kayak

Morning all. As many of you know i am not blessed in the the electrical department! Could any of the electrical gurus out there post me a little diagram of the BEST way of connecting up 4 * 12v batteries to give 24 volts. The batteries are 150 amp I take it that the best i could achieve with 4 batteries is 300 amp at 24 volts ( the same as 600 amp at 12 volt????) Oh i dont know! Please help me understand! The little kayak paddles off.....................

I intend to use the calorifier as the heat dump so that whenever the log burner gets hot the pump will kick in on a thermostat. And in case of breakdown the pipe arrangement should be suitable for thermosyphoning (emergency only). To get heat from the engine i will be using the Alde engine heat exchanger in the Alde circuit. K

What a coincidence! Im just going through my plumbing layout now for my new build and was going to post a picture of my layout for comments. One of main elements of the system is that twin coil calorifier is fed my the log burner and the alde boiler, and when the log burner is up to temp and the calorifier is hot (60 litre) i was going to switch on the pump in the alde sytem to heat the radiators on that circuit. It was just a way of not having to have the log burner and alde int he same circuit. Does anyone have any idea on how efficient a calorifier would be when used as a heat exchanger? Kayak.

Wow wow wow..................Steady on, who mentioned kids!!!!!!!!!!! (Note to self: Dont let the Better Half read that!) Joking aside, that is a good point, i suppose it is also preferable to to find valves that offer as little resistance as possible when they are open? I take your point about running pipes virtually anywhere if it is pumped, to be honest that is what i wanted to hear! As an aside, assuming that i make the whole system pumped, which is what i intend, is it not ok to leave the fire banked down when the fire is unattended? Such as when we go out or go to bed? K

Good point, in essence that is what im trying to do. I thought it a good idea to try and build in a little potentail to thermosyphon should the pump fail. I was mainly wondering if people thought of the layout, such as taking the pipes down lower thatn the floor and if the pacing of the pump and header tank were suitable? Cheers, K.

It has been said that the pipe runs must be placed "just so" if it is a gravity system, but what if there is a pump? Can the pipes go pretty much where i want them? in an ideal world id like the "out" pipe from the biler to split and one side go to the calorifier and back to the inlet pipe and the other side to go through a towel radiator in the bathroom and then dip under the floor boards in the corridor before popping back up the other side to feed the radiators. Would this cause me any problems with a pumped system? im proposing that i put the stove on one side of a bulkhead and the calorifier right behind it on the other side of the bulkhead but slightly higher so at least there is a heat sink if the pump fails. can anyone see a problem with these two being so close? Between them, going from stove towards the calorifier i was proposing to put a tee off to the header tank and then the pump and then the tee off to the calorifier circuit and central heating circuit. Wow. I've just read that back and it still makes sence to me, i hope someone else out there can follow it too and pass comment? Thanks K.

Thanks Blackrose. Good advice as ever. Nice idea about the gate valves. I think for the reletivly cheap price of the valves it is worth putting them either side of all of the pumps on board. I think i will go for a DC pump, at least then when i'm off cuising it wont be running through the inverter. K

Hi Saltysplash. I think i must be the worst in the world for not being able to write down what i mean! Glad to see i'm not alone though Cheers. Thanks for that MP. Does your "Bolin" pump still allow the water through if it is turned off? A "pipe thermostat" you say???? Consider it Googled! K

Morning All. Once more i'd like to tap into your great experiance! Can anyone recomend, from personal experiance, a good 24 volt pump for circulating the hot water around my back boiler circuit? There should be an element of gravity circulation in it but if i'm honest i dont think that will be enough, so i'll put a pump in. Obvioulsy the main criteria for the pump are that it is quite, but most of all very reliable. Also, does anyone have an idea of if i could get some sort of thermostatic switch that will kick the pump in as soon as it detects heat in the back boiler outlet pipe and therfore will only stop pumping when compleatly cool? I was also thinking of putting a relay in the system so when the thermostat swith turns the power to the pump on it also turns power on to a buzzer. the idea is that the power to the pump holds the contact to the buzzer open. So, if the thermostat switch kicked the pump in, but it had packed up for some reason, the buzzer would sound? However, as you can tell from my description i have no idea what im talking about so if there is something on the market that would do the job please let me know! Basicaly, im trying to make the system as safe as i can, because i dont think that i can get the proposed system to work without a pump. I think that the water would thermosyphon through the calorifier but not the radiators, so i may as well just let the pump circulate the whole lot! Did that make sence? I thought not! Kayak.

