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When do you run your engine?


dor

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Moored up for the last couple of nights on a 48hr mooring, one boat in front of me, one behind.  OK so we all need to run our engines for a bit to recharge batteries, and I would normally run mine for an hour or two in the afternoon.  Both these other boats started their engines just after eight am and ran them for at least a couple of hours, followed by another couple of hours between six pm and eight pm.

 

Putting aside the issue of needing to run your engine for four hours or more, if you are going to stay on a visitor mooring, isn't it a bit more reasonable to pick a time during the day, when it is likely to be less of an irritation to your neighbours?

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1 minute ago, dor said:

Moored up for the last couple of nights on a 48hr mooring, one boat in front of me, one behind.  OK so we all need to run our engines for a bit to recharge batteries, and I would normally run mine for an hour or two in the afternoon.  Both these other boats started their engines just after eight am and ran them for at least a couple of hours, followed by another couple of hours between six pm and eight pm.

 

Putting aside the issue of needing to run your engine for four hours or more, if you are going to stay on a visitor mooring, isn't it a bit more reasonable to pick a time during the day, when it is likely to be less of an irritation to your neighbours?

If I needed, I would do the same.

Why is it an irritation ?

Between 8 and 10 am you would expect folks to be up, having breakfast etc etc etc, between 6pm and 8pm you would expect them to be having evening meal so where is the inconvenience / unreasonableness ?

 

I'd be more concerned running it in the afternoon and disturbing their afternoon siesta.

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1 minute ago, Alan de Enfield said:

If I needed, I would do the same.

Why is it an irritation ?

Between 8 and 10 am you would expect folks to be up, having breakfast etc etc etc, between 6pm and 8pm you would expect them to be having evening meal so where is the inconvenience / unreasonableness ? 

 

I'd be more concerned running it in the afternoon and disturbing their afternoon siesta.

Not so bothered about the morning, but tend to like to relax a bit by six pm.  I think a lot of people would find a noisy engine running just in front of their bow to be an irritation at that time.

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Just now, dor said:

Not so bothered about the morning, but tend to like to relax a bit by six pm.  I think a lot of people would find a noisy engine running just in front of their bow to be an irritation at that time.

I'd find it more of an irritation during the day when I was sitting outside communing with nature.

Its dark by 6pm so we'd be inside watching 'the news' and preparing 'tea'.

 

We are all different.

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I thought I was in for a nice quiet evening a few years ago. I'd come down the Regents, Hertford Union and onto the Lea, sharing locks with another boat for most of the way which was running just ahead of me. My intention was to pull up and overnight at Springfield, and so did the other boat. I moored up behind it thinking its been running for a good few hours so is unlikely to start its engine up again.  I'd just sat down with a cup of tea with the front doors open, marvelling at the scenery and bird song, when the rear hatch on that boat was slighly opened by a few inches, enough for a stealthy mit to emerge from it, twist around, grasp the start key and start the wretched thing up. That was that, spoilt peacful evening, shut my doors to keep the exhaust smoke out and reduce the noise a bit. The bloke was a bit of a Capt  Goon anyway, he kept trying to race me all the time and everytime he opened up to do so he fouled his prop with plastic carrier bags, this happened about three times. I tried telling him that the more welly he gave it the wider and deeper the props catchment area becomes, but I don't think he understood. I moreorless kept pace with him on just a fastish tickover, caught up and passed him every time he fouled his prop. I should have known better not to park behind him. His Mrs was very nice though and was obviousely just a lowly Co pilot to Capt Goon and was doing all the locks for him, as is very common.

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45 minutes ago, David Mack said:

This on a 48 hour mooring, so presumably the boats concerned had been running their engines to move beforehand and would be doing so again soon. So why need to run the engine at all, let alone for a total of 4 hours?

I would have said because the time that you need to run your engine is proportional to the amount of power you've taken out of your batteries. If I don't run my engine for a short period today, I will have to run it for twice as long tomorrow and three times as long if I don't run it for 3 days. Whilst I'd accept that it is unnecessary to run the engine again on a day when you've travelled (assuming that you've travelled a reasonable distance) but I will always run the engine for a period each day rather than leave it for a few days and have to run it for a whole lot longer.

