Answers to Frequently Asked Questions:- Why don't you get a wind turbine? They're expensive, make a lot of rattly noise, you have to put them up and down each time you travel but above all, on a canal they're fairly useless. They need a constant, stiff (30mph+) breeze to even start generating anything worthwhile and unless you moor next to an open field where the wind swoops in all the time, you're not going to see a useful return. Get a powerbank like those Jackery things, that would sort you out! No, it wouldn't. You know, the companies making those things have done a wonderful marketing job of persuading people the boxes are some kind of miracle power-packs when in reality they are just (literally just) a battery, charger and inverter in one box - which is exactly what I already have on the boat as separate components! There's no magic about those things. They'd still run out of power after a day or so just as my batteries do, and then you're back to square one and you have to charge them ... so you're back to solar, or a generator or a shoreline. Why don't you buy a Honda generator? I do like those and they are relatively quiet. Many boaters do have and use little gennys over winter, for sure. The downside is having to buy and store petrol (it's not available on the canal so you'd have to get to a roadside service station and bring jerry cans back to the boat), plus they're a magnet for thieves. And the petrol costs are substantial, since you'd run the genny for maybe 2-3 hours a day. In my case, in a marina, generators are frowned upon for noise reasons (even though, paradoxically, you're OK to run the boat engine but it's generally a different type of sound) Why not use a propane fridge? They're probably great in RVs but except for a few older boats, they're not used on narrowboats these days. Unlike RVs, which can easily have holes in the floor to vent any escaped propane, gas leaks in a boat just sit in the bilge, forming a potential bomb if the gas were to meet a spark ... and propane fridges have a permanent pilot light. It's just not considered safe. Why don’t you get Lithium batteries? They’re lovely - but they’re also still extremely expensive, they wouldn’t like the hot and cold extremes in my engine bay so I’d have to re-engineer and re-wire the battery bank, and my alternator would need a charge controller added. And yes, they last for many years vs traditional batteries. If I bought a new boat, I’d specify them but it’s not worth the investment on a 22-year old boat.
You can fill old milk bottles with water and use them as a battery - whenever you open the door, the mass stays in the fridge/freezer. Normally the air falls out, warm air is sucked in to replace it and that then needs cooling. Water holds about 8x the thermal mass of air so once the mass has been cooled on a sunny day, the fridge will use less power over the following overcast days to keep the contents cool.
does anyone know if the early narrowboats had iceboxes, or carried refrigerated goods? ice with fibre or gelatin will avoid melting for quite some time, I've seen it used as briquettes in our home meal delivery boxes.
Having lived off grid for 11 years I agree whole heartedly with your winter solar comments. We have a 1kw Honda which, through the Victron charger , puts in 30 apps. Way better than the engine which is noisy and takes far too long
What I do in winter, is find the best accessible marina with space that’s not too difficult to manoeuvre into, then just once a week I go and get an overnight plug in. Do the washing hoovering etc, fully charge the batteries, then go out somewhere more interesting for the week. Works for me, I have three 230ah AGMs and at 6 years old, they still seem as good as new. I have an inverter on all the time and 240v fridge, always on. I typically run the engine between 1 and 2 hours a day, usually 1 one day and2 the next, which also gives me hot water. It’s nice to have little cruises in winter if u can find a lock free area.It’s March now so solar takes over if I’m not moving. 845 w of solar, happy days.
This guy could make watching paint dry a fascinating adventure, while also simultaneously soothing you into a pleasant, yet comatose state of pure relaxation.
Hi David, I think you are doing absolutely the right thing for you I live on a 7 acre small holding in the beautiful Yarra Valley Victoria, its a pleasure and privilege to live here but I recognise that I have to downsize the nxt few yrs,we are only mere custodians of things, on to the nxt chapter, love your vlog,I'm hooked Marion purdie from Victoria
This video was so dull that it was absolutely riveting: Single shot, head-on of David sitting in a chair, gesticulating vaguely and talking about amps, volts and dreary weather for 15 minutes. Which is what one does on a boat going nowhere in winter, I suppose. It reminds me of those winter months I spent decades ago with my elderly English relatives, although they lived in a house in Southend, not a boat.
Hi David, I've been off grid for two and a half years now, your observations are spot on, this winter seemed to have lower "Sun Power", friends and family often say "just get more solar panels", but as you point out twice virtually nothing is still not a lot. I've got 15kwh of Lead carbon (8x160ah Victron) our usage is equivalent to a monthly electricity bill of about £35 (according to comparison sites), we needed to run the generator every 2nd or 3rd day for a few hours, the total red diesel bill for Nov to mid February was around £100. It's thanks to your channel and a few others that gave me the inspiration to overcome the lack of power to my building project.
Notes on your phone are one of the greatest things ever. Never lose a note again. The one thing you cant do is a quick sketch. But you can find an old envelope, napkin, or even the back of your hand, do your sketch and then take a picture of it with your phone.
Well covered David. On the solar panel front the conclusion is they only work well when it is sunny. If you have enough in summer for your needs then in winter you will only have 10% of your needs. 👍
Great blog as per usual. The good thing about lead carbon batteries is that they are not as susceptible to sulfation in a psoc (partial state of charge) as normal lead acid are. So one doesn't necessarily need to get them in to "float" conditions to keep them as healthy.
David, you must be the only narrowboat vlogger not to have been given a portable chargeable battery power pack to test. Thanks for the update on the batteries, at least you havn't killed them.
I loved this video David, though some of it went whoosh over my head. Most of us would know you'd sort whatever problems came along to your satisfaction. The lengths of small logs tucked under your solar panels made me smile. Get a good log saw and collect some more. I heat my greenhouse with logs during the day, and smokeless fuel at night. A fire with collected fuel gives you a warm glow, even when its not burning very well.
That's why he used the under solar panel gap as storage... the wind blowing through dessicates the wood (making dry, efficent burning) logs and the "roof" keeps water/snow/sleet/hail/dew off them.
' power ranger ' oh no David is going to be dressed in colourful lycra jumping around the place , thank goodness its a technological vlog :-) not what I first thought
Long may you continue with your rants chatty vlogs…always very interesting and lighthearted when needs be. Personally I think that PC of yours has got a mind of its own!!!!
