Boat Transport by Road...

Now I know following on from my solar panel posting the other day, the natural progression would be to investigate Solar Chargers…

I’ve every intention of doing so in a future posting but I’d rather leave that until the weekend, when hopefully it will be sunny so I can demonstrate in photographic form, the difference in charging current obtainable with  pwm and mppt  charge controllers.  We seem to have one of each in the garage from my "camping experiments".

Until then however, I've had a good conversation today with a haulage firm in regards, getting the boat from Lymm to Wakefield by road -I had emailed a couple of other  folk a while back to ask but no one got back to me...

http://www.cpltrans.com/index.php

IT turns out it’s not so expensive after all – the quote for the transport alone, is £720 inc vat.  I'm quite surprised at what good value it is – especially given that it allows 2 hours loading and unloading time EACH side of the journey.

Now I need to get a price for the cranes either end of the journey.

 There IS a permanent one at Wakefield Warf on the river Calder just before the weir near the Hepworth gallery …

I'm struggling to find a contact telephone number for them though - all I can find is dissolved companies  on Companies House website...  I think a walk to "find a bloke" is in order.

This will probably be the easiest option – assuming they’re happy to lift the boat off the back of  a lorry on a blind bend on a busy road…  the thing that scares me about this though is that onec  on the water, I’lll be taking my first run on our new boat 50 yards away from a weir!  Now ok, the engine is new and should work perfectly but what  it It conks out or something before I reach the safety of the flood lock a little while upstream?

Being “plonked” straight on to the river, would also force us get an anchor on board immediately.  I’m not too sure HOW big an anchor we need  but we  WILL need one anyway so that decision will need making and the said piece of equipment purchasing  AND attaching to a secure point on the bow BEFORE the boat is even lifted!

I’m sure in time  I won’t think twice about such a journey… for now, as you can probably imagein, I’m quite apprehensive about it.  Perhaps it might be a better idea to see if we can get the boat craned in, nearer the mooring… to give us chance to test things out properly on the safety of a canal.  With that in mind, I’ve emailed Stanley Ferry Marina to see if they have a crane or can recommend someone /a company locally who can do it.

Until next time…

Solar Power

GOOD Morning (afternoon or  evening),

Following on from my energy audit the other day, I've been looking at solar panels for the boat.

As you may recall, (actually I'm not sure if I've covered this or not come to think of it) we had a 4kw system fitted to the bungalow last year.

 

This has been quite useful to us, in that we've already learned how much... but more importantly, how LITTLE power you can get from them.  Now ok, when the sun is out, they work well... the salesmen (on the whole) told us that even in low light conditions they perform well.  Whilst that's NOT exactly an "un truth" it's a bit of artistic licence.

The last photo above, shows that on a bright but not sunny day they can produce just short of 1kw - ie 1/4 of their potential.  When the sun is out however, between about 11am and 4 pm, 'ours' CAN kick out the full 4kw,.. the rest of the time they do ok in bright light but on cloudy days, tend to hover about the 5-600 watt rate.    This is ok though, as a side from the hot tub, we're on "free" electric from about 8.30am - 4.pm through the winter and 7am - 8.30pm in summer time.  We set the washer to come on about noon, followed by the dishwasher for 2pm.  If one of us is home, you can get  another load of washing done for free and even  through the tumble dryer.  It takes a bit of organising the way you use power, but you CAN make good use of it.

Over the last 3 months of winter into early spring, our system generated

459 kwhs which is equivalent to 5.46 khws each day... which isn't brilliant but is better than nothing.  

In winter, THAT's the approach you have to take with "SOLAR" - whether it be on a house OR a boat.

Our plan is to get as many panels on the roof as we can practically fit on... without them getting in the way.  The intention (for now) is to keep the panels to the front half of the boat - using the centre line as the cut off point.  I'd still like to be able to either walk down the middle or either side of the panels.  This means finding 'thin' ones.  Which is a bit of a pain as the better value ones, tend to be on the fatter side.  The ones on the house which kick out 265watt each are 1640 long by  x 992mm wide- a bit big really.

