Electric - Part 2... Galvanic Isolation

Sorry about yesterday... it had been a long, tiring and stressful driving day - dumped on me at short notice.  It did nothing to ease my back which is really bad at the moment but such is life.

SO then... GALVANIC ISOLATION.

Lots of people pretend there is no need for a galvanic isolator on their boat - citing they will never use shore power.

We may well be the same but future proofing is something we're keen to do.  After our first winter on the cut, we may well decide to take a winter mooring in a marina and hunker down during the worst of it... taking advantage of shore power to make life that bit easier.

With that in mind, we're going to fit a galvanic isolator to the boat.    They come in various shapes and forms:

WHAT DOES IT DO? (I hear you ask)...

The short answer is that it protects your sacrificial anodes and hull from corrosion caused by stray electric currents.

The longer answer however is that when you plug into mains shore power, the cable you use has 3 internal cables: A live, a neutral & an earth wire. The earth wire goes to the shore power bollard where it is physically connected to the ground.   Neighbouring boats also use the same earth connection. This effectively connects all the boats together via the earth cables in the shore power leads.

In your boat the shore power earth lead goes to your electrical consumer unit & then to all metal components such as the engine block, fuel tanks, shafts/ propellers etc & then finally connects to your anodes. Unfortunately as all the boats are now interconnected via the earth cables any voltage leaks or "galvanically" generated voltages have an easy path between the boats. This often results in rapid loss of sacrificial anodes & increased corrosion of all underwater metals. If the boat next to you does not have anodes he won't worry: He is using yours!

To control this problem we need to install a galvanic isolator in the earth wire as it comes to our boat. The isolator is an electronic switch which is "Turned off "... This stops any low level damaging voltages from entering our vessel & protects our anodes, underwater metals AND  in the case of an electrical short circuit on board, the isolator immediately "turns on" connecting us to earth for safety.

IT's another expense that we could avoid or delay, but I'm happier getting things "right" from the start.

I've run out of time again  - part 3 to follow.

Until next time...

13.5 hours driving today....

Wakefield... to Boston... to Margate... and back to Wakefield ... in a long wheel base van with queues of traffic everywhere - ergo, "Electric part 2" will have to wait until tomorrow night  as I've an appointment with the hot-tub and a can of beer!

Electric - Part 1...230VAC

Mains Power...

When we were kids, we were told that electric power from the mains was 240VAC  This used to be the case.  The rest of western Europe was 220VAC.   As you might guess,  in a bid to conform, we now have what is known as 230VAC – which is a bit of a misnomer … 230VAC doesn’t actually exist anywhere unless you create it...it's a "blend" to cover the range so to speak.

I can vouch that the power coming into our house from the grid was recorded recently by the chap who did our solar panel survey – (http://www.medoriasolar.co.uk) as 251VAC.

Incidentally, we ended up with a 4KW system that we’re very happy with.  The installer is a small “Christian” company and whilst I don’t have any strong opinions on that either way, he DID do exactly what he said he would, when he said he’d do it and didn't make any silly claims… unlike the rest of the folk who came to quote… oh and despite the electrician falling out of the loft and cutting himself badly, everything was up and running the same day... he even cleaned up the lost blood and finished the job, before taking himself off to A & E .... I'd have taken him of course but as it happened, I had to leave them a key to get on with it as I was working down in Margate at the time…

Sorry – back to the point…  ON the boat, in addition to the 12VDC, we’re also going to need “mains -230VAC” power to run the Washing machine, microwave, *dishwasher  and whatever else we think we can’t live without. 

*still in the consultation phase ;-)

As we’re NOT going to be moored in one place for long, relying on Shore power full time isn't an option… or rather isn't the ONLY option  SO we’re going to install a large pure-sinewave inverter as well as have a shoreline connection.

Shore power btw,  is simply a way of getting power from the mainland to the boat via a cable which connects to the boat's "ring main"...  It uses the same kind of 3 pin weatherproof connectors that are used in caravans etc:

IT's an easy way of providing power to a "static" boat.  Quite often you see boats moored up (especially residential ones) and plugged in to the mains... it's an easy way of living and means you don't need to run your engine to charge your batteries or heat water - assuming you've a 1kw immersion heater in your calaroifier).