People who Van life here in the state and mount solar panels on their roof will occasionally double stack them. When the vehicle is in motion the panels are stacked and parallel to the ground with only the top panel charging. Then when they are parked the panels are rolled to 30-45 degrees and the top panels slides up exposing the bottom panel to the sun. In theory that would be a way for you to double your solar acreage. HOWEVER it must be pointed out how much easier it is to turn a car so that the panels are facing the sun. With a canal boat while you CAN tilt the panels slightly on both the port and starboard side, it might not be enough to either get the ideal angle or slide one of the panels out if if slides towards the downward slope
Always great vids, fascinating technical talks. Yes, running a fridge uses lots of power, but some folks forget that it heats the air around it. Which may not be what you want to do with your electricity, but it's not always bad.
I’m really enjoying your videos. I started watching narrowboat videos last July whilst holidaying In Scotland. Since then I have subscribed to many other narrowboat vloggers. Yours was the first, followed by Foxes Afloat. I’ve just heard that the Foxes are jacking it in, and starting a small holding in Scotland. So thank you for sticking at it, unlike the fly-by-nighters. Keep up the great vlogs they are very much appreciated.
Your narrowboat with solar is like a country going over to renewables - sometimes the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow. Hence, other arrangements must be put into place to cover the shortfall. This can mean building back-up fossil fuel power stations and only running them occasionally which is expensive for a country but not so for a narrow boat. A better solution is to have connections to the outside world with the UK having interconnectors to Ireland, France, The Netherlands, Belgium and Norway with more on the way. This is relatively inexpensive and the result is that when we have a power shortage and our neighbours have a surplus, they can help us out and vice versa. Difficult to arrange for a narrow boat as you would need to be plugged in at all times. The third solution is storage - which is taking off worldwide due to massive cost reductions of lithium ion batteries. Although you do not say so - I suspect that you only have about one days storage capacity of about 1 kw.hr, so one day of poor solar means you are in trouble. If you had say 20 kw.hrs of storage then your usage of about 1 kw.hr per day would mean that you could last for 20 days. This is more than enough time for the poor weather to dissipate and for power production to return. Of course, the assumption is that you already have enough power production on average and just need to store the surplus for a ........ rainy day! 😁
Actually, natural gas can do spot generation now. Gas in city pipes can go stale, so in Phoenix AZ they have generators sitting at the end of the gas mains, and when it gets hot (all summer) they burn the old gas for power.
Thanks for the update. I must say, I've never seen any panel exceed 60/70% of the rated power. For example in the best conditions, my 200w panel produces 8/9 amperes at about 16v...that's cranking high for my 200w panels
Thank you for the battery cruising the cut ! Electrifying ! Very good info. I think anyone living outside +/-30 degree latitude have solar issues each Winter (usually and always), and you in England are somewhere around 50deg North. I like solar a great deal, but only where/when it makes sense. My house is covered by shade trees run the city...so always in shade and pointing the wrong direction so can not get good solar at all. Thanks for the solid effort and report out.
A fairly new subscriber from Canada, enjoy watching your videos and most of all I can understand 98% of what you say. You got me hooked watching narrow boats but it is difficult to understand some of your fellow captains. I would enjoy seeing some of your trips to town for groceries and the village high points, I don't mean a travel video. Seeing your shops is all, I'm not a great fan of your quiet videos, a little bit of your voice over explaining where you are would be great. As well as giving you my complaint I will add, you could add a second alternator on your engine, it would make running your engine a lot less time. I am over whelmed at the amount of work that was done building those cannels by hand, especially the tunnels and viaducts. Your a good fellow, eh!!!
As Stephen Arbo …has previously written… it makes perfect sense to listen in on your essays despite the fact that …as non narrowboaters we cannot apply your accumulated wisdom in our daily lives. Everyone enjoys the ability to express thoughts and ideas in a succinct clear manner. Coming back to your misplaced sheet of motor running stats …. I’ll bet that… at the time you told yourself: “I’ll put this away where I know that when the time comes to retrieve it the appropriate storage spot will immediately come to mind.” That could work …and…then …maybe not. 😂👍🥂 🇨🇦
Can't find your note? Have you checked the freezer? 🤣 When I was a kid my stepmom lost (I don't remember) something, started looking for it when us kids were getting ready for school. When school was done she's still looking for it, finally right before dinner she found it, in all places (of a 3 bedroom house) the freezer! So if anyone says they lost "whatever" I always say "check the freezer"! 🤣
Could be worse, I've heard of things ending up in the oven, and only being discovered when smoke appears after pre-heating it for dinner in the evening! :D
I live off grid and experience the same thing, little to no sun to charge my battery bank November and December mainly. I recently doubled my battery bank from 200 amp hours to 400 amp hours in hopes of going longer between good days and a mouth later I've yet to run the generator. I would suggest adding more storage (batteries )
A friend runs a solar system on his house boat. He made a dual alternator pedal system (like a bike). He charges his battteries while pedaling. He also hooked up a motor to them so they run after his workout. He hadn't killed the system yet. Doesn't run his motor unless it's colder than normal.
It is not only interesting to hear about how your systems work, but also the way you handle these things on your boat. I find it fascinating how people in different situations look differently at problems of life. Broadens your perspective. Also: living in a big house with a lot of solar on the roof and planning to put in a somewhat huge battery bank, I do have an interest in how this works in smaller dimensions.
To be more efficient in generating electricity, and possibly make running the generator less noisy, a small generator sized to match the battery charging load would be a good idea. To test the batteries you would need to install a shunt. A smart shunt could log battery use as well as give you good state of charge information.
HELLO DAVID. great to see you. and as per. brightened up my day.. your batts will not give hassle before 5- may be 6 year. as long as you do the top up on a regular basis. the ole milk float lasted 7 to 8 year before needing some coaching to get 10 years out of them .. i got 10 years out of mine on a second life set. they were in backup mode for radio emergencies. i would like to suggest turning the one set of in the summer or you may gas off your batts ( dry them out ) . thanks for the chat as always. great to see you. things can only get better. .. lolol atb tone uk stay well and safe
Half the Europe accross (Slovenia) the situation was the same. I have panels tilted as they should be, but with literally 2 days of sun in november and december, the average production was approx 20W h/day. Compare that with approx 600-1000Wh/day now. Without HUGE batteries (10 or 20-times the amount you have) there is no way you could go through the winter only on solar. Unfortunately you simply need reliable (fossil fuel) backup power source.
