blodger

I think the smartguage site very well explains Peukert and that it is beneficial to operate battery banks together and that has been my experience

The collision regs allow for so called 'wrong side' passing with attendant signalling and as a a sailor familiar with the collision regs you will know that. The situation on the canals is similar but more laid back given the restriction freedom of movement. As I used to be at sea as excuse, my horn operates through a relay a couple of extra 'tunnel' lights so that my sound signals, for example two short blasts to signal that I am passing on the port side, are augmented by a visual signal.

So what you want then is:- The wife prefers a mooring where we are port side to so that when the side hatch is open you are looking onto the water rather than gongoozleers or dog muck on the towpath.

True. You are heading the way you are heading so if you stop you moor up on the towpath whether it be port or starboard hand. At locks you use whatever laybye is provided usually on the towpath side. In broad locks you use whatever side seems most expedient, sometimes the wind is a major factor. Its OK to pass the wrong side especially around locks as long as both parties grasp that is what is intended/going on. I doubt road use in terms of being opposite has had any influence nor the nauticalities of the past and steering boards or whatever. I guess each boat has some individualism which makes one side seem better than the other or mean that when at its more permanent moorings one side is favoured. For me it is that the aerial when stowed is more of a nuisance to embarking from one side rather than the other!

I would start with a simple and cheap multimeter so that you can check voltages and do continuity checks. I find a clamp meter useful for checking charging amps though they are indicators rather than accurate measuring devices. You need a hydrometer to maintain lead acid batterries successfully I think.

Do they work on 12v DC though

I think there would be little benefit to plumbing at each tap depending upon the setup but probably Ting into the tap furthest from the the calorifiier will achieve all that can be achieved without too much complication and increasing costs. Personally I do not see it as optimal to have presumably expensive timed switches since you have to take into account last use, ambient temp, calorifier temp, etc. You could end up stirring up the conrents of your calorifier needlessly diminishing the supply of really hot water. I suppose if the time delay is adjustable by experience it could be set to function as optimally as possible for average circumstances maybe altering between winter and summer? That seems a reasonable price

Forgot plus the essential non return valve

Many of us carry around a spare water pump as a result of having experienced problems and having to effect repairs and realising how lost you are without the availability of water. Your innovation is a good way of using the spare to some good but one would have to bypass the pressure switch and use it as 'on demand'. So that it can still be used as a spare it would necessitate shut off valves at each end so it could be quickly taken out of circuit, in addition. What you are doing is returning the pipe load of water to your first hot tap where you put the pump across the loop and back to the calorifier. I would use a relay to operate the pump so that you can make do with simple bell pushes that could be inset posh brass one to actuate the 'bypass' near each hot tap. The benefits, in terms of saving water, depend on the first hot tap being far from the calorifier. It will not be instant hot water if there is a fair bit of piping to the next or subsequent taps. So the cost is a couple of Ts, a couple of check valves, a bit of pipe, bell pushes, a relay and appropriate wiring/conduit. That is if the cost of a duplicate water pump can be ignored. I would not do it for my set up for the reasons on the thread. Your setup/plans will be different so give it a go and let us know if you are satisfied.

I sympathise regarding the failure of your elcosols whether it be inherent vice or you not reading the signs and responding appropriately or both. I am not clear what your 'charging regime' has been that was sufficient for your former batterries so can not conclude that it was faulty but from your postings it sounds that you have found putting back in what you have got out problematic. If you have mains available the majority of the time any batteries are maintainable for a long life with the most basic of chargers. One really needs a decent 4 step charger for boat batts. Without mains (there's lots on other threads, etc) it is a balancing act trying not to discharge the batteries too far before charging them up as high as possible to the unattainable 100% so as to prolong their life. We have to adapt our lifestyles and boats to accomplish the latter as best we can. As an example my boat had been used as a liveaboard for 7 years attached to the mains. On our first holiday cruise the three domestic batterries needed replacing and doing an energy audit did so with 4 110a and also replaced the 55a alternator with a 70a plus stirling regulator. Next the wife wanted a washing machine so to cope with that when the engine was running underway a second alternator and 2nd bank of 3x 100a batts were needed. Since two other triple banks of secondhand batteries have been added. When first in drydock solar panels and a wind charger were added to the ability to help the batterries. I do not often have to run my engine merely to charge the batts. I have recently been helping a liveaboard with an SR2 with a starter problem; he manages quite well with a 36a alt and two truck batteries. He uses candles a lot; Each to their own. I wish you luck in getting some satisfaction either from your ecosols or the firm

I know nothing of auto shut off valves and how they would fare in a boat pressurised system sounds like the sort of knowledge the poster needs

There have been several posts while I was writing mine and up to this and I was beaten to this non 'solution' along the way. I/we are putting ideas forward for rjection or refining to a workable solution. Whilst you are diverting the pump will be delivering back to the calorifier so it will not reach the cold tank. There is a danger then that hot could be supplied to a cold tap opened at the same time as somebody has since pointed out. There is probable as mush plumbing involved as in yours with an extra pump?

Clearly that is not what the topic starter wasasking about originally. He wants to save the water which would otherwise go down the plughole while your waiting for the hot to come through. Depending on positioning of pumps and taps and how you can hide the pipes and harping back to what one poster was saying about using what's there, is it feasible to just have a valve before the hot taps as a diverter routed back to the input side of the pump so that you are sending the "waste" back to the cold tank. Presumably you would get used to how long it took to run off the cold. Cannot see how you could automate it or make it pretty but it would save a pump?