Inverters are boxes that convert 12vdc electric power into 230vac electric power

I won't reinvent the wheel here by explaining it fully but if you do want to know "how" it's done, it's explained fully here:

http://www.explainthatstuff.com/how-inverters-work.html

They come in 2 guises: Quasi /modified sine wave and Pure sine wave.  

In simplistic terms, quasi electric is a bit rough... with 'square' waves rather than nice curvy ones...

Lots of devices will happily run using electric produced with a modified sine wave - however digital devices... especially modern washing machines and microwaves quite often wont.  You've also got to bear in mind the continuous and surge ratings...   

We thought about buying a Quasi Sine wave inverter but have decided to spend twice the amount (again) and go straight for the biggest Pure Sine wave we can afford - working on the principle it would be just our luck the washer wouldn't work and we'd end up having to waste money buying a pure sine one anyway...

Introducing the planned inverter/charger (more about that later)

It can provide 3kw of power continuously and 6kw for a short period...  It's expensive but should be enough for us.  

You can get cheap ones from ebay and they might do the job - however they might also be rubbish quality and set the boat on fire ... it's not worth the risk so despite the fact it hurts to spend so much money, that takes an awful lot of earning, we're consoling ourself with the the old saying "buy cheap, buy twice".

Remind me once we get the boat on the water to upload my planned "ring main" drawings...  for such a small space, we do seem to have allowed for lots of power outlets -  that's as a result of never feeling there were enough on hire boats so making a conscious decision to make ours the way WE want it... it'll add to the cost a little but in the scheme of things (given we can't afford MOST of it anyway) that's how it's going to roll lol.

Until next time...

Waterways guides & our first Windlass...

Yesterday was a big day for us.

Our first Windlass arrived thanks to Ebay (other auction sites are available - apparently)...

Isn't she beautiful?  - Those of you with good eyesight may notice the plastic revolving handly bit is scratched to buggery.  That's not down to poor post and packaging no... it's due to the fact she's second hand - I'm afraid the Yorkshire man in me (usually quite well suppressed) came out and I refused to spend twice the money on a new one!  On this occasion however, it wasn't totally fiscally related... for whatever reason, I actually find it exiting to think of the journeys it's already been on... the balmy summer days going through the Greenberfield Locks on the Leeds & Liverpool... or a misty autumn morning heading down into Braunston.

Of course she COULD have been yogged at a spouse in anger, knocking some poor buggar into the canal killing them! - er, perhaps we'll stick with the more romantic possibilities for now ;-)


Yesterday ALSO marked the final acquisition of Nicholson's Waterways Guides too:

We'd been waiting for the re-print/updated Book 1 which covers the Grand Union, Oxford and the South East - or to be frank... LONDON.   For months, new copies just werent available...  you could buy a 2nd one on Ebay for silly money - I spotted one being advertised with a buy- it-now price of £100... Only a daft desperate Londoner would pay that amount... I suppose it was a case of supply and demand governing the price.  AS we were simply completing our collection, we were happy to wait for WHSmiths to send it when it came available... 

You'll note the price on the rear.  Yep -  they are a bit steep...  which got me thinking about prices in the past.  Looking through our collection of Canal paraphernalia (read books - get it?)... there are few older ones kicking about.  

  and an earlier one still: 

Andy's dad actually gave us a load of books/leafleets hes collected over the years...  I'm slowly working my way through them.

George (the cat) didn't come with them - he's just having one of his Sunday morning "I'll sit where I like cause it's my house" moments...

History didn't used to interest me if I'm honest... I suppose, the older you get, and thus become PART of it, a new found respect is inevitable !

Until next time...

Waterway Recovery Group...

Right then... GIVEN we've been saving every penny we can for the last 6 years... AND now have to cobble together an awful lot of money later in the year to pay for the boat, I was thinking...  HOW can we have a cheap holiday or 2 this year?

In the "old days" we'd book a cruise on a massive ocean liner and pretend to be rich for a couple of weeks.  More recently, we've hired a narrowboat from various places and "played" at being boaters.

Even that is expensive when things are so tight - AND with my employment teetering on the edge of tolerance, we decided to think outside the box...

