Mike the Boilerman

Hash your wands!

Those patients on the stretchers look dreadfully thin.

I think you'll struggle to buy a NB in current lockdown conditions. Certainly no-one responsible will be willing to show you around one for sale.

Only two need to survive each pandemic.

Cool, thanks! This must be what TM's sis has installed.

Have a look at this... The official source document I suspect, judging by the URL. https://www.college.police.uk/What-we-do/COVID-19/Documents/What-constitutes-a-reasonable-excuse.pdf

Even without antifreeze, the system would need to be strong enough to hold in steam pressure. Puzzling.

Yes there will be lots of exceptions, but in broad terms a sailing boat has a keel giving it a draft of perhaps 5ft and canals broadly speaking with exceptions, are only about 3 ft deep. And the mast would need taking down for most bridges if you are actually trying sail it from A to B.

I think it must have, but I've never had a really close look at one, they are always in dark and mucky lofts! Where would the fluid go if not in the panels, and how would they automatically refill and purge, would be the difficulties that I can't see simple solution for. And another problem not address, is what happens if the pump fails in mid summer sun. The antifreeze fluid needs to either not boil in the panels in the sun, or the steam pressure needs handing somehow without losing the antifreeze. In dunno how household systems manage this.

(And the other half is by me, before anyone else says it, lol!! ) Doh, you beat me to it!

Yes I do find it amusing that the narrow minded and bigoted shyte that mrsmelly condemns facebook for is showing up on here on a daily basis these days, and 50% of it is posted by him.

Broadly speaking, no.

That's good news how little power the pump needs. I was imagining it would need a decent sized 100w panel, in order to run a 20w pump at less then optimum sun conditions. But I gues its self balancing, as the power output from your PV drops, so does the need to circulate as the heat energy from the wet solar panel output also drops proportionally. What pump are you using, out of interest? This surprises me. I still get significant output from my PV when it rains in summer. Certainly enough to keep the fridge and the rest of the boat powered up without having to run the engine or genny. THis is with 560W of panels. On the primary circuit containing the antifreeze, you have a sealed system with expansion vessel I presume? How do you go about filling it with antifreeze? Or maybe you never need to.

Yes.

A few things strike me: 1) In a real boat installation the calorifier needs to be lower than the panel, meaning there needs to be an electric pump to push the hot water from the panel on the roof, down into the calorifier inside the cabin, so an PV panel is needed as well as the water-filled panel, to run the pump. (Or burn diesel to charge the batteries to run the pump which is self-defeating). 2) The very hot water David notes at the outlet from the solar is only that hot because of the minimal circulation. Once the water is being pushed around at a sensible rate, the panel water will assume nearly the same temperature (i.e. low) as the calorifier temperature. This paradoxically improves the thermal efficiency of the panel. 3) The effectiveness of a system that works well in sun is not gonna be the same on a normal summer's day when its pishing with rain. 4) The system will need antifreeze to avoid bursting the panel in frost. 5) People design solar hot water systems from time to time but they never seem to get widely adopted, so I guess something always stops them working quite as well as hoped. I suspect they simply don't work at all in winter so people need a good alternative anyway, which tends to get used all year around rather than switching the solar ON in the summer. Just a guess though.

Good for you. Not everyone is the same as you. This may come as a surprise.

True, but if it is, you're doing it wrong. Winter on a boat for me is as delightful as summer, just totally different.

"Guidance" however, is not the law. The law says something different.

Congratulations!!! Did you get the mooring too? Cracking mooring! V. envious....

Yeah that's the place! You have a maureen there now? Or towpath opposite? Quite like it there.....

A poster on here a few years back likened a NB to "a big steel pet". You need to feed it, water it and love it, and the vets bills can be enormous.

She's looking good on it as a result, too. ... or did you mean the boat?

Not so sure they have water available for non-moorers, but there is a CRT water point 400yds north outside The Wharf pub. Plenty of mooring and parking around the pub, too.

I'd suggest the nearest would nbe Ignore Tracey/boater/hider sam, he prolly forgot to take his medication this morning. Nearest with all that would be Fenny Compton Marina going north, about a four hour cruise. Whether they are open or not is another thing. If not, then keep going to Braunston. Going south I'm pretty sure the marina just as you go into Banbury has all you ask for, but Banbury is not a nice place to be at the moment.

Ah yes, the industry recognised qual that no-one has ever heard of!