Hi David, thanks for another interesting video. Yes, in overcast weather, solar panel output is down about 90%. On a narrowboat you have a very limited amount of space for panels. Several comments have been made about changing over to Lithium batteries to solve your problem but, that's not your problem. Your problem is you are not generating enough solar power to keep up with the 12 volt demands within the boat. With my solar system, I have backups for my backups to ensure I have a reliable off-grid system. This works for my setup because I live in a house, living on a narrowboard would rule out a lot of possibilities. For your setup, I would recommend using a 1,000 watt inverter generator that has been modified to run off of propane, as well as petrol. To keep it whisper quiet, I would place it in a sound isolating box.
A very helpful and informative vlog. The best thing I fitted by far on my boat was a battery monitor, Victron BMV712 that I can connect via Bluetooth. It’ll tell me when my batteries are getting close to full by the amount of charge they are accepting from engine or genny. Plus I can do a full audit on use by item simply isolating everything then turning one thing on at a time and seeing ( on my phone ) what amps it’s drawing. Keep up the good work, NbPercy
I suggested this as well and he claims it's too expensive. I look forward to the video where he does the research and proves us wrong, or not. I'm looking on eBay in the us and they cost like $150 but it'd probably have to be custom installed with that vintage engine he's got. And could that little guy handle it? I think yes, but it's something he'd have to check.
The limiting factor is often how much power you can push into the batteries. One of the big advantages of changing to lithium batteries is that they will take as much power you can give them, right up until they are full. With lead-acid batteries there is a lot of internal resistance so charging takes much longer.
Thanks David. On the cutting out with low solar - it's an inherent problem. With lead chemistry, current drops as the batteries become fuller (as you alluded to). Under ideal charging conditions, this can be used to decide when the batteries are full. Usually it's about 4% of the battery capacity. E.g. 4 amps on a 100 Amp hour battery. Most chargers work that way. With solar, the times of low light, including passing clouds can drop the charge current low enough and for long enough to fool the charge controller. No fault, but might be improved by increasing the absorption voltage, reducing the tail current, say from 4% to 2% and, possibly, extending the time before the controllers switch to float. No guarantees. And it also depends on how much the controllers allow you to configure yourself. At least with lead carbon, there's much better resistance to sulphation than with AGM etc.
There is nothing better while deployed than landing from a mission and after a nice phone call with my lovely bride, finding a new CtC vlog! Thanks David. By the way, may I ask if your vlogs are scripted or outlined or just off the cuff? Whatever method, it works very well!
I've recently started to re-watch your vlogs from the beginning and want to commend you on how far you've come! From undecided to what upholstery to have and doing a numptiy job screwing on a coat hook to now telling us the amp hour rating of your appliances and other such technical issues that I barely have a grasp on myself! Well done my friend👍good show!
Is your fridge/freezer a 12v compressor fridge..? I live full-time in my motorhome and just took out my 3 way fridge and installed a 12v compressor fridge/freezer. It is using about 1.5Ah. It cuts in and out when it's needed. I also have lead/carbon and love them. Have a look at Inlander in Birmingham for compressor fridges... 👍
Yes it's a 12V compressor, you don't tend to see three-way fridges on boats anymore due to gas safety (there are occasional ones about but on older boats)
Living on a boat and I mean living on a boat it all comes down to energy and comfort. Dedication to solar is a winning deal, once the investment you are all good, my opinion. Running the engine to provide power is far more expensive in the long run. Great explanation and yes, pencil and paper to keep track of usage is essential when sorting it out!
I wonder if it would be possible for some bright British bodger to figure out a way to transfer the heat from the fridge into the canal water directly, and if that would improve the efficiency of the fridge. Because on one hand you're running a fridge in a heated space so it's working harder, but at the same time all the energy the fridge uses ends up heating the living space and so would reduce energy costs elsewhere... this heating efficiency thing is a really tricky one isn't it?
It would be very easy to simply extend the fridge radiator pipes out the window or into the water (if you have the tools to work with it and know how to recharge the gas.) I think it would be a more specialist job, though. I convinced my wife to let the kitchen stay cold to reduce energy use by the fridge and make the motor last longer.
Thanks for the video David! I use a Trimetric battery monitor from Bogart Engineering to keep track of the percent of charge in my lead-acid batteries. I like that with a glance I can get an accurate measure of my state of charge. It has also been useful to identify how much power various things are consuming and to identify small "ghost" loads that I hadn't been aware of. The Basic Pack which includes the monitor, a battery shunt (the sending unit) and wiring harness is $205 USD.
I REALLY want to upgrade to an M1 Mac, probably an Air, but wouldn't mind a Mac Mini. I have my current Mid 2019 MBP hooked up to an external monitor most of the time anyway.
Would love if you visited British Columbia to tour the house boats and live aboard setups folks have on the west coast. Some amazing floating mini communities.
@@xanosdarkpaw1 Canals have by the very nature of their being little to no current, as they are man-made and interspersed by locks to deal with any differences in altitude. you might get some use of the currents if you moor directly in a river, but I don't think a lot of people do that.
Most of my newer laptops use less power. Then i've gone to SSD HD's to store info on. So much less power then having to spin a disk to save info. Take care and be safe. Nice to see some video's from you every so often.
Very nice update video! I just wanted to add in a comment and you can research it if you care to. You had made the comment that temperature compensation really doesn't do a whole lot one way or the other. I disagree with that. If you look at the different charging parameters when the charge controller is operating under temperature compensation conditions you will see that there's actually a very big difference in voltages going in or not going in depending on whether it is hot or cold. I don't think most people understand how vitally important it is to buy a charge controller that has temperature compensation capabilities. It's worth the extra few dollars that you'll pay for that technology in my opinion.