Assuming there will be 6m worth of space (length wise) available down the boat) we're thinking of various layout options:  2 lines of 2 of  these http://www.amazon.co.uk/ECO-WORTHY-Monocrystalline-Photovoltaic-Battery-Charging/dp/B00ZOOGVOQ?ie=UTF8&redirect=true&ref_=pe_2223501_126703161_em_1p_0_ti 

which would give 640watts.

They're quoted at being 668mm wide by 1455mm long which would give scope to have all 4 down the centre of the boat and STILL not encroach beyond the centre line instead of having 2 x 2 down side.

The advantage of having them down the side however is scalability - in that, if/when we find 4 of them producing 640 watts (max) is NOT enough, we can easily add 1 or 2 more each side, scaling up power production to potential  970 or  1280 watts respectively.

SO - we're on the look out for panels about this size which can be linked in series and connected to a MPPT solar charger - more about that later.

Meanwhile, the sun is out this morning and I've an appointment in the greenhouse with some seedlings to prick out.

Until next time....

The dreaded Energy Audit...

Something I've been putting off doing for ages is our energy audit.   That's just a term given to describe the calculations involved to work out how much power/energy we'll probably use each day on board 'Ellis'.

Initially, we'll use her as a weekend and holiday boat.  Longer term however, we DO intend living aboard full-time (renting out the bungalow to cover it's own costs) whilst we save up for our YEAR OFF!

So, with that in mind, my "sums" assume we're there all the time,

12 Volt Appliances:

Lights – (assuming only half are on for 5 hours a day)

 10 * 5 watt =                                                                                                                          20ah

Water Pump (rated @ 8a) working for 30 mins a day=                                                           4ah

Webasto Thermo Top (central heating) on 5 hours “full” at 3.8a =                                       19ah

Inlander Fridge-Freezer @ 2.1a average =                                                                             50.4ah

Shower pump @13a used for 10 mins a day =                                                                       2.16ah

Phone chargers @ 1.25a for 1 hours *2 =                                                                                2.5ah

TV/dvd @ 1.7a (see earlier post) for  6 hours ON + 18 standby @ 0.07 =                            11.46ah

Bilge Pump (hopefully not used much) @5a for 1 minute a day =                                          .08ah

Inverter Quiescent current (don’t ask)  @5a for say max 2hours “use” + 1ah for “standby”= 30ah

“Car” radio/cd/mp3 thingy @ 3.3a for 10 hours a day =                                                           33ah

240v Applicances:

Tassimo Coffee maker rated at 1300watt for 9 mins daily (3 cups each) =                             32.5ah

Laptops * 2  @ 5.41a for 3 hours =                                                                                         32.46ah

Washing Machine 1.8kw rating – 1.08kw per cycle @ 90ah ONLY WHEN ENGINE RUNING

DAILY total Excluding washer =                                                                                237.56ah 

You may recall, our battery bank was initially planned to be 440ah... but on order, we increased it to 540ah.  Using the above calculations, that only leaves 32.44ah "spare" each day in the kitty... and THAT assumes we start each day fully charged! WHICH of course we won't.....

Oh  dear.

This is not good news!  Now, OK, you could argue that not all of that stuff will probably get used to the extent quoted each day, but it might.

What writing it down HAS done however, is made it crystal clear we need to re-think the battery bank capacity...AND try and become less power hungry...AND set up a good charging regime through a combination of engine running, solar panels and perhaps a generator to keep engine hours down.

IT is of course a worse case scenario and I suppose before we spend a fortune on "stuff" we should suck it and see.  The upgraded engine already comes with a 150amp second alternator which is a good starting point AND does at least mean the washer should be OK when it's running.

I've also been playing around with solar panels for years - making my own from cells bought in Germany... Apparently I'm NOT allowed to stick any of these on the boat but they were only ever a prototype anyway

You may notice the little solar charge controller on the tent floor - it was only a cheap one from ebay but it did the trick - the 400watt halogen heater could be used for about an hour before the inverter began screaming but it was safer than the aforementioned gas fire that nearly killed us.

oh heck - I've gone off on a tangent again.

SO - to summarise: we need to use less .... and store and generate more power!

Humph!

Until next time...

"Banned Topics"...

