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New boat questions. Plumbing.

Jason Pay

By Jason Pay
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Jason Pay Explorer

Jason Pay

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Hello All, 
Liveaboard and permanently moored. 

New owners of a Hancock and Lane 45x10 barge, my partner and I exchange on Wednesday and we are really excited to get stuck in. Following lots of research and reading and looking and thinking we are beginning to seek some sort of reassurance on our ideas or final decisions. And I just found this forum which looks like it might be able to help. Apologies if i ask something which has already been done before. But here goes... 

 

Regarding Plumbing and Hot water;

We will be moored on a 'residential' mooring on an unregulated river. So we have access to electric and water from the shore at all times.

With this in mind we are considering our best options for our bathroom. We are starting from the beginning and we are trying to work out the best way to heat the water for our shower and bath.

The options we have explored are to have a Redring instant hot water (http://www.screwfix.com/p/redring-powerstream-eco-bat…/89511) which fits in the bathroom and heats the water for the shower and bathroom sink. With an electric immersion tank (already fitted along with accumulator, and pump) to heat enough hot water for the bath which is only used for this purpose.

Two isolated systems - one for the shower and sink and one for the bath.

Does anyone have any useful information regarding this and if these are sensible options.

We are aware of the option to fit a boiler which would also allow us to fit radiators - we think we would like thie eventually, is this something we could add into the system later on in our first year?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Edited by Jason Pay
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rusty69 Veteran II

rusty69

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The one in your link suggests it is directly fed from the mains water supply. Is this an option you will have on your mooring as it is more usual to fill the boat tank and then feed the rest of the boat from the tank via a pump.

 

I think, if it was me,I would try and utilise the exisitng calorifier for all the hot water (unless I have mis-understood)

Edited by rusty69
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Jason Pay Explorer

Jason Pay

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1 minute ago, rusty69 said:

The one in your link suggests it is directly fed from the mains water supply. Is this an option you will have on your mooring as it is more usual to fill the boat tank and then feed the rest of the boat from the tank via a pump.

We have a constant supply of water from a tap on shore, therefore, it is an option. But also as the minimum operating pressure is 1 bar I believe our Jabsco pump will be able to produce this and allow the Redring to work? - I may be wrong.

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rusty69 Veteran II

rusty69

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3 minutes ago, Jason Pay said:

We have a constant supply of water from a tap on shore, therefore, it is an option. But also as the minimum operating pressure is 1 bar I believe our Jabsco pump will be able to produce this and allow the Redring to work? - I may be wrong.

Ah, ok, hopefully one of the forum plumbing gurus will be along shortly.

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Jason Pay Explorer

Jason Pay

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4 minutes ago, mross said:

You won't be able to draw 9.5kW from your shore supply!  Most shore supplies are 16A.  If you are lucky it might be 32A but that will give you 7.6kW with no other loads present.

Okay thank you, so therefore a red ring is unuseful. 

Would you say a Morco LPG boiler would be better to supply hot water on demand. 

 

 

8 minutes ago, mross said:

You could use an immersion heater.  Most boats will use diesel or gas.  It's good to have two ways in case one fails.  A back boiler on a solid-fuel stove is also very good in winter.  how do you plan to heat the boat?

We have a solid fuel stove (without back boiler) which does a pretty good job of keeping the boat warm. We thought about rad's from a boiler (to be fitted at a later date). 

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rusty69 Veteran II

rusty69

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34 minutes ago, Jason Pay said:

Okay thank you, so therefore a red ring is unuseful. 

Would you say a Morco LPG boiler would be better to supply hot water on demand. 

 

 

We have a solid fuel stove (without back boiler) which does a pretty good job of keeping the boat warm. We thought about rad's from a boiler (to be fitted at a later date). 

In my opinion,yes,if you already have gas on board. We have an old Paloma,which has been faultless for the last 18 yrs and is used in preference to the immersion/calorifier.

 

We have a bath fitted,but prefer to shower as it uses less water,and the bath seems to take forever to fill.

Edited by rusty69
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ditchcrawler Veteran II

ditchcrawlerDonate to Canal World

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Mross is spot on, you cant run that heater its too big. Have one hotwater system with a 1KW immersion heater in it. It wount heat very fast but you will have a tank full of hot water to use.