Thanks Richard, I'll give them a call in the morning. K

Hi Richard. Very prompt. Does Blackrose have one too? Did you have it made over size? What about the connection? Thanks. K

Hi all. I have Liverpool wide beam with the water tank under the front deck. I would really like a flexible liner that has a take off at the bottom that will connect to plastic push fit plumbing and a filler cap ( in the right place) at he top. Any ideas of where i can get anything like this from? Does anyone out there have any experiance of such a thing? Would it be better to have one that was too big rather than too small to stop in being under pressure (if that makes sence)? Thanks all. Kayak.

Hi Bottle. I dont think that i explained very well. The toilet tank wont be above the water tank. It will be behind it and lower down. The water tank is under the front deck and the tank doesnt come all the way to the front of the bulkhead at the bow so i have hollow about 18 inches deep and 20 inches tall (ish) that is at the front of the cabin and under the front deck. I hope i have confused you even more now! if i haven't my time here has been wasted! Seriously though, if the poo tank did leak it wouldnt be possible for it to get into the water tank. K

Goodwin plastics look good. I'll give them a try. I know that 120 gallon is a big size but ive got the room and its quite a big boat, 60*11. Round our way you dont get charged buy the volume that gets pumped out so it is better to go longer between pumpouts. Im going to put the tank under the front deck as there is a space about 18 inches deep before you hit the water tank. It should sit nice there and with a bit of luck shouldnt upset the balance too much, although it will be on the opposite side of the boat to things like the bath, shower and log burner so all shoulnd make too much differance when full. Hope so anyway! K

Hi Charles. That is sort of what ive done and based on just what the toilet will put into the tank without my "input" will be about 29 days i based that on 2 flushes per day @ 2.2L and 6 flushes @ 1.2L + whatever I "deposit". I think that this will take it down to about 20 days but id like to get about a month between pump outs. 120L to 150L would be nice. I do have room for a bigger tank, do you know where i can get a bigger tank that has the correct fittings for a saniflo toilet or are they all standard fittings? Thanks for you help. K

Oh, just a week. Ok, where can i get a bigger tank? Bearing in mind that we are generally out all weekend and at work all week in the day. I also want to be prepared if the powers that be start making us hold grey water for pumpout too! Point taken on the hedgerow, but if i have to suffer lager in order to take advantage then i'll pass thanks! K

Hi all. Using my limited knowledge i have trawled the interweb to find the best price for a macerator toilet and large holding tank. The cheapest pace i can find is Lee sanitation and their biggest kit is 75 gallon with the Saniflo C48 toilet in 24v. Does this sound like a good deal? I have got quite a big space under the front deck to place the tank so would like one as big as possible. Do any of you know who makes bigger pump out tanks than that? Also, could anyone with a pump out tell me how long in thier experiance, how long it would take for two people to fill up a 75 gallon tank? Im really hoping that someone can tell me that there is a 99% off sale somewhere! Cheers. Kayak.

Thanks for the responces chaps. Never heard of an antifreeze tester. I'll look out for one. Cheers. K

Morning all. I was after a little advice about my Isuzu 55. With the recent frosts (we have had two here now in two days and this morning is quite bad) do you think that i should check the antifreeze. I took delivery of the boat earlier this year and i know that the builder should have put anti freeze in but you never know. My question is though, how do i know if there is anti freeze in the engine? Is there somewhere i can drain a little water off and check? Do you think that these forst coulpe of frosts would damage the engine if there was no anti freeze in? I havnt got my manual with me at the moment but im sure that i doesnt say anything about anti freeze in it, if someone is sat there with an Isuzu lump in their boat and has got the manual to hand????? Any help is appreciated as ever. Kayak.

Thanks all thats great. Sileby is just up the road/river. Im headed straight there after work to see f they can quote me happy. I still think that i am too tight to pay that much although i understand how those sort of prices can be justified. Also, i dont want to be scared that every little overhanging branch is going to scratch my paint or accused by the trads of haviong a floating gin palace! I saw a good vidio on youtube of a chap painting a narrowboat. He puts it on with a roller and then goes over with a dry brush. Hay ho..........ive a lot more to do before i can think of paint, plumbing, electrics, T&G, bathroom, galley, bedroom, saloo.............................! K

Thanks for the answers chaps, its about what i was expecting. Now, Dulux.com here i come! K!

Although I intend to paint my boat myself (with the help of a skilled friend) i was wondering how much i could expect to pay for a top class job from someone well respected in the business. Im thinking along the lines of a single colour on the cabin sides with a light coloured roof and some coach lines ( i think that is what they are called) to frame the windows and break up the sides a little. I was going to call round a few painters but i dont know of anyone local (leicestershire) who does this and i wouldnt know who was good and who was to be avoided. Any thoughts? Kayak.

What is it? Pictures are nice! I like pictures. Kayak.

If you were just using a pump and not relying on gravity can you connect both the inlet and outlet pipe to the radiators at opposite sides at the bottom like on a domestic set up? Kayak.