Ok - I'm not normally one to sit on the fence (as anyone who knows will me will vouch) but recently on Canal World Forum, http://www.canalworld.net/forums/  2 subjects have been "banned" as topics of discussion - AND any postings which reference them are deleted, locked or heavily moderated.

The decision to do this has been made by the site owner - as is his prerogative.

Unfortunately, this has lead to a lot of folk feeling angry about having the freedom to discuss or reference these things, taken away from them... and I suppose if pushed, I'd say I'm a bit peeved about it too.

NOT that I particularly WANT to talk about the subjects per say, but at the same time,  I don't like being told I can't!

We've got friends involved with local politics, and a couple of vicars  (1 a friend and the other my nieces father-in-law) and whilst we don't share each others opinions on many issues, we all get along nicely and respect each others views.

As you  might expect quite a few of the people who DO feel aggrieved by this, were having a bit of a moan about it on Saturday evening and of course the thread eventually got locked - but NOT before one of them had posted a link to a NEW discussion forum he decided to set up ... where anything goes (well anything NOT illegal/immoral I suppose).

This new forum is called THUNDERBOAT - http://thunderboat.boards.net and I've signed up on there too - NOT in a bid to get away from the original site  - it's pretty much universally accepted that Canal World is the number 1 place to to find help and information about just about every aspect of boating...  It's been a god send to us in our planning and I suspect it will continue to be the first place I ask for help.  THIS is because the people on there genuinely WANT to help and share their vast knowledge.  I do hope this continues.

I also however, hope that folk will use BOTH forums rather than choosing one over the other... whilst I totally understand the site owners decision to "keep" the original site BOATING oriented, from a long term boaters point perspective, I can understand them WANTING the freedom to chat about NON-boating related matters, WITH other boaters...

People are complicated aren't they?  Let's all try and continue to look around through good eyes and respect each other - whatever our opinions are eh?

Until next time...

AED... (Automatic External Defibrillator) & Darren Day...

"STAND CLEAR!"...
We've all seen casualty haven't we? - well you may think we're being overly cautious here but on our boat shopping list is an AED.

You may remember, a while back the grim reaper paid us a very close visit thanks to our own stupidity.  That experience (see carbon monoxide posting for full details) opened our eyes - perhaps for the first time, to how vulnerable we ALL ARE.

"Life" hangs in the balance and can  be taken away with a seconds notice... it was difficult enough calling for help when we could give a rough address to the ambulance service but supposing either of us... or perhaps worse still, a visiting guest/family member/passing jogger suddenly collapsed with suspected heart difficulties in the middle of nowhere - it's one thing to be able to call for help ... quite another to be helpless whilst waiting for them to find us!

With this in mind, we've agreed to spend a substantial amount on an automatic defibrillator... the sort that will ONLY give a shock when one is needed and can be administrated by anyone.

I hope that by getting one of these on board 'Ellis' it will mean we never need one... and whilst I can think of far more pleasurable things to spend a thousand quid on  I CAN'T think of anything that will give as much peace of mind... CALL me a worrier if you will - I suppose it's the control freak in me... always needing wanting to be prepared but I really don't want to be in the helpless position or watching someone die in front of me when, with a bit of planning, we could have done something - ANYTHING that might have saved them.

Having watched a few instructional videos on the subject, I've found the shortest - most useful one that might be 3 minutes well spent.  

I like the fact they come with voice commands - that might keep you calm enough to follow if ever required.

Something ELSE that has occurred to us - probably as a result from living in and around older people, is that 9 times out of 10, if someone is going to be taken ill, it's going to be in the middle of the night. 

With that also in mind, we've already got a gps device (a couple actually) so that we can note down our exact location at the end of each days cruising... and it's our plan to write down both the GPS coordinates AND road/bridge numbers in the ships log  AS SOON AS WE SWITCH OFF THE ENGINE.   

Please don't think we're willing things to happen but for the sake of a "30 second chore" each day - we can all sleep sounder in our beds.