Interesting video..thanks.. for comparison 1000watts solar has being the best compromise between boat roof space and battery longevity.. I run a fridge all 365days and also standard domestic washing machine on a 58ft boat with standard trojen wet cell batteries (550amphrs) which are coming up to nine years old. I'm a continuous cruiser and for about 3month a year a run my engine equipped with 250amp alternators twice a week for 1.5hours(this is when I use the washing machine).. I did try more solar but it just didn't make enough of a difference in low sunlight months. Hopefully someone finds this helpful.
Agree. However solar is "handy" from time to time when out cruising ... providing you can moor not in a forest and where solitary trees, high hedgerows or buildings throw a shadow. More common than you might suppose. There again in high summer, even in UK, the all steel boat will soon become a slow cooker if you insist on your solars seeing the Sun all day long. From experience, having an "enormous" bank of service batteries and running the engine as required seems to be the "preferred" custom and practice. Mind you tho' the rising cost of diesel might be a limiting factor in "just" running up your engine for charging purposes. I noted one comment, which lead to another canal blogger, touched on the notion of combining both lead acid AGM type batteries and lithium (that is LiFePo4 types) batteries on the same bus. It appears that an intelligent battery charger, on the AGM setting or profile, will happily charge lithium cells. I gather it relies on the lithium battery's BMS "doing the math" as it were. This practice seems to be frowned on by some alleged authorities yet endorsed by others. If you cared to follow this other vlogger then doubtless we'll learn how the system works over time. Strikes me, presuming the other blogger's boat doesn't end up in some conflagration akin to a nuclear holocaust, there might be some mileage in doing ditto. Reference was made to a Facebook group who appear to support the idea. (It's excellent how David's episodes and the subsequent comments invariably throw up something most of us hadn't thought about ... and then provide food for said thought. Sorry, couldn't resist footnote 😂😂😂 ... but still ... it's true tho'.)
Small homes, a big 3 bedroom dining room, living room, kitchen, rec room. laundry room, to have a 3 day of no sun will take a large battery bank and a large solar banks, all toil about 37,500.00 USD. but it's close to the best you can have and not spend more. And yes washer, dryer, etc are all bought for the use of solar power.
David, I can relate completely as I get daily or weekly advice from non- off grid folks on all manner of subjects. They just cannot help themselves and don’t really understand what it is like to live at the end of an extension cord and/or solar power only. I had to buy more batteries myself. Oh well. Thanks for the video!
I'm curious if a larger battery bank would help? Assuming that on good days the batteries reach a full charge, how many more batteries could a day of charging accommodate?
A useful power saving tip- if your freezer has a “fast freeze” button push it whenever running your engine or on sunny days when you may have excess power available. It will run your freezer to something like -30 or even colder. When you switch off the engine turn the freezer back to normal mode, and it will be many hours before the freezer has “warmed” sufficiently to require the compressor to run, you may find that your freezer can last all night without having to run.
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions:-
Why don't you get a wind turbine?
They're expensive, make a lot of rattly noise, you have to put them up and down each time you travel but above all, on a canal they're fairly useless. They need a constant, stiff (30mph+) breeze to even start generating anything worthwhile and unless you moor next to an open field where the wind swoops in all the time, you're not going to see a useful return.
Get a powerbank like those Jackery things, that would sort you out!
No, it wouldn't. You know, the companies making those things have done a wonderful marketing job of persuading people the boxes are some kind of miracle power-packs when in reality they are just (literally just) a battery, charger and inverter in one box - which is exactly what I already have on the boat as separate components! There's no magic about those things. They'd still run out of power after a day or so just as my batteries do, and then you're back to square one and you have to charge them ... so you're back to solar, or a generator or a shoreline.
Why don't you buy a Honda generator?
I do like those and they are relatively quiet. Many boaters do have and use little gennys over winter, for sure. The downside is having to buy and store petrol (it's not available on the canal so you'd have to get to a roadside service station and bring jerry cans back to the boat), plus they're a magnet for thieves. And the petrol costs are substantial, since you'd run the genny for maybe 2-3 hours a day. In my case, in a marina, generators are frowned upon for noise reasons (even though, paradoxically, you're OK to run the boat engine but it's generally a different type of sound)
Why not use a propane fridge?
They're probably great in RVs but except for a few older boats, they're not used on narrowboats these days. Unlike RVs, which can easily have holes in the floor to vent any escaped propane, gas leaks in a boat just sit in the bilge, forming a potential bomb if the gas were to meet a spark ... and propane fridges have a permanent pilot light. It's just not considered safe.
Why don’t you get Lithium batteries?
They’re lovely - but they’re also still extremely expensive, they wouldn’t like the hot and cold extremes in my engine bay so I’d have to re-engineer and re-wire the battery bank, and my alternator would need a charge controller added. And yes, they last for many years vs traditional batteries. If I bought a new boat, I’d specify them but it’s not worth the investment on a 22-year old boat.
Thank you
I am sorry I do not see any answers to FAQs here. Are the no shore power pontoons less expensive? This is a very good episode.
Many thanks 👍
I have re-pasted the FAQ answers in the hope that this time RUclips makes it stick! Can everyone see it now?
@@CruisingTheCut I found it scrolling down, it's not actually pinned to the top.
Raining 🌧 and grey means Tea time in the lazy chair. 😊 Thank you for this update and info on the system David.
You can fill old milk bottles with water and use them as a battery - whenever you open the door, the mass stays in the fridge/freezer. Normally the air falls out, warm air is sucked in to replace it and that then needs cooling.
Water holds about 8x the thermal mass of air so once the mass has been cooled on a sunny day, the fridge will use less power over the following overcast days to keep the contents cool.
does anyone know if the early narrowboats had iceboxes, or carried refrigerated goods?
ice with fibre or gelatin will avoid melting for quite some time, I've seen it used as briquettes in our home meal delivery boxes.
Having lived off grid for 11 years I agree whole heartedly with your winter solar comments. We have a 1kw Honda which, through the Victron charger , puts in 30 apps. Way better than the engine which is noisy and takes far too long
Good afternoon from Oklahoma. May you have a wonderful day sir.
Same to you!