I am often amazed at how much the wife runs taps before using them not realising that what you use has to be replaced. I am not sure she would use such an endeavour to save water. However, if you are circulating through the secondary loop back to the calorifier will you not be cooling it somewhat. Even a large calorifier is often only hot at the top. Let us know if it ends up practicable. Having thought about it some more there is probably only slightly more water being returned to the calorifier than without such a mod.

Thanks for that and others' posts. In retrospect I do not understand why the sterntube was not backed off and re-fitted with some sealant as now advocated and as this forum suggests when in drydock. I was quite clear on where the water was coming in. I guess they were reluctant to believe that a job that they had done was not still effective? I was not aware that there was a stop in the sterntube where a seal could be effected until after the docking. I had assumed that what was needed was more effective PTFing or better of the thread abaft the brass bearing section. I had been prepared to uncouple the shaft etc to facilitate but realised the rudder would have to be removed or hung up out of the way etc The sterntube and indeed prop shaft is quite short and no plumber's block for thrust so the forces on the boss are quite large and must cause wear. I suspect any fix with sealant/ptf would not be permanent and need renewing at each docking if such proved to be the case. It remains to be seen if there is enough space between the stuffing box and prop clamp to unbolt (4bolts) the former from the cross support to unsrew and back out the sterntube. I think there is just enough prop shaft outside the boat. Where the sterntube is threaded into the back of the stuffing box grease emerges at times when you are forcing it. I have considered jubilee clipping packing there to prevent this but presume a proper job would mean that this too should be ptf or otherwise sealed? If the full job I had anticipated now has to be done I am expecting to not have to pay full docking dues but that remains to be seen.

How common is it for the stern tube to leak from where it fits into the boss welded into the end of the swim? After two years of putting up with the leak, particularly bad in deep clear water like the Thames, I have been in dock for the usual blacking and to have the sterntube sorted. I went to the same dock that had fitted a new bearing, prop shaft and prop shortly after I had acquired the boat about six years ago. They welded up around the boss and the swim end weld suspecting weld failure there. Loads of K99 grease was forced through to make sure the bearing end was saturated with grease. On refloating and running the engine the same leak is persisting but slightly less because I am feeding a greaser full through at every opportunity. (Just as I did when it first started). The drydock owner tells me that on a couple of boats recently with a similar problem he has had to back the sterntube out and clean out the threaded boss up to the stop and apply something akin to gasket cement before screwing back up, etc to cure the problem. He proposes to do this for me if more grease does not work which it will not. Anybody had a similar experience? I just want to be able to give the greaser a couple of turns after engine use and not have to be paranoid about the two auto bilge pumps working all the time!

Thanks for that it means when I get round to simplifying the boat wiring the green 'alt is charging' lights (twin 70a alts) can be left out. I might leave in the one that is in effect across the split charge relay nonetheless as, it has not caused the problems you indicate it could and, since it also shows the domestic battery is being charged by the engine alt, at a glance.

I have seen the odd non-working Suffolk punch horizontal shafted type on the cut. My guess is that the alternators fry from not having a battery properly connected at some stage when running. The American literature seems to suggest that you should start the motor, warm it up, then connect the alternator to the batteries to be charged when the motor more able to withstand the sudden load (rev it as well beforehand?). Do not think that will work with most alternators. I doubt its true but I have read that to try and improve alternator output it is worth trying a larger wattage charge light. I do not get this since the light extinguishes once the alt is charging although there is still a a small voltage across the lamp. Does it encourage a greater current through the rotor thus enhancing output? I experimented with this inconclusively before fitting a sterling regulator to the boat. Belt & braces I usually fit a second green 'charging' light from D+ (ind) and alt ground (negative) and have done with the lawn mower generator. The green light comes on when the red one goes off indicating the alternator is charging. The dated 'Alternator Secrets' file does not illuminate on whether the size of the charging lamp makes a difference and whether only at low revs perhaps someone else can advise? I carry a fold-up shopping bike and electric assisted bike on my trad nb to get back to the car. If I had a tug style a dual purpose moped would be more of an option if I could figure a way of getting the moped in the car that is!

If you google lawn mower generator or alternator there are videos and guides, mostly American, to building your own 12v genarator/charger. I wondered how practical these were in reality having noted how inefficient/costly running small generators (850w) to power 250v 'leisure' chargers are. I would have thought they might appeal to not well off liveaboards with air-cooled engines that seem to have quite high fuel consumption without benefit of heating water. I bought a lawn mower of Ebay for 11.01 for the Briggs & Stratton 4 stroke 3.75hp vertical drive engine and coupled it to a 70a alternator salvaged from the local drydock scrap (utilising the belt and pulley on the lawn mower for forward drive) on a bit of chipboard for now. I have used a small battery rescued from the waste facility site (permanently connected for now)and a Halfords 2.00 charge warning light switched as ignition/for exitation of the alternator (connected to D+ ind) after starting the motor. A 2lb scales weight was centre drilled and fitted in place of the blade to make up for loss of 'flywheel' weight. Its as noisy as a lawn mower is but appears to work fine running wires from alternator ground and B+ (switched on through isolator switch when engine running OK) as charge leads to batterybank to be charged. I have only had one test run on two paralleled car batteries in the garden shed so far, 14.3v output. I understand that there would be a chance of stalling the engine were the load too great because the battery bank was too far discharged but a feature of B&S's is that they automatically speed up when loaded. The pulley ratio is more or less 1:1 and the test was at 'tickover' with batteries that are used but maintained above 12.3v. It will be interesting to see how it works on the boat; How many amp hours it will input for the litre of petrol, 1.00. That's if I can get it past the wife! What got me interested was using my boat/inverter/charger and generator/chargers charging batteries for a liveaboard whose mains generator got stolen and whose SR2 starter motor was knackered.