sigsegv

Cheers I’ll check that in the morning, weather permitting. Not a fan of doing much with the solars when these gusts are as bad as they are. I store stuff under the panel so it’s entirely possible somethings knocked it underneath at some point. Would testing the diode be a simple continuity check?

I'm pretty sure one of my panels has had it. This morning I noticed I was getting 0 watts despite it being nice and sunny, and the batteries being down to about 90%. Did some fiddling, disconnected the oldest of our three panels (which came with the boat) and suddenly we started getting power again! I also noticed our max voltage was higher, much more in line with what I would be expecting to get from the two newer panels. I've not done much testing on it yet, but I'm presuming the panel's had it. So next comes what to do with the (potentially) dead panel. Dumping it by CRT bins seems wrong, disposing of it at a tip seems wasteful, but doing a quick search on Google only found solar recycling services for much larger installations than just one smelly boater with a single 300W panel. So my question is; is anyone aware of any recycling places near the canal that would take the panel? Ideally on the T&M or GU as that's where we're likely to be for the next few months, but I don't mind if it's not for some time - it's not exactly taking up space used for anything else.

LMGTFY

Missus works full time WFH, and I used to when we moved aboard. We use my parents address for correspondence and employment stuff (BUPA, HMRC, etc) but in reality only really get any post every few months. Most stuff is online these days which means the only thing we really rely on is an internet connection. Deliveries and stuff, including medication, we use post restante to varying success (the more ‘boaty’ a town, the higher chance the post office will have any idea what PR is), as well as Amazon and DPD collection points.

The only quick example that came to mind for me was minimum alcohol pricing - which when introduced, I expected to not considerably reduce drinking among problem drinkers, just make them more poor. The truth, as always, lies somewhere in-between. Reduced deaths caused by alcohol by 13.4% and related hospital admissions by 4.1% [1]. Of course, those addicted (which we can use as a vague analogy to those on the system that are not in a position to change their circumstances) cannot stop and will simply pay more and end up poorer. [1] - https://www.bmj.com/content/381/bmj.p1477.full

Aaah so that *is* the Goliath from this forum. I too saw him on the move on the shroppie a few weeks ago, at Norbury junction I believe.

I spent about 10 minutes practising it one day and managed the final bit maybe 2 or 3 times. Obviously nowhere near as quick, and definitely not consistent, but it’s not outside of most people’s abilities with a bit of practice. Helps to visualise what needs to happen to the rope as the flick ‘travels’ to the cleat. Give it a go the next time you’re at a cleat and have some time, you’ll surprise yourself! … that being said, I tried again a few weeks ago and couldn’t do it so maybe it was all beginners luck

people *do* like seeing boats, and they probably *wouldn't* like it more as just a water transfer channel with etc etc... until you make them face the costs of keeping the boats on it (were it not paid by boaters). Then I imagine they'd adopt a much less favourable view of those people messing about in boats at their expense. Now, if they were instead paying for something they benefit more materially from.... towpath and picnic area access maybe.... hmmmm 🤔

I'm sure the boat builders see this as a feature not a bug But yes that's the downside of closed-source, proprietary solutions (as well as custom-built stuff).

Indeed and my solution is close to what I used to do for a living (among other things ) so it was perfect! We did look into going the venusOS route but why go for a turnkey solution when you can hack together a frankensolution I considered offering this as a full solution to other boaters but after running the numbers, it just didn’t make sense cost-wise for myself or the consumer - too small a market, too costly a setup

Been dying for a reason to post this for a while I actually built up a fairly nice remote telemetry system for my boat - stuff mostly goes into a raspberry pi then pushes it to a remote server running Grafana so I can make fancy charts of power, weather, movement, etc. Wouldn't be the cheapest thing to do if building it from scratch but it was cobbled together mostly from stuff we already had installed, it all just needed connecting to the pi in some way. http://blog.narrowboat.life/2023/09/19/narrowboat-telemetry/ Your use of teamviewer to remotely control the device is ingenious by the way!

@Isher1883 Hope you stick around mate. Once you've got enough posts, feel free to DM me and we can have a chat - as another relatively younger boater (well... 34...) that moved aboard a year and a half ago, I can probably give some relevant and useful information about the transition to life on the water.

Already been reported to CRT, who say contractors are going to sort it out (though not today). We actually only found out about it a few bridges away after crossing the aqueduct upstream. Hopefully it gets sorted soon - we've got a dinner reservation in Llan on saturday 😅

Not entirely sure what the point of this topic is. Yes, I imagine most boaters are aware that pollution has effects on health, and that setting fire to things for heat contributes to localised pollution. Or maybe they're not and read this thread and suddenly become aware. But then what? Are they going to decide to stop burning wood and coal, and simply be cold in winter because they cannot afford a less polluting solution to heating their homes in winter? There's an interesting line between 'making people aware' about things and chastising them about things they are not in a position to change. For better or for worse, there are a lot of people living on boats and the most energy and cost efficient way to maintain a comfortable living situation in the depths of winter is to burn wood and coal in a big iron box. Informing them of the effects of PM2.5 particulates on the respiratory system essentially does fxxk all except potentially make them feel guilty - they have no other option. To be charitable, because I apologise that this is a bit of a rant and I guess I'm coming off quite abrasive, maybe you are targeting those that *are* in a position to do something different - those that have a reasonable amount of money and therefore *can* choose other options for heating their boats in winter, or have other abodes that can be heated with methods that don't cause as much localised pollution such that they don't need to worry about the issues with heating a 50-70ft floating steel tube in winter.