What we came up with was/is a Canal Camp.   I sent off for some information from the Waterway Recovery Group and today it arrived.

NOW - given I've got a bad back   (I have a prolapsed disc that's been operated on once but needs doing again) the plan is to ignore my weaknesses, TAKE the gabapentin & Oxycodone and just get on with it.,,  that was until I read more about it.

The idea is quite good.  You browse the brochure... pick a working group that tickles your fancy and then express an interest.  Next is paying the fee £63... and for this you get food, accommodation and even transport... along with some safety gear (although you DO have to provide your own steel toe-capped fotwear) - all in exchange for your free labour.

We were quite up for doing one until we spotted the accommodation provided:

  "Most accommodation  is in village halls, sports clubs or similar.  Although it doesn't usually include beds, you can expect electricity, toilets and dry, draught-free sleeping areas!  Access to a hot shower will be provided at the end of each working day."

Andy doesn't seem too keen now and to be frank, neither do I if I'm honest lol.

WE do agree however, that had we been younger and known about them, we might have joined in - I bet there's a lot of fun to be had.

What we might do, is wait a while - until we're living on the boat full time and then try and find one where we can join in but retire to our boat of an evening instead of crashing on a floor!  IT's one thing to be 'down with the kids' but quite another to be on the floor with them!

It's not for us.

IF you do know a young person (they tend to be the ones shuffling a long, glued to their phones on Tinder *Other dating apps are available*, please show them this link and suggest it might be a laugh.

https://www.waterways.org.uk/wrg/canal_camps/canal_camp_dates

... we'll send them the £63 anyway which will hopefully be more use than 2 middle-aged puffs would be!

Oh to be young again!

Until next time...

Chantry Chapel of St Mary (Bridge Chapel)

I've lived in Wakefield knocking on 14 years now...  Andy came to join me about 10 years ago.  It's a nice enough West Yorkshire City - actually, that's a disservice....  it IS a nice City.  Like anywhere, it's got its good and bad parts - the people however are generally down to earth, WYSIWYG types... and I like them.

One of the first things "a stranger" will notice about West/South Yorkshire folk is that the older blokes call EVERYONE: "love"..at first, being a bloke called "love" by another bloke seems strange but you soon stop noticing it.

It's a nice thing.  There's something warming about an old bloke calling you love - it's impossible to be offended by it.

Anyway-  walking back from the open day at Fall Ings lock on Sunday, we took the old bridge over the river Calder - passing the Chapel on it.

Even though we've lived here ages, it's the first time we've ever stopped and looked at it.  When you get closer, you can  see the faces carved in stone... I never knew they were there -even though  I drive to work each morning passing it on the new bridge.

#

I don't recognise any of them - do you?

It must have been quite scary here on Boxing day evening when the river reached it's highest ever recorded level -  you can see by the rubbish in the trees how high it got:

Having taken our first "proper" look at it, it seemed appropriate to google it - you can read about it here if you'd like to: http://www.chantrychapelwakefield.org  There is also a video if you have 18 minutes spare.

Speaking (well writing) about boxing day floods, we were reminded how close the new bridge came to disaster when we crossed the road towards the Hepworth...  It was closed for a while due to a hydro electric generating unit balancing on the weir which was washed away.  

I took a couple of photos of it  but they're not very good - basically, it's STILL balancing on the weir with a big rope half securing it...  it'll be a pain to recover.

It's a pity it didn't some how smash into and demolish the ugly Hepworth building...  Sorry if that offends anyone but it STILL remains an eyesore in my opinion... I know it attracts visitors from far and wide to the town (which is a good thing) but for "most" of us locals, it's just an ugly building.

We took Andy's  youngest nephew there a while back and whilst they all do a sterling job, encouraging children to be creative...  the best part for me, was having a glass of wine in the little cafe place... it took the "edge" off the cultural aspect ;-) 

This un-intentional installation is a highlight for me though - it's called "yellow transit van parked up"...  genius 

ONE good thing that has come out of it though, is the building of the new bridge behind it.  It looks over the wharf and is a great viewpoint.  I LOVE the diversity of craft on the waters.  Take a closer look at the ones out of the water - MY kind of "chock  work"...

