Bob Blues

I have seen quite a few Solar powered boats powered boats so a few years ago when I looked at the Solar Boat Co, they put 1000w of solar panels on the roof. I think with todays technology and improvements in Solar panels I could get to close to 2KW in the same space so this would be the main charger. Yes I know that the chances of getting anywhere near 2KW of energy in the UK is remote but even with the Solar Boat Co, they reckoned on 1500 miles a year and that was with a small battery bank and 1000x of solar. My original intentions was too use 24 * 1000Ah Lead Acid batteries powering a Lynch motor but with advancements in Lithium-ion 18650 3.7 battery I could build up a 45Kw bank and quite happily power a Lynch motor charging from mains power through a mastervolt 48V combi and solar when Im out. Re Cost: The Lead acid bank from Bimble Solar is circa 4k The cheapest I have seen for LI bats are 4 x 5.8a 3.7 18650 are about £8 So I recon I need 13 bats for 48v at 5.8A or 278w at £26 per bank so thats 161 banks to give 45Kw at that cost is £4193. If the batteries work then I see these will last longer and be more efficient. Bob Please feel free to slate and correct my maths

Well Picked the Tesla up today and had the lecture about charging every night. I mentioned I was on a NB and although living in a Marina it is difficult to charge every night. The supercharger is only 2 miles from my G/F house so I will pop it there when it needs a charge. I am currently running at 340 W/mile. Putting the heater on full to de-mist the windows use 2 miles of range and putting my foot down hard did not deplete the range so I think lithium batteries could be the answers this brings me back to the original post, How can I fit this techonology to a NB I can see huge opportunities. A 90KW battery on a NB I believe could go for days with out charging. Bob

Have been following the Tesla Forums with regards to charging the new car. I have seen many posts saying that the best course of action is to keep them below 80% as over 80 stresses the batteries. Now, With regards to using this technology in a narrow boat, I don't see why you couldn't use this. The Tesla battery pack uses a heater and cooler to keep the batteries at the optimum temperature. So the same could be used in the hull of a NB. I was looking at putting a Linch motor into the boat a few years ago and looked at 1000 A/h Lead acid batteries this would have given me 48KW of power charged through solar or a gen. The cost of this was about £4500 of the batteries. However, as I said in my OP I would love to go for the same technology as the Tesla. The car batteries are 16 units laid out across the floor but these could be stacked up instead of laid flat so pack them into the old engine compartment. I would try to go for a 40KW Lithium and run coolant through a pump to the boats skin tank. The front motor in the 90 D puts out about 195Hp I think so I guess this work for the boat with a restriction on the motor. Bob

Right, well I have bought my 90D. From all the tech information I get it looks like the best battery life is when the batteries are only charged to 80%. If its charged to 100% then they face a higher degradation. Trying to see if I can get Mr Musk to invest in NB technology bob

I have been thinking of buying a Tesla Car and this has 90Kw of battery. I have also wanted to convert my boat to battery power and for some time looked at the solar boat project but was put off by the limited amount of power/cruising time. So when I started looking at the Tesla 90D I was looking at the charging options. When connected to a Tesla Super Charger it will charge your 90kw battery to 80% in 20 mins and a full charge in 1 hr. Tesla’s battery packs contain thousands of lithium-ion battery cells which must be parallel charged to be able to charge that quickly. There are various charging options standard 3 Kw/11kw/22kw and the single phase and 3 phase options. So I guess there must be an intelligent option that applies the charge across multiple points of the battery instead of the main terminals. From watching a video of the super charger it was charging at over 400V but the speed of charge was amazing. The other thing was the battery life and discharge capabilities. One chap had done 200,000 miles and the battery was at 96% I know people take their battery down to 10% all the time and then use the super charger to 80-90% and then down to 10% again with out any degradation. Is it possible to use this technology in a Narrow boat? I have seen the size of the battery pack and although it is very heavy I recon it would fit in. It seems like we are in the dark ages with regards to power discharging batteries to 50% so they last a long time seems so old. Tesla have a 8 year guarantee on their batteris so I guess they must be happy with their performance. There is also a number of inverter options so unless I get one and strip the car down and retro fit it to the NB I’ll not know. I see they have a 100Kw battery pack now. Hmmm Comments?