Why do you need instant hot water?

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Jason Pay Explorer

Jason Pay

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1 minute ago, ditchcrawler said:

Mross is spot on, you cant run that heater its too big. Have one hotwater system with a 1KW immersion heater in it. It wount heat very fast but you will have a tank full of hot water to use.

Can you recommend a heater please? 

For reference... thank you

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mross Influencer

mross

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Perhaps you can add some info to the original post?  Will you cruise a lot?  Are you living on board?  This affects the advice you will get.  I have a gas boiler that heats the calorifier and/or the radiators so we generally have enough water for three hot showers in the morning.

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Jason Pay Explorer

Jason Pay

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Just now, mross said:

Perhaps you can add some info to the original post?  Will you cruise a lot?  Are you living on board?  This affects the advice you will get.  I have a gas boiler that heats the calorifier and/or the radiators so we generally have enough water for three hot showers in the morning.

Sorry, I presumed I had. 
We will be moored all of the time. We will be living on board. 

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Jason Pay Explorer

Jason Pay

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2 minutes ago, mross said:

Do you fill a water storage tank?  Or is the hose permanently attached?  This is a bit odd, because you would have no water if the mooring's pipes froze.  

We don't do either currently, but would have tanks and would be able to feed directly. As I said these are questions we want clarification on. 

Sorry if they're obviously odd or wrong, appreciate your help.

I understand your concept of the pipes freezing... which would be a concern in the winter, but I thought that this could be something which is addressed in the winter, we have another boat and the pipes from the yard have never frozen just the pipes running from the tap which can be replaced with another pipe if necessary therefore the option to fill up or have a 'water supply' is always possible. 

With the right stop cocks and taps I thought life would be easier is to have a constant feed of mains water to the boat?

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rusty69 Veteran II

rusty69

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2 minutes ago, Jason Pay said:

We don't do either currently, but would have tanks and would be able to feed directly. As I said these are questions we want clarification on. 

Sorry if they're obviously odd or wrong, appreciate your help.

I understand your concept of the pipes freezing... which would be a concern in the winter, but I thought that this could be something which is addressed in the winter, we have another boat and the pipes from the yard have never frozen just the pipes running from the tap which can be replaced with another pipe if necessary therefore the option to fill up or have a 'water supply' is always possible. 

With the right stop cocks and taps I thought life would be easier is to have a constant feed of mains water to the boat?

Until it leaks!

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Jason Pay Explorer

Jason Pay

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4 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

Until it leaks!

 

Just now, Tony Brooks said:

 

Inside the boat and while you are away at work!!!!!

I understand this point... 
Thats why I would install the tap by the door and gangplank to the boat which can be turned upon leaving and arriving, but understand the concept of forgetting. 

4 minutes ago, mross said:

I would think it wise to have some water storage on board.  A direct, mains feed could be a bonus if the hose was more than a garden hose (1/2") since the flow rate would be quite low unlees the pressure is more than one bar.

Water storage is already installed in form of two tanks in the engine bay, and perhaps it is easier to keep refilling these... And perhaps my line from the shore 'feed' would be into these tanks and turned on when I needed to fill them up. 

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rusty69 Veteran II

rusty69

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Just now, Jason Pay said:

 

I understand this point... 
Thats why I would install the tap by the door and gangplank to the boat which can be turned upon leaving and arriving, but understand the concept of forgetting. 

Well,as long as you understand the risks,I can't see why it couldn't be done.

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Alan de Enfield Veteran II

Alan de Enfield

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I believe that a similar question (re permanent connection of hoses) has been asked in the past, I am fairly sure that there is legal constraints / problems with doing so and all sorts of anti-back-flow valves etc  have to be put in the 'line'.

I am sure a plumber will be along shortly with chapter and verse.

 

Found some info :

Do you leave your hosepipe permanently connected to your boat? If so it is recommended you remove it immediately or risk prosecution. This is because under Water Supply Regulations it is an offence to use a hosepipe for a permanent supply; this is a criminal not civil offence. The only supply allowed is one ‘hard wired’ by the Water Authority.

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