Jump to content

Ex- Member

Member
  • Posts

    6,516
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    5

Everything posted by Ex- Member

  1. We have a 3kw inverter it runs our washing machine 2.2kw no problem, it's designed for that purpose after all and has been used for running all sorts of 240v equipment for over the past 9 years now. Lyyn's hair drier is 1500 watts. It only takes a few minutes to dry her hair. As long as your batteries are at a decent state of charge there should be no problem. If she uses it when the batteries are pretty full and sun shining you hardly notice any drop at all. We're actually adding 2/300 watts of solar for the 4 winter months, probably a fraction of the cost of that 4kva generator. We plan to hang them from the side of the boat to glean more energy from a low winter sun. IMO your money would have been much better spent on adding more solar even to side panels rather than dish out loads of dosh not just on a generator but on expensive fuel now and in the future, and let alone noise hassle and pollution. Using generators or engine running for energy is a backward step unless you cruise daily for 6 hours or so. If you have a wheel house, can't you put solar on it's roof? Just a thought
  2. Must be a small boat. Do you know the AH of your leisure battery, and how many rated amps is the alternator?. Depending on how much tv you use you might need to add another leisure battery, also a small solar panel 50w to 100 w might be a good investment.
  3. We have a Cello 29 inch combi with Freeview and a load of other stuff. We've always ran our 12v tv's directly from 12v with no issues. Cello now do a 32" 12v TV which I want to buy, but er in doors won't let me LOL
  4. Blimey how big is the hair drier LOL. We have so much energy from solar that running a hair drier makes little impact on batteries especially when the sun is shining. We can even run our washing machine without generator or engine if we pre fill it with warm/hot water. We try not to have to use a generator at all and haven't needed to since end Feb, but generally have to use it most days through winter, however it's just a 1kve Honda running a 20a charger but will also run the boats 240v electrics. You clearly use more power than us, but I would keep both because the value of the trickle charging ability from solar is far superior at doing this and free of charge in comparison to a 4kva generator.
  5. Hi Bobcat Reading through the posts it seems that you'll probably just get away with 3 batteries although personally I would add at least 1 more. I would strongly advise though to use a small amount of your budget to apply some solar panels for battery charging or look out for a boat with solar already fitted.
  6. It depends on what make of compost loo you choose. Ours composts in 2 stages in one single unit using a rotating drum and finishing tray, so the youngest poo will be 8 to 12 weeks old when emptied. The more modern compost loos it seems you have to remove the poo into another receptacle to finish off composting, however that poo has been separated from urine so will compost quicker.
  7. Correct I would think so. After boat costs we could easily live on under £100 a week if we cut out all the luxuries such as booze & takeaways and meals out. We shop at Lidl and Aldi mostly for the basics, but we buy most of our meat from farm shops & quality butchers which are twice the price so a lot of saving can be made there as well. We generally do 2 to Lidl/Aldi shops per week at £30/£40 quid a time. This is for 2 persons.
  8. We're full time live aboard with a 60 x 10/6 wide beam. Diesel heating, Gas cooker. Monthly costs. Licence £72.16 Insurance £26.33 Gas £15.00 Diesel propulsion £10.00 Diesel heating £30.00 averaged, but bought between Oct & March. Maintenance £20.00 This includes odd projects. Blacking £15.00 We are 2 packed so a 5 year stint before removal for assessment. Annual cost. £2261.88 With regard to general living costs, we average £150.00 per week, the vast majority of which is food and drink including wine at least a bottle a day and beer and occasionally a bottle of brandy. This also includes an average one meal out per week and occasional takeaway. Living cost £7800.00 Total annual cost £10061.88 These figures are based on the past year.
  9. We hardly bother or take much notice of any of the gauges at all now, the weather has been consistently good since March, we certainly won't run out or power if it stays much the same till end Sept that's for sure. If the weather gets gloomy/overcast we'll keep an eye on the batteries level gauge and take some amp readings if we think necessary, not happened yet though this year. Hopefully it'll stay like that till mid Oct like last year. At the end of the day we use between 150 and 200ah per day which includes running a small freezer. Our 740w of solar will produce that on a non sunny summer day. I'll take the Outback readings from March as I believe we've reached a full SOC every day since then. So the AH's the Outback supplies each day is basically our usage. The freezer will go off in Sept and we're planning on adding 2 or 3 100w flexi panels, we'll hopefully get through winter with minimal engine or generator running at 1 hour per day. If planning to get solar I would advise to get more than you need based on your power audit, then you can use energy just like being on shore line when you're off grid. It's just brilliant! Also I'll hopefully get this solar dump load sorted so we'll not only have plenty of leccy, but some warm water too, all courtesy of the current bun, luverly jubilee
  10. Hi Daiboy Surely a perfect example of where just a small 100w solar would be saving you a fortune in diesel and charging your batteries fully at very little cost.
  11. Yeah 3 and 6 definitely, 40mm would be amply as well. If existing batteries are that new there shouldn't think it would be a problem.
  12. Yeah I see what you mean and as in method 2 it's no more difficult than doing it incorrectly As we did initially LOL I chose method 3 as we were fitting a completely new installation, (with your assistance you might recall) but correcting an existing bank, again method 2 makes good sense and you probably wouldn't need new cable & connectors.
  13. I thought the idea of wiring batteries in this manner was to ensure equal charging through the bank and keeping each individual battery basically equal to each other. I recall when we initially had 6 batteries and poz & neg leads connected to one end that some individual batteries failed over time and one even exploded, that being the one the leads were connected to. I'm sure the way they were wired was the cause of such problems. I wonder though on a smaller bank of 4 batteries as you mention the effects would be less.
  14. With method 2 you would take off each end of your batteries a couple of batteries in each end. So wire Pos cable to bat 3 and Neg on bat 6. We went with diagram 3, IMO a far superior way of doing this. You end up with 2 terminals which everything connects to and can be well isolated from the battery terminals. The golden rule being that once you've connected your battery bank, nothing else should be connected directly to the battery bank, with the exception in some cases of censoring equipment. It's also not good practice to mix new batteries with old, the older batteries could well have a detrimental effect on the newer ones depending on their condition.
  15. Bimble do occasionally sell second hand panels and state as such when selling them. The majority of panels they sell are brand new if it states as such.
  16. I rest my case LOL Some domestic cats can become feral, completely different to wild. There's a big difference.
  17. Cats have been domesticated for thousands of years
  18. You clearly no nothing about cats, they have been domesticated for thousands of years. Clearly says a lot more about you than "filthy cats"!
  19. Cat's are nocturnal, they prefer to go out at night in any weather. Also cats generally bury their mess and prefer to mess in undergrowth rather than pavements or tow paths. Cats can be kept indoors, but they would much prefer to be let outside at will.
  20. Our US2200's are much the same as the T105's Ours have been installed and operating for 2 years now and we generally need to replace half a litre to 3/4 litres of water per month for the 6 batteries. This has been quite consistent, we also equalize once a month too, the batteries seem fine. With our 740w of solar we're generally at a full SOC by noon most days. We've probably have lost some capacity somewhere along the way but it's not really noticeable. If we get 5 years out of them I would consider that a bargain considering our quite high energy use. Topping up for us is also a breeze even though we don't have direct access to the top of the batteries. Using a simple gadget I rigged up with some hose and a cork. We can do all 6 batteries in less than 5 minutes and ensure they're all at the exact full level. Happy days!
  21. Hi Pete What temperature have you set your water. We were thinking about 40c
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.