Thanks for the Guidance. I had originally 4 US2200xc batteries. Although they worked fine the problem I had was that they leaked and I suffered a lot of corrosion around the battery tray. I set the Mastervolt Combi up accordingly and they worked very well. My power demand has now changed a lot over the years. No TV for a start and I changed all my lights to LED. The biggest change was I had a 24track recording studio on the boat and over the last 2 years have replaced all of audio equipment to low power alternatives. I have removed the desk which took a large amount of power and replaced it with a Raven MTI touch screen monitor which give me the ability to mix just by placing my fingers on the screen. With all the other changes to my system I now use 9 Ah (well according to the MICC) so I replaced my batteries with maint' free Albion 110's. I used 20Ah and the voltage was still 12.7 after 20 mins of no load, so I guess everything is working well. I will change the return amps as suggested and look at the other figures. Once again many thanks

Hello, I have a Mastervolt Combi 12/2000/100 connected to a Mastervolt MICC control panel. I have a number of questions about the advance settings. I have just installed a new bank of batteries after my old ones died after 5 years and this prompted a reset if the settings. I have set the combi up for maintenance free standard leisure and set the total capacity. What should be the "return amps" setting be and how does it work. I reset the device to system defaults after I installed the new bats and the MICC gave this at 1% although the manual says 2%. What is a good setting? I take it the Float lever should be 13.6 for my setup. One final question on Peukert and CEF these are set to 1.27 and 90% is this advisable or should i change this. Many Thanks Bob

I think Amazon do them and you can get them direct from the manufacture. I was sent one as we advertised their products on the radio station. http://www.amazon.com/s/node=13278866011/ref=s9_acss_bw_hsb_reftag12_s4_s?_encoding=UTF8&search-alias=hpc&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-2&pf_rd_r=1B6SMVBPZTN7XCNH0KZH&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=2255095522&pf_rd_i=3777371 Or you can get them direct. They are great for getting rid of old paint if you attach a chisel. Bob

If you can afford to go to War then you can afford to look after your returning servicemen. So sad

two weeks ago the cheepest was 68p on the Oxford (a coal) merchants. The most I saw was 121 on the thames. Saying that there was a sign at one place saying they enforce a 60/40 split and the cost per ltd was 130 with the split. Bob what was more interesting it was 113.7 for Petrol and 114.7 for diesel. They got upset when I pulled out 3x 20 ltd jerry cans though. Only 5 ltd plastic or 10 ltd metal now! Bob

On the iPhone 6 there is a function called Medical ID which is shown on the emergency screen. so you don't need to unlock it Details on setting it up are here http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/50929/how-do-i-set-medical-id-on-my-iphone-6-for-personal-emergencies/ to access it select Emergency off the screen when locked and bottom left there is red text click on that and you can see all the data and it allows you to call the Person listed. Blood type. Organ donor etc... It is well though through Bob

First time on the Oxford... I notice coming south through banbury yesterday there is traces of an old canal disappearing off to the west. When out with my dog this morning I found a old bed and towpath. Looking at the wiki entry for the Oxford canal it says it was re-routed but much north Banbury. I have searched on the internet but can't find any charts with the old and new canals together (or even any old routings). Does anyone have a link that can point to where the old canal went. Great Canal. Despite the 4 boats of Idiots on a stag party all heading south lol.... Bob

No TV for me either!

I got all my Lights from Bedazzled. Bedazzled but when I put on my Lights my DAB radio goes off so there is some interference. Bob

My case rests (actually its wasn't my case Ooops... )

yes they killed themselves then locked themselves in a suitcase then threw themselves into canal. OR Some one else did it. bob

Thanks for the replies... The down side is the cost, I looked at the L16H-AC and for 4 it comes to 1200 including delivery. I was quoted 900 for 6 * 2V 500Ah. and £450 for 4 T105 so the 105's can be replaced twice for the same cost as the L16H-AC. I have had 4 good years out of US2200Xc Just looking for alternatives. the T145 may be the answer. Bob

I know the most popular Trojan battery is a T105 but has any one used the higher capacity T145 its 260 Ah at 20Hr instead of 225Ah at 20Hr. Or even the L16H-AC at 435Ah at 20Hr. I can only fit 4 in so I was looking for the highest capacity 6V battery. I don't think I can fit in the 2V 500Ah batteries due to height. Bob

EE are a bag of old Socks and are going to get worse as BT are buying them. I have been with Orange since 92 and have just canceled and gone to Giff Gaff. Wow So much nicer, Cheaper and I get 4G in my area. Incidentally when I rang to get the PAC code to move my number to GiffGaff the young man who worked at EE he agreed with me and said he was goign to leave too as soon as BT took them over. Bob

My GF is Lactose and Gluten intolerant. I can vouch first hand of the effects in the bed room after she has eaten it. When we go out on the boat we take as much Dried pasta as we can and this time I will taking my Breadmaker (if the inverter can cope ) so we can make bread when we are traveling. Bob

I agree is is a good piece of kit but it dosn't work with Mac power supplies. One pother thing is if you use it through a lighter socket its only rated to 150w

I have a 300w Maplin special and when I try to charge the mac pro book the mac power supply switches off after a few seconds and won't come back on.. Works ok off the main inverter. Terrible device... Bob

My Mastervolt 12/200/100 Combo is now in and working as my old Heart Mastervolt was drawing 10A with inverter on in idle and nothing plugged in and the new Combi is taking just under 1A. So I have been considering the Masterlink MICC.Has anyone got any advice/experience on using this box. Its a tadge expensive so will it do the same as the Smartguage which is a little cheaper and from what I can see you don't have to put in a big 500A shunt. Just wondering. Bob

thanks Bob