Oh - btw,., When I finished work today, I called into Halfords to buy an exhaust bandage (the lexus has a bit of a blow on it  and as I can't justify the money for a new one, decided to silence it the cheap way)... and who was in the queue in front of me but Darren Day - oh it's ok ... he didn't recognise me and make a fuss ;-) ... he was buying a bulb and new number plate for his car.  Poor chap didn't look comfortable and had there not been a big queue, I might have said hello.... instead, I did what all good Brits do - pretended not to recognise him and carry on with my day as usual.

Darren - if you're reading this...  ditch the cowboy boots... they're a bit too clompy!

Until next time...

River Calder - Flood conditions...

Sorry - you many be wondering why I'm blogging at 7.00am on a school day - I'm going to the hospital shortly for another MRI scan on my back ... I had a discectomy a few years ago which ended many years of back pain... unfortunately, the offending disk has gone awol again, so it looks like another op - IF they'll do it.  I hate the scanner - I KNOW it doesn't hurt at all, but I'm a bit claustrophobic at the best of times... time to conjure up some happy thoughts!

ANYWAY - after working most of the bank holiday weekend, I stamped my feet on Monday and decided I was having the day off...  I shouldn't have to exert myself in this way but as you may have gathered, all isn't rosy in the world of restorations - ironic really given the mere job title, conjurers up gentle episodes of Lovejoy.

The weather on Monday morning was of course typical bank holiday weather - storm Kate (since when did we start naming storms in this country?) - (and WHO decided we would ?) had been doing her worst overnight by the looks of the amount of water in the garden.

NOT deterred, we donned our weatherproofs expensive clothes that claim to be weather proof, and took off for a walk - with route undecided.

As usual, when we just set off, we invariably end up walking either by river, canal or round a couple of reservoirs.  Monday was no exception - as you can see from the Endomondo route.

Wind and rain a aide, it was a mostly bright walking day - our route took us along roads to start with - skirting round the side of Pugneys lake and then off to Durkar the back way - dull walking but quiet enough.

We used to live in the little semi rural village of Calder Grove - it sits above "Broad Cut" on the Calder and Hebble Navigation.  This poor area suffered badly during the Boxing day flooding.  The canal is often overwhelmed by the  river Calder which runs along side.  For some reason I didn't take my camera out of my pocket until AFTER we'd walked over the bridge, passing the (still closed due to flooding) Navigation Pub - for what it's worth, if you ignore the Trip Adviser warnings it's a nice enough place ... ok so it's NOT the cleanest looking - inside or out but we've never been poisoned or had a bad pint there...  I'd give them a call to check whether they are open if you intend calling in - I found this  http://www.canalandriversidepubs.co.uk/Calder-&-Hebble.htm handy list of pubs and contact details which may be useful.

Just after the pub we came across this pile of old gates which have been replaced during the recent stoppages.

As we went around the corner to cross the river via "Freddy Cruger bridge" - I took a snap underneath.  You can see how much more water there was in compared to usual but nowhere near as much as there was in the Christmas floods - if you zoom in, you can see how high in the trees the debris remains - I wonder how long it will stay there until the wind sends it somewhre elese?

from the other side, you can see how perilous the bank side  property is - in recent years, they've gradually been building barricades to try and protect themselves from the river... not with much success judging by the ever increasing piles of earth we saw further downstream.

A few hundred yards further down the river, you can see the new lock landing CRT have put in place.  The old one... the one that is in a useful place just before the lock onto Broad Cut is about had it - This new one looks sturdy enough but 2 things spring to mind... Firstly, Folk will not use it as it's a pain give you have to go past the lock - moor up and then allow yourself to drift back into the river and have another go at getting in the lock - in fact on our last walk up here we saw 2 boats still using the old one!  Secondly, I can't help but thing by (for want of a better word) braying the supports into the small island which separates Broad cut from the river, this will have weakened an already narrow bit of land, increasing the vulnerability of the entire cutting.  I suppose someone, somewhere knows what they are doing.... ?

Bear in mind when looking at this photo, that on Boxing day, the river lever was over the top here .  The lock cottage garden was washed away - along with their chicken run.  A lovely pretty place to live when the sun is shining but not somewhere to be when mother nature is having a tantrum!

The river was still within her banks but as you can see, she didn't have much room to manoeuvre...