What I do in winter, is find the best accessible marina with space that’s not too difficult to manoeuvre into, then just once a week I go and get an overnight plug in. Do the washing hoovering etc, fully charge the batteries, then go out somewhere more interesting for the week. Works for me, I have three 230ah AGMs and at 6 years old, they still seem as good as new. I have an inverter on all the time and 240v fridge, always on. I typically run the engine between 1 and 2 hours a day, usually 1 one day and2 the next, which also gives me hot water. It’s nice to have little cruises in winter if u can find a lock free area.It’s March now so solar takes over if I’m not moving. 845 w of solar, happy days.
dreary, bleak days in England? Who would have thought? Great video.
..it's like a video chat from an old acquaintance. A pleasant respite that improves the day.
May you be blessed with many sunny days!!!
I do appreciate your description of the batteries. "They take a good stuffing every day and are working fine". Made me have a chuckle.
It's amazing how you can make technical talk so interesting !!! thanks for another entertaining and informative vlog!
That's what reporters are good at lol
He definitely does a good job of it!
This guy could make watching paint dry a fascinating adventure, while also simultaneously soothing you into a pleasant, yet comatose state of pure relaxation.
Yep I agree you are just so entertaining marion healesville Victoria Australia
Hi David, I think you are doing absolutely the right thing for you I live on a 7 acre small holding in the beautiful Yarra Valley Victoria, its a pleasure and privilege to live here but I recognise that I have to downsize the nxt few yrs,we are only mere custodians of things, on to the nxt chapter, love your vlog,I'm hooked Marion purdie from Victoria
This video was so dull that it was absolutely riveting: Single shot, head-on of David sitting in a chair, gesticulating vaguely and talking about amps, volts and dreary weather for 15 minutes. Which is what one does on a boat going nowhere in winter, I suppose. It reminds me of those winter months I spent decades ago with my elderly English relatives, although they lived in a house in Southend, not a boat.
There were "colour" shots of the power management wall, and the batteries though...😁😁
Dull is my speciality
Hi David, I've been off grid for two and a half years now, your observations are spot on, this winter seemed to have lower "Sun Power", friends and family often say "just get more solar panels", but as you point out twice virtually nothing is still not a lot.
I've got 15kwh of Lead carbon (8x160ah Victron) our usage is equivalent to a monthly electricity bill of about £35 (according to comparison sites), we needed to run the generator every 2nd or 3rd day for a few hours, the total red diesel bill for Nov to mid February was around £100. It's thanks to your channel and a few others that gave me the inspiration to overcome the lack of power to my building project.
Notes on your phone are one of the greatest things ever. Never lose a note again. The one thing you cant do is a quick sketch. But you can find an old envelope, napkin, or even the back of your hand, do your sketch and then take a picture of it with your phone.
Hello David,
Interesting video... on solar panels, batteries, and charging anxiety... I hope you have a good weekend...
Take care
Paul,,
Thoroughly enjoyed this one David. I do love a geeky monologue all about solar panels and batteries.
Well covered David. On the solar panel front the conclusion is they only work well when it is sunny. If you have enough in summer for your needs then in winter you will only have 10% of your needs. 👍
who would think a shore-line would bring such happiness! (great video as always)
I will put a a humble THANK YOU for a new vid. Might sound a tad pathetic but I NEED my share of David.... Can not live with out it.
Great blog as per usual. The good thing about lead carbon batteries is that they are not as susceptible to sulfation in a psoc (partial state of charge) as normal lead acid are. So one doesn't necessarily need to get them in to "float" conditions to keep them as healthy.
David, you must be the only narrowboat vlogger not to have been given a portable chargeable battery power pack to test. Thanks for the update on the batteries, at least you havn't killed them.
So relatable when you were talking about the relief and excitement of being on shore power haha
Last words: ...ranty chatty... , ...vaguely interesting...
I just love the british way to put an understatement.
One of the reasons I follow this canal is actually to try to improve my English a bit.
I loved this video David, though some of it went whoosh over my head. Most of us would know you'd sort whatever problems came along to your satisfaction. The lengths of small logs tucked under your solar panels made me smile.
Get a good log saw and collect some more. I heat my greenhouse with logs during the day, and smokeless fuel at night.
A fire with collected fuel gives you a warm glow, even when its not burning very well.
That's why he used the under solar panel gap as storage...
the wind blowing through dessicates the wood (making dry, efficent burning) logs and the "roof" keeps water/snow/sleet/hail/dew off them.
@@JohnSmith-yv6eq Thanks John. I knew all of that.
' power ranger ' oh no David is going to be dressed in colourful lycra jumping around the place , thank goodness its a technological vlog :-) not what I first thought
Long may you continue with your rants chatty vlogs…always very interesting and lighthearted when needs be. Personally I think that PC of yours has got a mind of its own!!!!
People who Van life here in the state and mount solar panels on their roof will occasionally double stack them. When the vehicle is in motion the panels are stacked and parallel to the ground with only the top panel charging. Then when they are parked the panels are rolled to 30-45 degrees and the top panels slides up exposing the bottom panel to the sun. In theory that would be a way for you to double your solar acreage. HOWEVER it must be pointed out how much easier it is to turn a car so that the panels are facing the sun. With a canal boat while you CAN tilt the panels slightly on both the port and starboard side, it might not be enough to either get the ideal angle or slide one of the panels out if if slides towards the downward slope
While I have little knowledge of nor interest in solar panels, I always find your presentations interesting.
Always great vids, fascinating technical talks.
Yes, running a fridge uses lots of power, but some folks forget that it heats the air around it. Which may not be what you want to do with your electricity, but it's not always bad.
After 15 min "I have nothing new to tell you" you have told us a lot of news. In an interesting way. Thanks
Wonderful stuff David, allways a pleasure.
Enjoy the "Cruising the Cut" and the "Vandimonium" vlogs, and look forward to the new installments of both. Keep well!
Great to see you again so soon after the shows. All very interesting about your solar installation, so thanks for the update. 👋
I’m really enjoying your videos. I started watching narrowboat videos last July whilst holidaying In Scotland. Since then I have subscribed to many other narrowboat vloggers. Yours was the first, followed by Foxes Afloat. I’ve just heard that the Foxes are jacking it in, and starting a small holding in Scotland. So thank you for sticking at it, unlike the fly-by-nighters. Keep up the great vlogs they are very much appreciated.
