Mac of Cygnet

At intervals between Goole and Knottingley on the Aire and Calder there are these things like little houses on poles. About 15ft in the air, about 1ft x 1ft x 18ins, with an open door 6ins by 4ins on one side and a bolted door 6ins square on the other, sometimes one facing the canal and sometimes the other. I saw about a dozen, but as you can see the one I photographed is No 71. Of course, nestboxes springs to mind, but for what? Ducks would have abit of a squeeze getting in, and anyway they seem to manage without this sort of thing elsewhere. Anyone know what they are designed for? Mac

Cygnet has a Carabo. Although it has a grate, I burn only wood. To do this I had to add a strip of stove rope to the opening side of the door, using special stove rope adhesive, otherwise it couldn't be shut down enough to stay in overnight. The flue damper is never used, except to give it an occasional wiggle to make sure it's not obstructed. I do sweep the flue about every couple of weeks when in use. Lighting involves paper, plenty of kindling and slightly thicker wood, and the door left slightly ajar (BUT DON'T GO AWAY!). When blazing, door is closed and the front air intake left open until stove is hot, then ALMOST closed after adding more wood. It's closed down completely at night and usually stays in, although I sometimes add wood if I wake up (i.e. go for a p**) during the night. Stove lit for the first time this autumn (!) on a miserable day of wind and rain moored at Great Heck on the wide and wild Aire & Calder, buffeted by barges. Mac

So why haven't I received a notice of this potentially serious stoppage by e-mail from BW? Thank goodness I decided to come back north by the Trent Mac

I can echo Churchward's recommendation of Inline Filters. Their Search facility is extremely efficient - the only place I've been able to source Vetus Filter equivalents. Mac

I've tried various methods, but the dog doesn't take a blind bit of notice.

The Huddersfield has been my preferred route south from Sowerby Bridge for the past four years, and very grateful for it I am too. There are difficulties, and I've had to call out BW once (leaking hydraulic paddle) and of course been assisted by them several times up and down the Diggle and Marsden flights. They do a great job in difficult circumstances on this canal, and not once have I encountered anything but cheerful helpfulness, but I imagine they might not suffer fools gladly. Mac

My only heating is my stove, and I burn only wood. I have never bought any, and have no intention of doing so. Neither have I ever had any trouble finding dead wood on the bankside, food for my chainsaw. But then I mostly cruise the more wooded and less frequented North. You may find buyers for wood, but I think most people who pay for their heating prefer other fuels. But I may be wrong. Mac

He said that he'd fitted a new one. The wine is giving off carbon dioxide, CO2, not carbon monoxide CO I think I'd be contacting the manufacturers for advice on this one. If the new one is the same kind as the old there could be a fault in the detector. Edited to say: Ah! I've just noticed that you say you fitted a new detector, but didn't mention a new battery. Old batteries can make detectors a bit erratic. Mac

15rpm

I think you are talking about an overshot wheel, where the water fills the buckets from above. This is an undershot wheel, which normally have simple blades and are very inefficient (about 20%) Here the water is diverted from the river about 100 metres upstream through (I think) a 50cm pipe, with a 2 metre head, and is directed precisely at the upper part of each trough with great force as it reaches the bottom of the wheel, curves round the trough while (presumably) releasing its energy, and exits over the other lip. Believe me, this is the latest of several prototypes, and he thinks he may have reinvented the waterwheel. But as he says himself - time will tell. Edited to answer Justme. See my answer to Gibbo, above. The torque? Ah, yes, this is where I have my doubts, as he has not measured the torque directly but calculated it from the weight and force (some assumptions there!) of water in the troughs and distance (5ft) from the axle. I wasn't convinced by this, but there was enough force to buckle a 10mm thick steel plate and sheer a 20mm steel pin in the drive shaft at the generator end when the generator suddenly ground to a halt. Too vague I know, but as I (or rather he) said, time will tell. Mac

What do you mean by physically huge? This wheel is 11ft in diameter and 5ft wide. And here it is! The rain finally stopped so I could go along and take a picture. The water is turned off, as he was working on it. As for HP, well I asked him this (because I knew you would, and because I'm getting quite interested in this myself) and he said he calculated it from torque and RPM, so I found an engineering site to let me do this myself and got: HP = rpm x torque/5252 i.e. HP = 15 x 3000/5252 =8.5 He allowed for transmission losses to arrive at 7HP at the generator. Believe me, I also await the results with fascination. This has been a long-term project, and it may be a while before he can get hold of another suitable generator, but he says he is looking for a brushless electromagnetic type - that leaves me behind, but of course not you. Cheers Mac

My toilet/shower window has a round plastic vent of the type with free rotating (non-powered) blades inside and an external plastic cowl, which after many patchings was finally ripped off by a rope in a lock recently. Ideally I'd like to buy a replacement cowl, but realise I probably will have to replace the whole vent. But I can't find one anywhere, and can't find a maker's name. Does anyone recognise the description, and can point me in the right direction? Thanks Mac

Following this thread with interest as recently I found the (tiny) inspection hatch at the back of the cabin bilge by putting my foot through it (normally covered by vinyl flooring and movable step). Very wet and rusty underneath, so filled up the diesel (back) and emptied the water tank (front) to allow any water to run back. Took out about a couple of pints, then left the boat for a few days with newspaper to soak up the excess. Crossed my fingers on return, but found all bone dry - at least it's not leaking! But I can't reach more than about a foot round the hatch to clean out the rust. I'm extremely reluctant to tear up the floor, and I note the suggestion of pouring oil in. I thought of clearing out as much loose stuff as possible, then pouring Vactan anti-rust in to allow it to reach where the water had reached, then repeating the above technique to take out the excess. Or just leave it be - I was thinking of getting a bottom plate survey done this winter anyway, and hope that will tell me if there are any bits need overplating. (Cygnet is 20 years old, with only 8mm base).

