Tom Richmond

Seems like this would be ideally suited to a solar dump load. Even if the batteries didn't reach float til towards the end of the afternoon you would still get some usable hot water in your tank (rather than some just luke warm!)

Does anyone have experience of Willis heaters? Seems they can be plumbed in parrallel to the cylinder, does the hot water then syphon in somehow? If anyone has a link to a source which explains this that would be super helpful!

For anyone interested, and anyone trawling this thread in the future, here is a video demonstrating installation of the essex flange.

This is what their website suggests - but how? What is this witchcraft?

OK - I cannot find any dual voltage immersion elements. All my googling turns up are other forum threads with frustrated people looking for this elusive item unsuccessfully! Essex flange looks like a good way to go... Anyone done this? I guess I need to wriggle inside the cylinder with bits of coat hanger or similar in order to attach it?

Not sure, this image (taken from an article on solar dump loads) was just for reference. It would need to be 1" BSP, as that is what most DC water eaters seem to have.

Yes, exactly. The 240v element is still required, but we want to add the 12v one. Any idea where you get a dual element???

Hi there, Is it possible to drill, tap and attach a threaded collar like this: ... into a calorifier in order to connect a DC immersion element and wire a dump load water heater? If so: A) Where does one get such a collar? B) Is regular silicone good for the job - or should it be high temp? (I think I even have some gasket silicone somewhere...) C) Any advice or best practice when inserting? How do I avoid existing coils on the inside? I assume best placed low down in the tank? I have no issues with the electrical side of the install, have done this before a few times but always in cylinders with the threaded insert fitted during manufacture. I worry that the wall thickness would not be sufficient to get a good purchase with the bolts, and that there may be issues of strength when under pressure... Thanks in advance!

I have heard many reports of squirrels cracking, but not all on boats. I have heard many people talk about great welded steel stoves, but not all on boats. I don't think there is a correlation between cracked cast iron stoves and boat engines, sure there are vibrations, but cast iron stoves crack due to heat... I currently have a Rayburn on my boat, but we don't have an onboard engine, so it's mostly irrelevant.

The surface of the river has been covered in diesel for 36 hours. Any advice on cleaning it off boats?

Hi there, I moor on the river Avon between Bath and Bristol. We have recently experienced a large diesel leak into the river, the whole . It has been tracked to the heating tank of a local business. The environment agency are on the case, bit it has taken two days to isolate the source, so there has been significant impact. My question is this: How does diesel fuel affect the paint on the hulls of our boats? My boat has been epoxied, but most of my neighbours have regular blacking. Interested to know if we should be trying to clean our hulls, and/or if there will be some damage regardless, and we might be thinking about compensation? Cheers for any help!

We put engineered oak down. We glued it direct to the subfloor, and it looks good after 3 years. In my experience (in houses) floating floors tend to develop cracks over time, whereas glued floors stay good for ages... It's a specific high flex glue, which allows the floor to expand and contract... If using glue you don't need underlay, but even if floating I would avoid it on a boat, as it may suck in and trap moisture. Insulating under the ply is a good idea if you can, but beware that if the ply gets wet (big spillage, plumbing failure etc) it will want to dry out from above and below. So if you have sealed it in with insulation below, it will be likely to hold moisture and rot. We also added vent holes through the ply along the edges of the boat, with little brass vents over (one every 6'-8'). These are really useful, allowing a view into the bilge and obviously airflow. We tried to locate them near the fire and fridge, as these suck air through the bilge. Others were located under furniture or in out of the way corners.

Thanks for this. Discovered I have a relative who works for Gtech! Have just taken advantage of her staff discount and ordered a multi. Glad you are able to remove your pets. Tom.

Hopefully when we are out of the EU we will have the common sense not to undo sensible regulations. However as a nation we decided to leave the EU, which doesn't bode well when it comes to common sense.

Thanks everyone. Useful stuff. For reference, gtech seem to be about twice as much as dyson.

Thanks. This is really useful. However Henry much too big. Small handheld unit like Dyson v6 is what I'd like... Will look into numeric range.

Hi there, Looking for recommendations for a decent vacuum cleaner. Needs to be small, ideally handheld. Needs to be powerful, living on a boat with a toddler! Cordless an advantage but not necessary. 240v whether corded or for charging is fine. Efficient, compact storage of accessories a definite plus. I know that Dyson do one for about £150. I am hoping someone will say there is an alternative make producing something as good for less money... Thanks in advance

TMV on the output will remove the risk of scalding, but don't want to boil the water inside. My thought is a thermostat with a probe inserted through the insulation to the cylinder, connected to a relay switching the DC line from panels to heating element.

Got one of those already installed. So you are saying I can connect the DC output of my solar panels directly to the already existing 230v immersion heater and it will just work? What about the thermostat, is that built to take the increased current that will flow due to the lower voltage? Is the element itself built for the increased current?

As far as I am aware the DC elements do not have thermostats, no. What's gonna be best? A quick Google has not pulled up any 110v immesion elements, whereas 48v 1kw ones are all over the place...

Or 16A at 60v? Sounds like you guys think my plan will work... And the suggestion that a 48v heating element will burn out if supplied with 60v (or more) seems to not be the case? So, subsequent question is what sort of thermostat do I fit to the cylinder? I assume I need something with a temperature probe inserted into the insulation, connected to a relay to shut off the power from the panels when tank reaches full temp. How high can I go? 80deg? 90deg? 99deg? Cauliflower has a thermostatic mixer on so hotter the better, as long as I am not boiling inside the tank, right?

Sorry if anyone felt 'shot down'. I do appreciate the various alternative ideas suggested, but am just indicating why they don't apply to me. Not having shore power my top priority is the condition of my batteries, so running anything through my batteries seems foolish to me. Yes, my Easysolar includes a 1600va inverter. But using it for water heating would mean it wasn't free if I wanted to use other devices.

oops. sorry nicknorman. I wrote about the morco, but ended up editing it out as unnecessary clutter. So, are you saying that running a PV array of 72voc/60vmp into a 48v DC heating element would not burn out the element? This is the key question for me...

Yeah, I even added microbore pipes before lining the boat. But space on roof is limited and cost is significant. Even this ebay system would still require a pump, controller, pipes, antifreeze etc etc etc. As far as I can see the hardware and installation of the electrical route as suggested in OP is much less significant.

Thanks for your input guys, but your thoughts are not appropriate to my situation. 1) My boat has no Engine. 2) I am on a permanent mooring, without power (as indicated by the fact that I said 'Off Grid' in my OP). 3) I have massively oversized my PV array in order that it will provide most of my power even in winter. So, given the above, A) I have bucket loads of solar which will be creating excess power in summer. B) My batteries are a the most important factor here, so I will always want them to have priority over anything else (ie cold water+ charged batteries is fine, hot water + anything less than full batteries is not OK!) We have a morco gas heater as well (also mentioned in OP)