At Thornes Flood lock, the gates were firmly closed as you might imagine...  that didn't matter on Boxing day though as the river simply went straight over them!

With a bit of luck, the weather will be kinder this coming weekend and we  can do the walk in reverse and have a wander down the private moorings area to see if there's anyone out and about to chat with.

Until next time...

Refrigeration...

Yes - I know I'm blowing hot and cold at the moment... one minute I'm moaning about lazy teenagers, the next I've skipped to fridges - even I can't come up with a tenuous link for this one!

No matter...

Fridges - or rather Fridge-freezers...  We've a bit of a conundrum here... in that usually, when there's something requiring consideration, a combination of "googling" or asking advice is enough to come up with a definitive answer - Unfortunately, this is another "pump-out verses cassette" type discussion!

What IS the question? - well, it's whether to have a 12vdc or 230vac Fridge-Freezer on board Ellis.

I'll try and explain...On the boat, having something that relies on a 230vac electricity supply being available 24/7 means leaving the inverter on all the time.    In theory you can leave it running 24 hours a day and this will provide the power required to run a fridge-freezer.  Doing so poses a bit of a problem, in that just having an inverter powered on, uses some power - even when the fridge-freezer isn't actually drawing any... so an appliance like this A+ rated one http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/household-appliances/refrigeration/fridge-freezers/essentials-c50bs14-fridge-freezer-silver-21888494-pdt.html

which purports to use 204khw per year will use MORE when the power is provided by an inverter.

  Normally, this  equates to: 204kwh per year, (204000wh) /365/12 = 46.575ah per day... except that it doesn't when run from an inverter... you need to factor in quiescent current and inverter efficiency too SO the above equation actually becomes something closer to: 204kwh  per year, (204000wh)/365/10= 55.89ah per day.

Now, if you were to have a 12v applicance such as this one:http://12v-fridges.com/products/refrigerators/rir99dw4.html  you could expect a daily power consumption of
50.2ah -  Which is a daily saving of 5.49ah ... 

 Not a massive saving at face value, but when you consider in order to  replace this energy used generally means putting back MORE in the recharging process than was taken out in the first place.

 This in turn leads to longer and more frequent charging cycles of the battery bank.  ADD to that the "risk" of needing to have the inverter powered up all the time - it's quite common for cheaper inverters to overheat and set fire to boats... To counter this perceived risk, quite often that means you need to spend more on a better quality inverter...

SO  - a 12v appliance SHOULD be a no brainer shouldn't it? - Well it would be were it not for the cost of the 12v one - if you've clicked on the link you'll already be aware  - if not ... please, sit down.  A 12v fridge-freezer similar to the 230vac one above (costing circa £149) is £598.00

As a result, many folk would rather save the money on the fridge and use it to buy diesel to run their engines to charge their batteries.  It's all relative though, as doing so ALSO increases the frequency of oil changes etc.

Conclusion? - I dunno...  perhaps we'll toss a coin when we go to crick show in May...  at the moment, we're still heading down the 12v route  but as you may have gathered... we're fickle at the best of times :-)

until next time...

Exhausted Youngsters...

I can't believe it's Easter already. The year is just flying by now... although not quickly enough for our liking - It's a little over 2 months now since we placed the order for the boat...  THAT side of life, feels to be going much slower.

You may remember a short while ago I had a little rant about losing spring and summer to "work" - well the first proper casualty to  this project has been Easter.  We're already working Saturdays in a bid to try and meet the delivery dates...  Well Good Friday and Easter Saturday have been stolen to the project too.

We tried to make the best of things though by going up to my dad's to collect the final batch of cars he and my neice have been spraying for the Brooklands ride.  Rather nice I'm sure you'll agree and it's good to get them all safely on the shelving ready for when I get the chassis completed.

I'm a bit brassed off about it as you might gather because, being salaried, I don't get any additional money for doing additional hours - I never have done... I "simply" have to put in whatever time is necessary to get the job done.  This irks me each and every time I look up at work, to find the "lads" texting their nearest and dearest - multiple times each hour during the working day whilst THEY are getting paid by the hour...