A welcome video, always look forward to them whatever the subject.
I love this lesson, how an apparently small thing can be such a heavy burden that it's just not worth it. The constant scramble just wears on you.
Never fail to make your videos interested. A very well done 😀
Senior moments, David. Happens in the best of regulated families. And be assured, the sun will come out tomorrow. Thanks for sharing.
"Will you do an update?"
No
* roll credits * 🤣
Thank you, David, for the new vlog. I miss hearing from you. For one, I would listen to you read the phone book.
Maybe see my "David Reads Stories" channel (rarely updated but I hope to rectify that)
David I’m looking forward to a nice season of canal boat world stuff once you get over your hunger for Power 👍😄
There will be many documentaries about the canals coming soon.
What a great girl keep doing jobs like that and you will be building yourself a boat by yourself.
Your narrowboat with solar is like a country going over to renewables - sometimes the sun doesn't shine and the wind doesn't blow. Hence, other arrangements must be put into place to cover the shortfall. This can mean building back-up fossil fuel power stations and only running them occasionally which is expensive for a country but not so for a narrow boat. A better solution is to have connections to the outside world with the UK having interconnectors to Ireland, France, The Netherlands, Belgium and Norway with more on the way. This is relatively inexpensive and the result is that when we have a power shortage and our neighbours have a surplus, they can help us out and vice versa. Difficult to arrange for a narrow boat as you would need to be plugged in at all times. The third solution is storage - which is taking off worldwide due to massive cost reductions of lithium ion batteries. Although you do not say so - I suspect that you only have about one days storage capacity of about 1 kw.hr, so one day of poor solar means you are in trouble. If you had say 20 kw.hrs of storage then your usage of about 1 kw.hr per day would mean that you could last for 20 days. This is more than enough time for the poor weather to dissipate and for power production to return. Of course, the assumption is that you already have enough power production on average and just need to store the surplus for a ........ rainy day! 😁
Actually, natural gas can do spot generation now. Gas in city pipes can go stale, so in Phoenix AZ they have generators sitting at the end of the gas mains, and when it gets hot (all summer) they burn the old gas for power.
Thanks for the update. I must say, I've never seen any panel exceed 60/70% of the rated power. For example in the best conditions, my 200w panel produces 8/9 amperes at about 16v...that's cranking high for my 200w panels
Another wonderful video! Keep up your wonderful content
Thank you for the battery cruising the cut ! Electrifying ! Very good info. I think anyone living outside +/-30 degree latitude have solar issues each Winter (usually and always), and you in England are somewhere around 50deg North. I like solar a great deal, but only where/when it makes sense. My house is covered by shade trees run the city...so always in shade and pointing the wrong direction so can not get good solar at all. Thanks for the solid effort and report out.
A fairly new subscriber from Canada, enjoy watching your videos and most of all I can understand 98% of what you say. You got me hooked watching narrow boats but it is difficult to understand some of your fellow captains. I would enjoy seeing some of your trips to town for groceries and the village high points, I don't mean a travel video. Seeing your shops is all, I'm not a great fan of your quiet videos, a little bit of your voice over explaining where you are would be great. As well as giving you my complaint I will add, you could add a second alternator on your engine, it would make running your engine a lot less time. I am over whelmed at the amount of work that was done building those cannels by hand, especially the tunnels and viaducts. Your a good fellow, eh!!!
“Who knows what I’ve done with that note now”. 😂
You have my sympathies friend.
I’m in my 50s, and I’ll tell ya, it doesn’t get any better. 😬😉
Great vlog as always, informative and entertaining. Keep them coming!
As Stephen Arbo …has previously written… it makes perfect sense to listen in on your essays despite the fact that …as non narrowboaters we cannot apply your accumulated wisdom in our daily lives. Everyone enjoys the ability to express thoughts and ideas in a succinct clear manner. Coming back to your misplaced sheet of motor running stats …. I’ll bet that… at the time you told yourself: “I’ll put this away where I know that when the time comes to retrieve it the appropriate storage spot will immediately come to mind.”
That could work …and…then …maybe not.
😂👍🥂
🇨🇦
Can't find your note? Have you checked the freezer? 🤣
When I was a kid my stepmom lost (I don't remember) something, started looking for it when us kids were getting ready for school. When school was done she's still looking for it, finally right before dinner she found it, in all places (of a 3 bedroom house) the freezer! So if anyone says they lost "whatever" I always say "check the freezer"! 🤣
I'm fairly sure I threw the bit of paper in the bin thinking it was scrap!
Could be worse, I've heard of things ending up in the oven, and only being discovered when smoke appears after pre-heating it for dinner in the evening! :D
Nice to see a "real world" example of how and how not solar works for you. Thank you for explaining it to us.
Very informative as always.
Thanks David, being flexible and adaptable with a bit of practical prowess is the key to narrow boat life , clearly you love it :)
I live off grid and experience the same thing, little to no sun to charge my battery bank November and December mainly. I recently doubled my battery bank from 200 amp hours to 400 amp hours in hopes of going longer between good days and a mouth later I've yet to run the generator. I would suggest adding more storage (batteries )
A friend runs a solar system on his house boat. He made a dual alternator pedal system (like a bike). He charges his battteries while pedaling. He also hooked up a motor to them so they run after his workout. He hadn't killed the system yet. Doesn't run his motor unless it's colder than normal.
5:10 That M1 Mac is an amazing computer for what you do.
It's the silence I like!
Good morning from New Zealand, as always a thoroughly entertaining video, thank you. Have a great weekend.
I miss your videos
I don’t know why, I’m still making them very regularly 🤣
Yet another convert who has (reluctantly) seen the light of “Get a Mac”. Well done! 😊
David, anything you do is interesting 👍👍🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺
It is not only interesting to hear about how your systems work, but also the way you handle these things on your boat. I find it fascinating how people in different situations look differently at problems of life. Broadens your perspective.
Also: living in a big house with a lot of solar on the roof and planning to put in a somewhat huge battery bank, I do have an interest in how this works in smaller dimensions.
