlucky, but I would try another one befor going ot the expense of a high power pure sine wave. (Argos does have a 16 day return policy.......). Incidently, quasi-sinewave can blow quite primitive chargers - not sure why. It cooked my Braun toothbrush charger. (yes I know - serves me right for using an electric toothbrush on a boat)

Jus, we have the same layout. Our solution is to leave the door open. I have considered putting a small radiator in the bathroom. The boiler is on the port side although the radiators are on the starboard. The pipes run under the door sill at the rear. So far I haven't found the bathroom cold enough to warrant the work.

Thanks Bernie! I get easily confused these days. Althouhg judging by the local supermarket, I think Christmas could be next week.

DO drain your fresh water system. And even then you may still get a burst or a popped joint. To minimise this as much as possible I reverse the pump with a couple of bits of hose after opening all the taps, to extract as much water as possible. You don't need to completely drain your water tank, but it is not a bad idea to get it as low as possible. We take a five gallon bottle of water to last us a weekend. Miss out on the shower but we survive!

And often irritatingly overused.

Saw somewhere that someone had a letter from the receivers the day before their hire was to start telling them not to bother coming in. Apparently they had paid by visa so should get their money back, otherwise they would have to wait for the creditors meeting which would be in a couple of months.

One of my favorite sayings: Keep It Simple Stupid (And Reduce Simple Errors)