I'm even MORE narked at the moment because yesterday morning - 3.54 am to be precise - the "new lad apprentice" sent me a text message saying " Hi mate . I'm not feeling too well...'think I'm over exhausted and currently throwing up"

This was followed by another a minute or so later saying"but it's Easter so shouldn't be too much a problem?"

This "kid" (19 year old) is only in week 4 of his 3 month trial - and whilst I accept Easter Saturday was an optional extra day for him... it was already his second no show.... the first being last week when his "dog had puppies".   WHAT are you to do? - I know things are different these days, but back when I began full time work (27 years ago eeek) I had to wait 6 months before I was allowed to take a days holiday... and I certainly wouldn't have dared contact my boss at 4am to say I was exhausted,,,  ffs, HOW on earth can a 19 year old be exhausted after just 3 weeks working?  IT's not even as if the kid has even gotten out of 1st gear yet either.

HOW do you motivate someone to get off their lazy arse and work faster ? - we don't subscribe to bullying or ridiculing but when you've already tried "carrot over stick", what do you do next?

The amusing part to this is that I keep hearing myself saying... or at least 'thinking' - "when I was his age, I had a full time AND part time job, dashing around fitting in a social life which would include, gym visits, ten-pin bowling, ice-skating and swimming...  the youth of today!"

OH dear - this has turned into another rant - when I got up (5.45am as normal - even on Easter Sunday) I HAD intended to write about 12v  boat electrics... I'm not in the mood for that now.  Perhaps a strong coffee and bacon sarny will put me back on track.

hmmmf

I'm racking my brains what photo I can post to accompany this entry in the diary...

AS I don't have one of 19 year olds being lazy, I've looked back to more jovial times and picked one of us looking smart on our last Scandinavian cruise - I still write to the old bird in the centre (ish)...She's called Valerie and personality wise, she's a doppelgänger of Pam Ayres... our table was usually the last to leave the restaurant as a result.

That was back in the days when we could afford... or rather justify "cruises".  They're on stop now until we have finished paying for the boat.

HAPPY EASTER everyone.


Until next time...

My new Wellies...

Now then folks - yes, I know new wellies don't have a lot  to do with boating as such but I wanted to share them with you.

Introducing "The original Muck Boot Company's" best product:

Muck boots.

I bought these on the recommendation of an American lady who's weekly newsletter I read...  she swears by them.   Having walked over 6 miles in their inaugural outing - I have to agree with her.

They have to be the most comfortable, warm wellies I've ever owned... they need to be mind at a few pence short of 100 quid in my size!

YES - I know that's steep for wellies but trust me - it is money well spent.  The liner is a one piece moulding, made from the stuff wet-suits are made from.  In short, it's lovely.  The operating temperature range is minus 30 degrees c to plus 10.

IT was just above freezing on Sunday morning when I road-tested these... we did another section of the Wakefield Way - walk number 2 this time.

Starting from the car park at Newmillerdam http://www.wakefield.gov.uk/residents/sport-and-leisure/parks-and-countryside/parks/newmillerdam-country-park the walk takes you around 1 side of the lake and into the woods

The saunter didn't really warrant my new wellies yet but it was nice not to worry about what I was standing in - the walk being a favourite haunt of local dog walkers...  

After the lake, it took us into the woods and then across a planted field.  ME being a country boy, felt obliged to walk around the perimeter... others are NOT so noble as you can see from the photo.

I know that the public right of way IS across the field... and that at some point in the past, there would have been a hedgerow here but farmers DO have to make a living so it's easier on my conscience to walk around than across - I'll leave the other walkers to make up their own minds.

Once across (round in our case) this field, the walk took us across another one... having done this walk a while back however, we knew it was a bit pointless going UP - as in about 300 yards (298 metres - ish for our European counterparts) you come back down on yourself and cross the beck again.

Taking the route along side the beck, did mean I could make proper use of the new foot wear...  perfect!

I'm not sure if you can see from the photos, but "someone" has been making a good effort of clearing out the beck and sides... presumably to prevent this property along side further up from flooding.  WE came across this lovely hamlet alongside the beck ... given the new drainage that appeared to be mid installation, the dredging/clearance was long overdue.