Incidentally, this is the place we're thinking about asking to crane our boat back onto the water... if we do decide to bring it home on a lorry.  That decision is a while off yet and there are plenty of other things to think/worry about before then.

Until next time...

Fall Ings Lock - Open day... Calder and Hebble

I'm not sure HOW , but we appeared to have today (Sunday 6th March) noted down as an open day at Fall Ing's lock here in Wakefield... It's also (here in the UK) Mothering Sunday btw - in case by some chance you'd been able to overlook it... I mean, it's not like it's EVERYWHERE you look in Supermarkets, petrol stations, tv adverts is it?

SO - first thing this morning, we donned our walking gear and headed off along the tow-path through town to take a look.

The tow-path through Wakefield is a bit hit and miss if we're honest...  you have to work it out by trial and error in places.  Not to worry - we know the town well enough so it isn't a problem for us.

Fall Ings Lock is the 1st lock on the Calder & Hebble Navigation from the River.  It's a wide, deep lock and although we've yet to boat through it, we're familiar with it from our walks along the canal. The workforce have put in that temporary road stuff they use in show grounds and "set up camp" by the lock for their open day.

This road, takes you by the residential moorings.  I think there are 8 in total - we did look at one that was up for auction a while back but decided it was a bit too dear for us... especially considering we still don't have a boat to put in it.  It does have a nice feel to it though so we'd never say never... that said, there are a lot of notices around warning would-be felons about 24 hour CCTV... perhaps they do the trick... if not, maybe this chap is scaring them off:

As we approached the lock, we were met and welcomed by some CRT volunteers.  Considering the cold morning (it'd been snowing a little earlier) they were all very jolly and approachable.  They'd set up a couple of stalls - and were touting various things aimed at getting some money off folk ... all fair enough really given how much is needed after the boxing day floods.  I did feel a bit tight NOT putting my hand into my pocket but considering I'm already a "friend" AND paying £1700 a year for a mooring we're not yet using, walked on by with a clear conscience.

I had a bit of natter to someone as we descended the scaffolding into the lock... I don't think it was Richard Parry... perhaps he was coming along later lol.  Actually, thinking about that chap - to give him due credit, he certainly does his fair share... he gets around all over the place... I'm always surprised when I've taken  a selfie that he's NOT in the background :-) 

Sorry if that's a bit photo heavy but don't they say a picture paints a 1000 words? - Consider this, my dissertation!

The new gates apparently cost £30k each... that's a lot of money but they'll last a long time.  There's a video here with a friendly Yorkshire bloke (we mostly are really) inviting you to come along... 

I hope they don't mind me linking to it...

It was quite interesting to be down in the lock with it relatively dry - even with stop planks either side, it was still taking a couple of large  pumps to keep the level so low.  I did spot an old boat anchor laying in the rubble.  We did say that despite it's depth, how surprised we both were at how little water there would be under your boat when empty...

The old gates are still laying nearby for people to look at - we've certainly seen worse ones still in use though.

We took a scenic (well scenic ish for Wakefield) route home, taking in a few land marks - I'll add some photos later though,  as I've a load of seedlings which need pricking out now.

Until next time...

The Barnsley Canal... un-navigable

So, you may remember that at the weekend, we went off for a walk along part of the Barnsley Canal.

When I say that, what I actually mean is we did a circular walk, taken from the Wakefield way:

Walk number 1 it was, that took us a long  part of the un-restored canal.  The Wakefield way as you can see from the photo I nicked, is a circular walk - around Wakefield of course.  The book of walks, splits it into sections that start and finish in the same place, using various public footpaths/carparks to make it easy to do.

The book we're working from is old - very old.  So old in fact, that lots of the landmarks used to navigate, have been removed or have died... such as "big tree near a fence" or "large gate next to a style".  It CAN lead to "interesting" moments trying to work out where on Earth you are - or rather where on Earth you should be going lol. 

Our plan THIS year, is to walk each walk, enough times to get it right... sort of a trial and error affair AND in the hope they will sink into our brains for retirement.  It was our 4th attempt at walk 1 ... it starts off at Wintersett reservoir, and goes into Haw Park wood.   There's a visitor centre there and "things to do" for kids - it also has helpful signs up in the wood to make things a little easier... These signs, however, do not help " Wakefield Way" walkers... 