To be more efficient in generating electricity, and possibly make running the generator less noisy, a small generator sized to match the battery charging load would be a good idea.
To test the batteries you would need to install a shunt.
A smart shunt could log battery use as well as give you good state of charge information.
HELLO DAVID. great to see you. and as per. brightened up my day.. your batts will not give hassle before 5- may be 6 year. as long as you do the top up on a regular basis. the ole milk float lasted 7 to 8 year before needing some coaching to get 10 years out of them .. i got 10 years out of mine on a second life set. they were in backup mode for radio emergencies. i would like to suggest turning the one set of in the summer or you may gas off your batts ( dry them out ) . thanks for the chat as always. great to see you. things can only get better. .. lolol atb tone uk stay well and safe
Half the Europe accross (Slovenia) the situation was the same. I have panels tilted as they should be, but with literally 2 days of sun in november and december, the average production was approx 20W h/day. Compare that with approx 600-1000Wh/day now. Without HUGE batteries (10 or 20-times the amount you have) there is no way you could go through the winter only on solar. Unfortunately you simply need reliable (fossil fuel) backup power source.
Hi David, thanks for another interesting video.
Yes, in overcast weather, solar panel output is down about 90%. On a narrowboat you have a very limited amount of space for panels.
Several comments have been made about changing over to Lithium batteries to solve your problem but, that's not your problem. Your problem is you are not generating enough solar power to keep up with the 12 volt demands within the boat.
With my solar system, I have backups for my backups to ensure I have a reliable off-grid system. This works for my setup because I live in a house, living on a narrowboard would rule out a lot of possibilities. For your setup, I would recommend using a 1,000 watt inverter generator that has been modified to run off of propane, as well as petrol. To keep it whisper quiet, I would place it in a sound isolating box.
Go lithium , have bigger bank of house batteries, small bank for the engine & up rate your alternator as well as the solar to charge the lot
Cost!!!
A very helpful and informative vlog. The best thing I fitted by far on my boat was a battery monitor, Victron BMV712 that I can connect via Bluetooth. It’ll tell me when my batteries are getting close to full by the amount of charge they are accepting from engine or genny. Plus I can do a full audit on use by item simply isolating everything then turning one thing on at a time and seeing ( on my phone ) what amps it’s drawing. Keep up the good work, NbPercy
You can add a second larger alternator. Many camper vans do this.
I suggested this as well and he claims it's too expensive. I look forward to the video where he does the research and proves us wrong, or not.
I'm looking on eBay in the us and they cost like $150 but it'd probably have to be custom installed with that vintage engine he's got. And could that little guy handle it? I think yes, but it's something he'd have to check.
The limiting factor is often how much power you can push into the batteries. One of the big advantages of changing to lithium batteries is that they will take as much power you can give them, right up until they are full. With lead-acid batteries there is a lot of internal resistance so charging takes much longer.
Thanks David. On the cutting out with low solar - it's an inherent problem. With lead chemistry, current drops as the batteries become fuller (as you alluded to). Under ideal charging conditions, this can be used to decide when the batteries are full. Usually it's about 4% of the battery capacity. E.g. 4 amps on a 100 Amp hour battery. Most chargers work that way. With solar, the times of low light, including passing clouds can drop the charge current low enough and for long enough to fool the charge controller.
No fault, but might be improved by increasing the absorption voltage, reducing the tail current, say from 4% to 2% and, possibly, extending the time before the controllers switch to float. No guarantees. And it also depends on how much the controllers allow you to configure yourself.
At least with lead carbon, there's much better resistance to sulphation than with AGM etc.
There is nothing better while deployed than landing from a mission and after a nice phone call with my lovely bride, finding a new CtC vlog! Thanks David. By the way, may I ask if your vlogs are scripted or outlined or just off the cuff? Whatever method, it works very well!
This was entirely off the cuff and a single 'take'. My documentaries and vlogs are scripted for the voiceover and off the cuff for pieces to camera.
David I have been praying for you and your boat . You have made may say thank you for another blog can't wait for the blog
Fill the fridge up with waterbottles. Eliminate any air inside.
Shirley that was a typo?
Shouldn't that be beer cans or bottles of tonic?
I've recently started to re-watch your vlogs from the beginning and want to commend you on how far you've come! From undecided to what upholstery to have and doing a numptiy job screwing on a coat hook to now telling us the amp hour rating of your appliances and other such technical issues that I barely have a grasp on myself! Well done my friend👍good show!
Is your fridge/freezer a 12v compressor fridge..? I live full-time in my motorhome and just took out my 3 way fridge and installed a 12v compressor fridge/freezer. It is using about 1.5Ah. It cuts in and out when it's needed. I also have lead/carbon and love them. Have a look at Inlander in Birmingham for compressor fridges... 👍
Yes it's a 12V compressor, you don't tend to see three-way fridges on boats anymore due to gas safety (there are occasional ones about but on older boats)
Living on a boat and I mean living on a boat it all comes down to energy and comfort. Dedication to solar is a winning deal, once the investment you are all good, my opinion. Running the engine to provide power is far more expensive in the long run. Great explanation and yes, pencil and paper to keep track of usage is essential when sorting it out!
I wonder if it would be possible for some bright British bodger to figure out a way to transfer the heat from the fridge into the canal water directly, and if that would improve the efficiency of the fridge. Because on one hand you're running a fridge in a heated space so it's working harder, but at the same time all the energy the fridge uses ends up heating the living space and so would reduce energy costs elsewhere... this heating efficiency thing is a really tricky one isn't it?
It would be very easy to simply extend the fridge radiator pipes out the window or into the water (if you have the tools to work with it and know how to recharge the gas.)
I think it would be a more specialist job, though. I convinced my wife to let the kitchen stay cold to reduce energy use by the fridge and make the motor last longer.
Thanks for the video David! I use a Trimetric battery monitor from Bogart Engineering to keep track of the percent of charge in my lead-acid batteries. I like that with a glance I can get an accurate measure of my state of charge. It has also been useful to identify how much power various things are consuming and to identify small "ghost" loads that I hadn't been aware of. The Basic Pack which includes the monitor, a battery shunt (the sending unit) and wiring harness is $205 USD.