The right of way, sneaked behind the houses and through a couple of fields, into a planted up field...  100 bonus points if anyone reading can tell me what is growing - I'll give you a clue ... Wakefield is famous for it's "triangle"...

The route took us on to the golf course - it's quite a long way across, watching out for balls coming your way... I don't think the players appreciate walkers much but we were courteous none the less.

When we exited the course, we came down the hill and back to the starting point at Newmillerdam.

I'm not sure if you can make out the route from the map, but I've posted a screen shot of the Endomondo record.  

btw- I don't hold with "apps" for the sake of them but I've been using this one from Endomondo for a few years now - it's free (or rather the version I use is) and it maps your walking/running/cycling etc using your phone's gps...it's very useful for recording how far you walk and calories burned etc.

Just over 6 miles in new wellies... perfect.

Until next time...

Electric - Part 3... Availablilty of power.

This whole "electric" topic is boring me now - I'm surprised if anyone is still with me here.... *taps on screen*

The trouble with the topic is that it really is rather vast.  I'm not  even touching the surface with my considerations here but like I've said before, this blog thing is more of a "diary/working notes" production for my own future reference... it's nice to have your  company along the way or course but I'm hoping it will help me when we finally have the boat to work on... as a revision list of things we need to do or consider.

Anyway - this is my final "note" for now on the subject.... possibly ;-)

Right then - Availability of power.

On a boat, the electric you use HAS to come from somewhere when you are not plugged in to shore power.  When the engine is not running, this is from the battery bank.

You may remember, when we placed the order for the boat, we beefed up the standard bank from 440ah to 540ah.  Not a massive increase - a usable 50ah.  I can't recall whether I've waffled on about this before but in simple terms the capacity of the battery bank is NOT it's "usable capacity".  

Actually this isn't true of ALL batteries but given ours will be (this time at any rate) the typical LEAD ACID type, it will be on board Ellis.

Let me explain about "Lead Acid"batteries - It is typically considered wise to use just 30% – 50% of the rated capacity of typical lead acid “Deep Cycle” batteries. This means that a 600 amp hour battery bank in practice only provides, at best, 300 amp hours of real capacity.

If you even occasionally drain the batteries more than this their life will be drastically cut short.

Even if you are going easy on your batteries and are careful to never overly drain them, even the best deep cycle lead acid batteries are typically only good for 500-1000 cycles. If you are frequently going deeper into your battery bank, this could mean that your batteries may need replacement after less than 2 years use.

Given it's unlikely OUR batteries will be the best quality deep cycle ones, you can see why it's important NOT to use too much power before you charge them back up - even then, as the final 20% of lead acid battery capacity can not be “fast” charged. The first 80% can be “Bulk Charged” by a smart three-stage charger quickly (particularly AGM batteries can handle a high bulk charging current), but then the “Absorption” phase begins and the charging current drops off dramatically.

This isn't a big deal if you are charging plugged in overnight, but it is a huge issue if you have to leave your engine running for hours (which can be rather noisy and expensive).so you can easily end up with batteries that never actually get fully charged.

Not fully charging the final few percent would not be much of a problem in practice, if it wasn't for the fact that a failure to regularly fully charge lead acid batteries prematurely ages them - thus reducing the cycles significantly.

SO in our case, we'll only have a "usable" battery capacity of 270ah. It sounded a lot to begin with but when you begin to look at power consumption, it soon gets used up.

Which leads us to a whole other topic for consideration - An ENERGY AUDIT... luckily for you dear reader, I'll save that one for another day - not so much for your sake as mine, as having started looking at it - I'm scared.

Suffice to say - that as I'm more hands on than theory, the photo below provides an insight to where this topic will lead.

When it "warmed up" a little, you can see the reading increased to 

(ignore my right toe please) - 1.71amp - THIS is quite low compared to many appliances... we bought the lowest consumption quoted TV we could find.

AND even on standby, just being plugged in, the 12v TV  (I'll come to that in another post) STILL draws

0.07amp

Oh dear... if you weren't already asleep - I can see the 'Sandman' heading your way... QUICK - hide!

Until next time...