They are quite helpful and interesting I suppose... especially if you're trying to make education fun... it took a while to get Andy on side but he now knows about "Oak trees" thanks to this.

/

IT's a slow burner (the learning process that is - not the tree) but we'll get there in time... 

About a mile into the walk, we  ended up alongside the old Barnsley Canal.   As you can see from the map, the canal used to link Barnsley with the Aire and Calder in Wakefield.

It's  a nice walk along the tow-path - which is in quite good condition... as is the canal itself.  It's easy to see how it could be brought back into life....in many places, it holds water well and the bridges we came cross aren't in too bad condition either.   If you're interested, you can read more about it here http://www.bddct.org.uk/home.html

I took a few photos as we wandered ...

I'm not too sure who those ugly buggers are but my new hat was very warm! ;-) 

Until next time...

Boat Heating - Part 3

We had a lovely walk yesterday along part of the old Barnsley canal... I took a few photos so will share them in a later post.

SO - back to HEATING... As well has having the multi fuel stove, we're also going to have a Webasto Thermotop C diesel powered, wet system:

A sexy bit of kit I'm sure you'll agree? - Basically it's a small diesel burner with a built in pump. Like the stove, it's Max output is circa 5.2kw.  When installed, it heats both the water in the calorifier (without the need to run the engine) and powers the wet radiators.   The kit can be had for a little over £1k - although you can buy refurbished ones for about £4-500 - that claim to have all new parts.  

We're tempted to "risk" a refurbished unit, given it won't be in use all the time... we'll have to think on that a while longer though as it would be a faff to replace once it's all plumbed in if it proved to be a false economy.

It "claims" to use between  0.3 and 0.61 litres of diesel per hour - which even at 99p a litre, isn't really that expensive... There's a link here to the official data sheet: http://www.webasto.com/fileadmin/webasto_files/documents/country-folder/usa/hd/Data-Sheet/usa-heavy-duty-datasheet-thermo-top-c.pdf

In our current layout, we plan to have 2 radiators in the lounge, 1 in the bedroom, 1 in the bathroom and 2 in the dinette cabin to the rear.  As well as the radiators, there will be a 2 fin rads in the dinette at floor level under each side and a couple in the wardrobes in the bedroom.  

Fin rads are basically tubes with metal fins on.  Hot water passes through the pipe, and heats the air in the fins causing it to rise and draw colder air in at the bottom to be circulated and warm the room.

The 2 in the dinette/rear cabin are to be 5 ft long and  each rated at 640 watts  - there will also be 1 small (400mm x 500mm) convector type radiator on each side to supplement these - rated at  356watts.  That's a theoretical maximum heating capacity in that room of 1992watts.  

Given it's only 6 ft square, we hope that will feel warm enough.  

Despite the output of the burner being rated at 5.2kw, in our current plan, the combined total rating for the radiators and finned rads is quite a bit higher... I don't have the exact figures to hand (they're  doodled on the wall) but it shouldn't be a problem.  Diesel burners respond better to having to work hard, rather then cycle on and off ... cycling on and off quickly can lead to them getting coked/sooted up - thus requiring more frequent maintenance. 

If we do discover certain radiators are not getting hot enough, we can simply turn one of the lounge ones off to "release" a bit more capacity.  We can do this by having a twin piped system throughout, with each radiator/fin rad, having a manual control valve at either end... it's going to be a bit of trial and error but I'd rather fit too many to start with than not enough.

In practice, I suspect once the stove is burning away, we'll probably only really need the ones in the rear cabin anyway...  from our previous experience with coal fired stoves, you can get the temperature quite high... to the point where it might be minus 5 degrees outside, but you are sitting in the boat  in your underpants with the doors and windows wide open!

TRY not to think about that one too much - for obvious reasons lol.

If money were no object, we'd be investigating an underfloor heating system.  It would be much neater than having wall mounted radiators and we'd feel much more comfortable with a hot floor - the reality is that for it to be efficient, you'd have to insulate the floor of the boat properly -  which given the ballast would be a ball-ache... and without doing so, a lot of the heat created would be wasted heating the water in the canal.    Underfloor heating on boats is the privilege of the wealthy I'm afraid... perhaps on the next boat.

Until next time...