elessina

DBA Events web page is here There will be a visitors day at the Bisham Abbey rally (Aug bank holiday Sunday) We have a 60ft x 12'6" barge on the Thames. I would not change the width, but wish when cruising we were a little shorter..... but then wish we were longer when moored up for long periods!! Generally most look for a crew of more than 2 when cruising on a barge longer than around 60ft. There are a lot more things to go wrong on a boat than a house, this can make living on board much more complicated, especially if not DIY minded as repairs are always more expensive Just think of the loo, rarely a problem in a house, always an issue on boats. Ian Elessina

Providing that we do not use the washing machine, or Vac, or hairdryer or iron or electric kettle etc. our daily consumption is around 1000wh per day. More if we watch a few hours of tv in the evening. We have a large battery bank (910ah). The fridge and freezer consumes around 700wh per day (more when sunny = hot, less when cloudy = cooler). Ian

Ernie, We have 2 x Kyocera 130W 12V panels and a Steca PR1515 controller, wired up to give 24v. Installed mid May, so far we are very pleased with them. I have installed them in a frame, that enables me to slightly tilt them (20 deg) to (manually) follow the sun. This helps, and often gives 20% more power than when flat. The Kyocera panels are Polycrystalline, which are around half the size of Amorphous panels, but slightly more expensive. Since we are 24v I will quote everything in watts. From mid May to mid June we averaged 730wh per day from the panels Mid June to mid July we averaged 923wh per day from the panels Generally if it is a rainy day we get around 450wh in a day, reasonably sunny day around 1300wh in a day. We have a Shoreline 128 litre fridge with 16 ltr freezer and a Shoreline 93 ltr freezer. On every occasion we have left the boat (up to a week) with everything switched off except fridge and freezer we have returned with more power in the batteries than when we left.... A nice feeling!. We purchased the panels through the internet, and found Energy & Environment Ltd at Manchester the cheapest Tel : + 44 161 881 1383 www.energyenv.co.uk Hope this helps in your decision making Ian Elessina

We have 2 x 130w solar panels. Over the last two weeks we have had a mixture of sunny and cloudy days. Best day so far, on an almost clear sunny day, we got 1040watts in a day output from the two panels (520w per panel) On a cloudy day we get around 250wats from the two panels. I can (and do) angle the panels towards the sun but only at an approx angle of 15 degrees from the horizontal. When I do this we get between 10 and 20% increase in power. May average, the panels will run the fridge, LED lighting, water pumps etc. They certainly are not sufficient to keep the batteries topped up when running hair dryers, Washing machines, Irons, Vacs etc. On a sunny day they will run the TV for a few hours. More power from the panels will likely be available (sun dependant) in June, July and August. Sometime we moor up close to trees (shade), we are then down to 250w per day, even on a sunny day. I have given figures in Watts because we are 24v. If you wish convert to Amp hours at 12v divide the watts figure by 12. Ian, Elessina

I had a similar problem, simply because I had over tightened the T handle. On my separator is a thick washer (approx 3mm thick). When over tightened it deformed. I simply loosened it off a little. Only needs a slight tightening. Worth checking to see if it is the same. Ian Elessina

When first installed we used to get water out of the Pressure relief valve. Our Whale pump was 3bar, pressure relief valve was 3 bar!!!!. The Whale pump has a little grub screw under a QC label that can adjust the pressure (info from Whale direct), this I did, but still water came out of the pressure relief valve. I then removed a non return valve I had installed in the cold water feed to the calorifier (this to stop hot water running back down the cold water supply pipe when the calorifier was hot). No problems with the Pressure relief valve since. This I believe is because the (long length) of cold water supply pipe back to expansion tank from the calorifier acts as a pressure cylinder (when the water gets hot, the pressure increases). Replacement pump is well below 3bar, (I think 1.5bar). I did not want another 3 bar pump! Our calorifier is also 3 bar design, 5 bar max..... another reason for a lower pressure pump. Anyone with a Whale 18l/min pump needs to be aware it is 3bar and that most PRV and calorifiers are 3bar rated..... we were not at the time of purchase (3 years ago). Ian

A bit late, but... After around 3 years we had the same problem with our Whale pump. I installed a non return valve on the inlet side, this worked for 6 months, until the pump started cycling again, this time water was dripping from the pump body. Likely the extra pressure on the pump caused by the non return valve was its eventual failure. I replaced the Whale with a Jabasco ParMax3 (and removed the NRV) this is much quieter than the Whale. It does look like 3 years is the normal life time when used a lot. Some say 24v equipment is more durable than 12v.... our pump was 24v!. Ian

Thats the problem with 1500rpm generators, they need more valuable on board space. I am advised that Fischer Panda service intervals for their 3000 rpm generators is 150 hours, Northern Lights 1500 rpms are 250 hrs. I noticed in Victrons generator test that you do not save much fuel when running any generator at lower outputs Ian

Map of UK canal and rivers showing length and width restrictions here Ian Elessina

Interesting, $8,502 plus $1,843 for the sound enlosure at 2005 prices,direct from USA. Rather noisy. with a noise level of 70 to 75 Dba (compared to 54 Dba of the Fischer Panda AC unit). I could not see sound enclosure size, but looks on the large size (compared to Fischer Pandas 520x370x520) Ian

Also look at the price, Fischer Pandas 3.2Kw 12v DC unit sells for around £8,000. Their 3.8Kw AC unit is around £4,000 Ian

I believe it is often double, so 3.6Kw required, just for a couple of seconds. Ian

We purchased two 8v to 30v LED G4 replacements about 5 months ago, and have sine purchased a further 10. We did have some initial problems with the 1st batch, and Ultraleds replaced them. So far no more problems. We had a cool white and a warm white initially, but ordered 10 x cool whites. Cool whites are white, warm are yellow and not quite so bright. We have seen 30v on charge, and had no problems with the them at this voltage. They consume around 1w. Ultalights link here Ian Elessina

Yes, but the only real alternatve is a £5K+ generator. We have tried the £500 petrol generator, and the £2K Electrolux travel power, now looking at a £5K+ generator. Ian

I find being able to see the bow helps, this can be done with a pole at the bow (we have a very light - cheap - flag on it, so indicating the wind direction as well). Try it with a stick, long enough so you can see it from the helm. If it helps (and it does for me) then get a nice flag pole. Ian