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1 hour ago, Wanderer Vagabond said:

I would have said because the time that you need to run your engine is proportional to the amount of power you've taken out of your batteries. If I don't run my engine for a short period today, I will have to run it for twice as long tomorrow and three times as long if I don't run it for 3 days. Whilst I'd accept that it is unnecessary to run the engine again on a day when you've travelled (assuming that you've travelled a reasonable distance) but I will always run the engine for a period each day rather than leave it for a few days and have to run it for a whole lot longer.

If you are using the strict mathematical definition of proportionality then what you say isn't true. 

 

Let's say your batteries on one occasion are discharged from 100% to 80%. In this case you might well need 2, 3 or more hours to bring them back up to 100%.

 

On another occasion you discharge them from 70% to 50%.  On this case you could find that you get back to 70% in far less time.  It's about the tail current.

 

N

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1 minute ago, Theo said:

If you are using the strict mathematical definition of proportionality then what you say isn't true. 

 

Let's say your batteries on one occasion are discharged from 100% to 80%. In this case you might well need 2, 3 or more hours to bring them back up to 100%.

 

On another occasion you discharge them from 70% to 50%.  On this case you could find that you get back to 70% in far less time.  It's about the tail current.

 

N

I have to say that I have no interest at all in tail current, isn't that what the dog gets when he pokes his tail in a wall socket?:huh:

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2 hours ago, David Mack said:

This on a 48 hour mooring, so presumably the boats concerned had been running their engines to move beforehand and would be doing so again soon. So why need to run the engine at all, let alone for a total of 4 hours?

4 hours is around what we need to run the engine on a non moving day.  It is hard to pick the best time,  but I would not normally start it until 10am, and just let it go until the batteries are “fully charged”.

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Depends on how much solar we get, this morning the engine went on for an hour at 8.15am, (it was hissing down so everyone was inside anyway), we've just kicked up the engine (5pm) it'll probably be on for an hour. Think we manage 58v of solar on this rainy day.

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3 hours ago, rawsondsr said:

Small battery bank, high electricity usage, knackered batterys, hot water, just a few reasons i can think of

Yeah, all of that plus the fact that peoples expectations of boating now include everything that you would find in a house.  (The following has an Old Git Alert) - When I was first on a boat we had Tilly lamps, a black and white tv and a heating system that worked without electric pumps. We had to lug a damn great 12 v battery up the towpath and charge it off the car engine as the boat dynamo put out about 2 amps, Were we happy? No- my wife left (but another one with lower standards moved in) Ah the good old days.

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If not moving we tend to run ours for a couple of hours in the morning whilst we have breakfast and long enough for mrs-m to use her hair dryer whilst the engine is still running.  If we have been in during the day using electricity for charging phones, TV, radio etc then may choose to run for another hour or two in the evening which would depend on what time we are on the boat, whether we are going to the pub and whether we are cruising the next day.

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5 minutes ago, Jennifer McM said:

OK... so the app says:

 

Yield - 140Wh

P max -51W

V max - 58.01V

 

Comprende?

So in whatever time period that has been monitoring your solar has generated 140Wh.

Divide that by the battery voltage (lets call it 14v to make the maths easy) and you have generated 10Ah

 

That would power a 1kw immersion heater for about 6 minutes, or a 2kw kettle for 3 minutes (via the inverter)

Not really worth having is it ?

 

The 'spot' maximum was 51w and the spot (panel - not battery) voltage was 58.01v

Edited by Alan de Enfield
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7 minutes ago, Bee said:

Yeah, all of that plus the fact that peoples expectations of boating now include everything that you would find in a house.  

Of course they/we do, (except for some old hits :) ).

 

When my parents first got a house they had a black and white TV, coal fire, no internet, a wind up vinyl record player, and so on. That’s no reason to be satisfied with the same level of technology today, either in a house or a boat.

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1 minute ago, Richard10002 said:

Of course they/we do, (except for some old hits :) ).

 

When my parents first got a house they had a black and white TV, coal fire, no internet, a wind up vinyl record player, and so on. That’s no reason to be satisfied with the same level of technology today, either in a house or a boat.

But lead acid  batteries are still much the same which is why we have to run engines so much.

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