Beeno

I can't find that part number on FRAM. I know the official one is £60! I may well remove mine if it has a little mesh on the intake. 10% fuel savings sounds great to me. Has any one got any horror stories of not having an air filter? If not then I can't see why it would be a problem. I'll keep the filter in case anything goes wrong as the engine is still under gaurentee, I can always pop it back on then if I need an official engineer!

I have a £70k boat. It cost me £45k and was funded by a Unsecured Graduate Loan from my bank. I told them that it was for a recreational boat as they wouldn't lend me the same amount of money if I said I was going to live on it It's called a sailaway + 2 and a half years of very hard work. Mark

I moor at Willowbrook Moorings. I can't remember the phone number, but it's on the sign at the moorings. It puts you through to Tracey who lives in Willowbrook Cottage and looks after the mooring. She was showing a few people around a couple of weeks ago, so there maybe spaces. If you are interested I could get you the number. It is not a residential mooring, but a lot of us spend a great deal of time there. The prices at Willowbrook are quite reasonable too, failing that I would also recomend the new marina near Willington mentioned previously. There was one place at Stenson when I was looking a year ago. Good Luck Mark

Sawley is down to 67p now. Me and a neighbour chipped in and bought a load straight from a suppier two weeks ago and kept it at my neighbours work. Even this cost 62p a litre. I think we should just enjoy it while we can, in a couple of years time after derogation ends we'll all be sitting in the pub reminissing of the time it was 70p a litre!

Again, lengthways. Most flooring should be laid 90 degress to the underlying joists (according to the instructions), which in a narrownoat run along the width of the boat, however with a substantial piece of ply down first I can't really see it being a problem. You can always lay it out first to see what you prefer and walk on it to check it doesn't flex too much. Mark

Recycling Point in Shardlow Located in the public car park on Wilne lane, just off the bridge by the Malt Shovel and the New Inn, but before the Navigation Inn. They even take Christmas trees.

... Please do! I'm thinking of getting a water heating panel instead of a 3rd solar panel as the main drawback of being self-sufficient with solar PV is a lack of hot water. The're A LOT cheaper and more efficient too. I'd love to know how it's mounted. A bit of a pain I imagine what with all the pipe work, especially if you want to be able to reposition the panel. Does it feed a coil in your calorifier, or does it store water in a tank above the panel? Do you need a pump or is it fed by convection? PS. Don't worry about your panels being nicked by some chavvy from your roof. It only cost me an extra fiver a year to insure £1100 worth of panels from theft. Oh, and also I have a Ledgard Bridge boat and all the latest power-hungry gizmos and I am self sufficient (on a sunny day). No electric kettle, but you can get away with a toaster and a hair dryer if the weather is good! Solar panels generate as much energy as is used in their manufacture in 3 years, and should pay for themselves in 8 - 10 years. Well maintained good-quality panels should last 30 years, by maintenance I mean cleaning them and making sure the glass seals are in good nick. I'd would love to have a nuclear powered boat, a fuel pellet the size of a sheeps poo would power my boat for a year, but untill I can lay my hands on a decomissioned Russian Sub I think Solar and wind will have to do.

In terms of cooking equipmnt, clean out a cupboard and draw at home, and put your kithcen items into the empty cupboard when you use them, you'll soon discover what items you actually need.

I guess in theory you could turn the inverter off for a couple of hours and then on for half an hour without spoiling your food. Some kind of timer and a massive 300A relay would be required in practice. Doing it manually would be no good for most boat owners as you are either away from the boat for too long, or it's just plain inconvinient. In the evenings my invertor will always be on as the TV, stereo and computer are all 240V. Another energy saving tip, When solar dosen't keep up, I charge my batteries via my Travel Power, this produces about 1.5kW at engine idle speed and this is more than the max charge power to the batteries, giving me some surplus energy. Whilst charging, the fridge gets whacked up to max. After charging it gets turned back to min, and doesn't come on again for about three hours. Just make sure your cucumber isn't at the back of the fridge. Mark

This is all good advice, but before you start rewiring your boat, you should consider how much of your total power consumption is taken up by lighting. On my boat this is only about 10% of my daily usage, so it may be best to look for ways to save power elsewhere first. For me, a 12V fridge would be a much better long-term investment. Mark

There is no reason, but I haven't tested a 12V fridge, just wanted some "head room" in my calculations.

Hello All, I read the other day that someone was moaning that no-one tests anything any more (probably Chris). Well I have been testing my daily power consumption and have uncovered that I am using 33% of my daily allowance to run my invertor 24hrs a day. The only only reason I need to is because of the 240v fridge; so here are some figures that may be of interest to a live aboard. A good "A" rated 240v under counter fridge with ice box, runs at a 14% duty cycle at 20oC ambient temperature. Weekly power consumption = 2.2 kWh My Invertor (Victron Pheonix Multi-Plus 2.5kVA) draws a dissapointing 25W with all the power sockets off. Weekly power consumption = 4.2 kWh Total weekly consumption for a 240V fridge = 6.4 kWh Now a 12V fridge can be expected to be less efficient. I read somewhere here to expect this power consumption. Weekly power consumption 3 kWh Now the invertor can be turned off every night for 8 hrs, and turned off for 8 hrs a day Mon-Fri whilst at work, giving; Weekly Power Consumption = 1.8 kWh Total weekly consumption for a 12V fridge = 4.8 kWh Giving a saving of 1.6 kWh a week, or power saving of around 20 Ah a day when running on 12VDC - Another way of looking at it is that you would save in excess of 75 hrs of engine running time over the course of a year on a typical live aboard boat. Can I be bothered to change my fridge. Probably not, but if anyone is fitting a new one, then perhaps you should give the above some consideration. Or you could get a gas fridge... ... but that opens up a WHOLE can of worms - see other threads. Mark

Yeah, sounds optimistic to me too! It's supposed to be "all year", Based on the south of England, unobstructed, facing south and angled at 30 degrees. Can't rememebr where I read it, somewhere official-ish, ie. not on a website selling solar panels. *edit* I think that assumes a peak-power tracking reguator too, not the cheaper PWM type.

Out of interest, what turbine do you have? Is it noisy? Does it turn in light winds? Cheers Mark

I have a 3.5kW gen-pack on the engine and charge through my inverter/charger as it's more intelligent than the alternator. I realise that solar/wind will never supply 100% of your energy needs, especially in winter, but come September I won't be working form home anymore, and ultimatly I don't want to have to run the engine for 2 and a half hours EVERY FLAMING DAY. (althought the endless hot water is a perk!) You have also picked up on my other concern about wind, ie, it can cause an obstruction and is a pain to set up. The cut lies east-west here and the prevailing wind is westerly, so I should be able to catch some air.