Isn't electricity supposed to generate sparks? Anyhow, here are some answers to what people were asking. The head is approx 2 metres. This site allows calculation of the amount of electricity which can be generated from a given volume of water at a certain head, and using the figures available (190litres/sec and 2metres head) this gives 3.7KW hydraulic power (= 4.9HP) which can be turned into 2.2KW electricity, at 60% efficiency) . This is rather less than the 7HP claimed by my neighbour (who is called Dick, by the way, and no stupid jokes - I will refer to him as such from now on), but rather more than calculated by Gibbo. Both, however are in the right order of magnitude, unlike Gibbo's earlier statement about 14000 litres per second at one metre head being needed. (this, using the calculator mentioned, would have produced 82KW of electricity, BTW, enough to power a small street). However (and this is where I reserve judgment) Dick claims, after several years of trials, to have designed a much more efficient undershot waterwheel than previously used, incorporating ball race bearings and specially shaped cups, and which is up and running at this moment. Whether it lives up to his expectations remains to be seen, but at least he has hands-on experience in this field, which I don't suppose many of the contributors here have (including me). The original query, about the generator, seems to have been resolved, but feel free to argue about the rest! Cheers Mac

Fair enough. It's p***ing down outside at the moment, but when it stops I'll go and have a look.

You are quite right. The 3KW is from the inverter, but not irrelevant! It allows that much power to be used at any one time, but of course that would not be needed 24/7. As a matter of interest I looked up our own usage (2 bedroom house), and we use 15kwh per day average. My neighbour lives in a residential caravan with lower requirements, so say 10kwh per day. So the alternator would need to be at least 35amp working 24/7to keep the batteries charged up - I'm sure there are other considerations which would require something bigger, but I'm quite happy to be told this. I'll ask him how big his alternator is. In fact this may be a better way to go, as a normal household would not need 5KW all the time, which is what he was aiming for. Edited to add that he is using a 75 amp alternator, so easily adequate for the purpose. Cheers Mac

Exactly. That is the intention. Although the engine of his present diesel generation setup is I think rather more than that.

I'm back from the boat at the moment, so am taking the liberty of giving an update to the problems with my neighbour's hydro-electricity generation, as he called round this morning to report progress. I'm replying to Gibbo's post as this has the most facts and figures in it. The problem (identified by an ex- GPO electrical engineer) appears to be that the generator is faulty - the armature windings are poor and are distorted so much by centrifugal force that they were actually touching the field coils (not just energising them!) when reaching 750RPM, producing a disastrous braking effect - even a 20HP Yamaha engine struggled to produce 240V fom this generator. A 100 watt lightbulb, by the way, had no discernable effect on the the output before this. Yes, he did mean 3000ft-lbs of torque available at the water wheel. In addition he has measured the power available at the generator end (after gearing up), and this is in the region of 7HP. As a temporary measure he is now using the water wheel to drive a 12v alternator with a 900Ah battery bank and inverter to produce 3KW of usable power (and using it), until he can get a new generator with voltage regulator. It appears that some of the figures for amount and flow of water required quoted here are not accurate. He has a flow at the wheel of 11000 litres per minute producing what I have just quoted, rather different from the 14000 litres per second mentioned here. In fact I have actually seen successful domestic hydro schemes (in Iceland) using the same order of magnitude of water flow as he has. Also, the efficiency losses of a v-belt and pulley drive are nowhere near what has been quoted. I have found a figure of 90% transmission efficiency for each stage, giving 73% efficiency for his 3-stage setup. I'm quite aware of the sparks that can fly when asking electrical questions on this forum. As a piggy in the middle, I rather feel they are flying through me! Cheers Mac

Wasn't Cromwell Lock by any chance, was it? I've snapped two (homemade) handspikes and bent an iron bar on that. Good luck with the computer; I'm glad I don't have one on board.

Since April, from Sowerby Bridge, C&H, Huddersfield Broad & Narrow, Peak Forest, Macc, T&M, Coventry, Oxford, GU, Nene, Middle Level (inc Ramsey), Ouse to Bedford, Wissey, Brandon Creek, Lark, Cam up to Wicken Fen, back across Middle Level & up Nene, GU Leicester, Soar, Trent, and at present on the Chesterfield. I'm sorry, but I haven't the foggiest idea how far that is or how many locks, but the little boat and I are both quite tired! Mac

You can always get the latest one by clicking on the little square in post #58

Right, here are some more details of the problem, and answers to the queries people have put. The generators (he has two, both behaving in the same way) are rated at 6KVA. There were no motors with them, but he reckons they would have been about 10HP. As there is plenty of water, but low head, he is using a conventional water wheel producing torque of 3000lbs. (Unlike his previous project which had a high head, and used a Pelton Wheel revolving at 1500RPM producing 5KVA) The RPM is geared up using a system of belts and pullies, which turns the generator perfectly well until approx half speed, producing 110 volts (he has also hand-cranked it with the same results), when a sudden resistance appears (physical resistance, that is), which brings everything to a grinding halt. Since I last posted, he has done a few measurements, and found that for some time after the generator is shut down, he is getting an output, and therefore suspects that there is an internal capacitor which may be somehow feeding back into the generator and producing a load. Is this possible? I know nothing about these things. Anyway, an ex-GPO electrical engineer is coming to take a look, and as I said I'll be away from tomorrow, so I'll have to leave it there. Mac