New electrics needed

[isatis]

I am accepting that my electric system is not good New batteries needed by next winter no fridge not enoughlight to read by and an educated trust worthy person looked in the engine and exclaim ed that the engine was nice but the electrics looked amateur. We intend to install solar . What do folk consider essential electric wise

[Neil Smith]

To answer your question will need more info,ie will you be living on it, will you have shore power, has it got an inverter if so how big.

 

Neil

[Tony Brooks]

Not too sure what the question is asking but for goodness sake make sure the cables are specified to minimise voltdrop rather than believe what the cable drum/catalogue says about its current capacity.

 

Apart from that, being a bit of a Luddite who puts reliability and ongoing costs above convince, keep the demands low (so no mains stuff unless on shorepower) and the charging regime more than adequate. 12V charger for phones & laptops etc with a small PSW inverter for those things do not have 12V charging. Car radio rather than domestic job etc.

[Nickhlx]

I would say understanding of how components work, especially the battery, and then time / resources to look after it as it needs.. A power audit is always a good thing so you don't over / under spec electrical items ( battery bank size / cabling / alternators / inverter etc ) after you have decided what you want / need / have space/budget for. Use gas or solid/liquid fuel where possible for heating / cooking, and minimise electrical loads .... I like solar as that definitely helps keep the battery bank in better condition if compromised on power ( cruising time / shoreline)

 

Nick

[Nightwatch]

Pity you are in North Wales. If you were in the Calcutt area I would have absolutely no hesitation to recommend Dave Reynolds ably assisted by Alex. Although they do travel obviously. Both knowledgable and nice people with it.

 

I am a very satisfied customer with a good electrical system that is set up for future solar as well.

 

Martyn

[bottle]

I am accepting that my electric system is not good New batteries needed by next winter no fridge not enoughlight to read by and an educated trust worthy person looked in the engine and exclaim ed that the engine was nice but the electrics looked amateur. We intend to install solar . What do folk consider essential electric wise

 

7 kw generator, full size fridge, full size freezer, full size oven, full size hob, 2kw fan heater, big Tv (42") satellite receiver, HiFi/DVD player.

 

That covers the 240v ac.

 

All lighting is LED's (24v) to save power,

 

No shoreline.

 

A bit tongue in cheek but as you can see there is a lot of difference to that and what yo may decide is essential.

 

Take your time and work out what you want and then work how best to supply that.

[smileypete]

Typical setup for off grid narrowboat liveaboard would be between 200 to 400W of solar plus a decent MPPT controller (Bimble Solar are a good supplier), some sort of batt(ery) monitoring, and engine or genny (generator) for batt charging when solar is poor.

 

cheers, Pete

~smpt~

[trackman]

Supporting smileypete with a bit more detail, we have 200W solar with a Tracer controller, and the engine alternator for 12V. For 240V we have a Travelpower 3.5kVA engine driven generator and an inverter.

We have 420Ah of domestic batteries and a 90Ah starter battery. We use a Smartgauge/Smartbank driving a relay to split the alternator current between the two sets of batteries. This also tells us the state of charge of the domestic bank and the voltages of both banks.

Our biggest 12V power usage is the fridge. We do also charge various mobiles and a tablet computer. These all use 12V USB type chargers, not mains ones that would need the inverter if the Travelpower isn't live. In fact the isolator for our inverter is normally turned off.