I learned early on put it on a spreadsheet on your phone you will always loose hand written notes lol
You crack me up. "The Bliss!" I'm sure if I was in your situation I'd feel the same, you just don't think about the stress.
Those M1 MacBook Airs are black magic. Mine runs Cycles renders in Blender faster than my 2019 27" Intel iMac.
I REALLY want to upgrade to an M1 Mac, probably an Air, but wouldn't mind a Mac Mini. I have my current Mid 2019 MBP hooked up to an external monitor most of the time anyway.
Would love if you visited British Columbia to tour the house boats and live aboard setups folks have on the west coast. Some amazing floating mini communities.
Nice vlog getting very technical can I ask have you tried wind power
Wind generators are a bit rubbish on the canals, see cruisingthecut.co.uk/f-a-q/
@@CruisingTheCut What about water? Is there any current?
@@xanosdarkpaw1 Canals have by the very nature of their being little to no current, as they are man-made and interspersed by locks to deal with any differences in altitude. you might get some use of the currents if you moor directly in a river, but I don't think a lot of people do that.
Cauliflower , broccoli or any type of bean soup , atrocious wind
They can be very noisy - have a look at the vlog Ship Happens - they put a windie on, and it drones and vibrates a lot.
Most of my newer laptops use less power. Then i've gone to SSD HD's to store info on. So much less power then having to spin a disk to save info. Take care and be safe. Nice to see some video's from you every so often.
Even the PC laptop had an SSD for its main disk. It was the CPU and GPU that drew all the power, I think.
I really must try again to understand amps, watts and volts. Now in my 70s it probably is too late though.....
Very nice update video! I just wanted to add in a comment and you can research it if you care to. You had made the comment that temperature compensation really doesn't do a whole lot one way or the other. I disagree with that. If you look at the different charging parameters when the charge controller is operating under temperature compensation conditions you will see that there's actually a very big difference in voltages going in or not going in depending on whether it is hot or cold. I don't think most people understand how vitally important it is to buy a charge controller that has temperature compensation capabilities. It's worth the extra few dollars that you'll pay for that technology in my opinion.
Interesting video..thanks.. for comparison 1000watts solar has being the best compromise between boat roof space and battery longevity.. I run a fridge all 365days and also standard domestic washing machine on a 58ft boat with standard trojen wet cell batteries (550amphrs) which are coming up to nine years old. I'm a continuous cruiser and for about 3month a year a run my engine equipped with 250amp alternators twice a week for 1.5hours(this is when I use the washing machine).. I did try more solar but it just didn't make enough of a difference in low sunlight months. Hopefully someone finds this helpful.
Agree. However solar is "handy" from time to time when out cruising ... providing you can moor not in a forest and where solitary trees, high hedgerows or buildings throw a shadow. More common than you might suppose.
There again in high summer, even in UK, the all steel boat will soon become a slow cooker if you insist on your solars seeing the Sun all day long.
From experience, having an "enormous" bank of service batteries and running the engine as required seems to be the "preferred" custom and practice.
Mind you tho' the rising cost of diesel might be a limiting factor in "just" running up your engine for charging purposes.
I noted one comment, which lead to another canal blogger, touched on the notion of combining both lead acid AGM type batteries and lithium (that is LiFePo4 types) batteries on the same bus.
It appears that an intelligent battery charger, on the AGM setting or profile, will happily charge lithium cells. I gather it relies on the lithium battery's BMS "doing the math" as it were.
This practice seems to be frowned on by some alleged authorities yet endorsed by others.
If you cared to follow this other vlogger then doubtless we'll learn how the system works over time.
Strikes me, presuming the other blogger's boat doesn't end up in some conflagration akin to a nuclear holocaust, there might be some mileage in doing ditto.
Reference was made to a Facebook group who appear to support the idea.
(It's excellent how David's episodes and the subsequent comments invariably throw up something most of us hadn't thought about ... and then provide food for said thought.
Sorry, couldn't resist footnote 😂😂😂 ... but still ... it's true tho'.)
Shore power (Ahhh) = popcorn. Cheers! Spring will soon be here...
Nice follow up …This set up proves the fact that solar power is the answer for 80% of a homes power requirements !!
Small homes, a big 3 bedroom dining room, living room, kitchen, rec room. laundry room, to have a 3 day of no sun will take a large battery bank and a large solar banks, all toil about 37,500.00 USD. but it's close to the best you can have and not spend more.
And yes washer, dryer, etc are all bought for the use of solar power.
@@sirfrydryk360 wash your clothes by hand, dry on a clothes line, take cold showers etc. people forget once there was no electricity.
Rubbish, just like electric cars, a flop in reality.
It‘s always a pleasure to listen to you. My main theme is using solarpower on a caravan, or boat or van or just to charge. Keep going.
Did you get any noisy drumming bunnies with the batteries ?
Cheers King David of the Cut!
Maybe we’re going about this all the wrong way….. May you should get a Flux Capacitor, a Mr Reactor, and some banana peels :😀
David, I can relate completely as I get daily or weekly advice from non- off grid folks on all manner of subjects. They just cannot help themselves and don’t really understand what it is like to live at the end of an extension cord and/or solar power only. I had to buy more batteries myself. Oh well. Thanks for the video!
As Kermit the Frog famously said, "It ain't easy being green".
Great to see you again, David - as always. Thanks for the update.
I'm curious if a larger battery bank would help? Assuming that on good days the batteries reach a full charge, how many more batteries could a day of charging accommodate?
It would if I had any suitable space ☹️
@@CruisingTheCut Yeah, I was going on the hypothetical, not the practical ;)
LOL "I have no idea what happened to the note" ... we all done it!
Damm you Steve Jobs.
A useful power saving tip- if your freezer has a “fast freeze” button push it whenever running your engine or on sunny days when you may have excess power available. It will run your freezer to something like -30 or even colder. When you switch off the engine turn the freezer back to normal mode, and it will be many hours before the freezer has “warmed” sufficiently to require the compressor to run, you may find that your freezer can last all night without having to run.
Alas, mine has no such function