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Second day living onboard my narrowboat... A little lost!


nashworth

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On 06/06/2019 at 23:39, johnmck said:

Just remember nashworth, you are not alone!

Near on Nine years down the line of boat ownership, electrickery on boats still confuses the hell out of me. 

We have a Smartguage. It does help as it gives a general idea of state of charge in an easily readable format for a numpty like me.

Just remember, what you take out, you have to replace. It takes longer to put it back in!

Only use 240v appliances when on shoreline, or depending on your set up, when the engine and or travelpower is on.

I freak out if we go below 70% state of charge. This is somewhat anal, but our battery bank is now into it's ninth year.

I would say, four hours charge a day, is the well balanced way. Others will disagree.

Thirty years down the line I wholeheartedly disagree with this. My boat is all mains equipment barring lights and pumps. My combi is on 24/7 365 as are both my fridge and seperate freezer. All ably supplied with no problems from 4 x 110 amp hour bog standard batteries. Modern mains stuff is moocho better than it was only ten years ago. Heavy duty stuff like washing machine is done by travel power but day to day running of everything else is via the combi. When not on hook up the major thing is to ensure enough charging and yes about four hours a day on my boat would suffice.

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41 minutes ago, blackrose said:

 

Most 12v fridges are frugal in terms of how much power they draw at any point in time. It's the fact that they're switched on for long periods of time that makes them power hungry. That's why I opted for a gas fridge too.

 

http://www.smartgauge.co.uk/tiny_loads.html

But why when solar is cheap, and compressor fridges ten times better than plate fridges?

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3 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

Thirty years down the line I wholeheartedly disagree with this. My boat is all mains equipment barring lights and pumps. My combi is on 24/7 365 as are both my fridge and seperate freezer. All ably supplied with no problems from 4 x 110 amp hour bog standard batteries. Modern mains stuff is moocho better than it was only ten years ago. Heavy duty stuff like washing machine is done by travel power but day to day running of everything else is via the combi. When not on hook up the major thing is to ensure enough charging and yes about four hours a day on my boat would suffice.

I must admit to being more than a tad cautious with our battery bank. We have a 12v fridge and freezer and are all led as far as lighting. But electric kettles and Alis hair dryer, or the washing machine, are not run unless the travelpower is on.

We are on our ninth year with our bank of agm's. 

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1 minute ago, johnmck said:

I must admit to being more than a tad cautious with our battery bank. We have a 12v fridge and freezer and are all led as far as lighting. But electric kettles and Alis hair dryer, or the washing machine, are not run unless the travelpower is on.

We are on our ninth year with our bank of agm's. 

I think u have hit the nail on the head. When cruising such as leccy kettle is firmly in cupboard,  and I traded a needy hairdryer type wife in for a more robust model years ago, she doesnt use a hair dryer. Modern good quality inverters combined with modern mains equipment is easily maintained by 4 110 ah batteries, been doing it for years.

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3 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

I think u have hit the nail on the head. When cruising such as leccy kettle is firmly in cupboard,  and I traded a needy hairdryer type wife in for a more robust model years ago, she doesnt use a hair dryer. Modern good quality inverters combined with modern mains equipment is easily maintained by 4 110 ah batteries, been doing it for years.

Yep agree. But if you are new to the boating life, a little caution in your use of electrical items, is no bad thing. Got to learn to walk before you can run and all that. ?

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  • 2 weeks later...
4 minutes ago, NewCanalBoy said:

What are people referring to when they say 'travelpower ?

A cunning and rather expensive device that makes loads of good 240 volt leccy whilst the engine is running, essentially a standard alternator body rewound to produce a couple of hundred volts plus a dedicated inverter type box of doings. The higher voltage makes everything so much more efficient so getting a couple of kWatt is no problem.

Works best with bigger engines. Great for standard washing machines and big power tools.

 

Actually I think its 3.5kWatt and the older ones are probably 220 volt for historic reasons.

 

.............Dave

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Oh I see. So instead of an invertor sapping battery power to make more power, your kind of getting it straight from the engine when it is running.

 

At of interest, what is the price of one ? (I have no washing machine/dryer and I crop my own hair to a number 2/3 in summer so no hair dryer needed !)

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15 hours ago, Tumshie said:

I think it's creating power from your engine <<

 

 

52 minutes ago, NewCanalBoy said:

 an invertor sapping battery power to make more power, your kind of getting it straight from the engine when it is running.

 

 

I must interject - neither an alternator or an inverter creates power, Both devices convert chemical energy to electrical energy, with the associated losses.

 

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4 hours ago, NewCanalBoy said:

Oh I see. So instead of an invertor sapping battery power to make more power, your kind of getting it straight from the engine when it is running.

 

At of interest, what is the price of one ? (I have no washing machine/dryer and I crop my own hair to a number 2/3 in summer so no hair dryer needed !)

When I was speccing our new boat Beta Marine wanted about £3500 for one to be fitted to our new Beta 43 engine.

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5 hours ago, NewCanalBoy said:

Oh I see. So instead of an invertor sapping battery power to make more power, your kind of getting it straight from the engine when it is running.

 

At of interest, what is the price of one ? (I have no washing machine/dryer and I crop my own hair to a number 2/3 in summer so no hair dryer needed !)

Less flexible than a standard inverter setup, but well suited to high power appliances. By your own statement you don't need one.

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