JamesMW

Many thanks for the replies all. I'll go ahead with the original install as planned and forget about trying to work out how to get twin wall flue out of the roof of the boat without one of those silicone whatsits and still have a removable chimney. Thanks Again, James

Hi All, After a lot of planning, research, money saving and a complete kitchen demolition, my reconditioned solid fuel Rayburn arrives in a couple of weeks. I've moved on to sorting out the flue and the hearth and started looking at getting the bits for the flue ordered today. I'd planned on using a standard cast iron deck collar, with standard 5" mild steel pipe straight out of the existing hole in the roof from the old stove that was in the boat, although this needs to be enlarged. The new flue will need a slight off-set, but nothing too serious. I then thought I'd check on the BSS website to make sure that I wasn't going to fall foul of any new regulations and lo and behold their website now states that "If you’re adding a stove to your boat or replacing the existing one...": Use insulated chimney sections inside and outside of boat. They should be of the diameter recommended by the stove manufacturer, and never less than 100mm. The chimney should be adequately supported as it passes through the cabin roof to prevent the weight being taken on the stove. This can be found at the following link: https://www.boatsafetyscheme.org/stay-safe/solid-fuel-stoves/new-stove-new-chimney/ Which also then defers to this document / diagram and BS 8511: http://www.soliftec.com/Boat Stoves 1-page.pdf The Rayburn is replacing an existing appliance and the boat is not a new build. As it will also be providing all of the Rads and the calorifier with hot water via a gravity circuit I am not that concerned about losing the heat generated from the flue to the room which has been mentioned on other posts, but in my opinion, insulated flue looks terrible and I'm sure this means I am not able to use a standard deck collar. Does anyone know whether this is just guidance, or whether it must now be strictly adhered to? Many thanks in advance, James

Hi All, First of all , many thanks to everyone for the replies so far. Some responses to questions and points raised: This was one of my main considerations, Normally I leave around 6am get home about 6pm, but on one or two nights a week I will not get home until 8 or 9pm. I can manage but I think that the ability to have instant hot water at unsociable hours is pushing me more and more towards a Morco instant gas heater unit. Hi Tony, I'm sorry I think I have been misunderstood, most likely due to my incorrect terminology. The panel I was referring to was the information panel on the "ProCharge Ultra" charger. The fault that it is showing is the "High DC Voltage Trip". Sterling say the following about this on the instructions: 21) High voltage trip, the unit is defective and tripped itself, or a high back DC voltage has been detected, like a wind generator reg gone defective I suspect the former. I have been running the engine where possible in the evenings and for a good few hours on the weekends. For the first couple of weeks everything was fine judging by the basic voltmeter that it is installed. However, over the last week or so I have been struggling to get much over 11 volts on the domestic bank - I took an 8 hour cruise on Boxing Day with everything off apart from the fridge and an hour with the tunnel light on in the evening and the results were much the same. My power audit is as follows - pretty sure I have not missed anthing but I have had to go on info from the web for the fridge as I wasn't able to pull it out to check the exact current. It is an Inlander unit if that makes any difference: *EDIT: Remove badly formatted power audit table and attach as .xlsPower_Audit .xls * The domestic battery bank is made up of 3x110Ah lead acid batteries which are of the maintenance free variety. Using the calculations on Tony's site I make that a necessary bank of 218Ah, so the current bank should be sufficient, although I suspect that the batteries are tired and one is on it's way out. I am going to try and take a better look at them this evening - headtorch, boilersuit and all. Neil, you are correct and my Lister also has a multi-groove alternator pulley. The belt is pretty new and the alternator is putting in around 14v when the engine is running. The split between the starter and the domestic batteries is controlled by a durite voltage sensing relay. I hope that this answers some of your initial questions and that you can aid me in recommending a decent battery and charging solution. I'm keen to get this right first time! All the Very best, James

I recently ended up with a loan from Pegasus, who broker for a peer to peer lender called RateSetter amongst others - they were very easy to deal with. After spending a considerable amount of time looking recently I could find no-one to actually provide a mortgage rather than a loan since RoyScot Larch sold out to Lombard Marine Finance, who incidentally, will not provide any finance for a liveaboard. Collidge and Partners now only do insurance, I understand that previously they were a broker for RoyScot. Kindest Regards, James

I can second that. I recently paid for a 50ft narrowboat - £582 inc. VAT for the survey & £325 inc VAT for the lift out. Kind Regards, JamesMW

So, after three weeks of living as a CC'er, moving on board from a tiny flat in the centre of Watford I have to say that overall I loving the change of pace, the people and the difference in lifestyle. I bought a 1991 semi-trad built by Pinder that had just had an engine rebuild and was generally in nice condition. That said, I have run into a couple of teething problems and I'm hoping that the forum members may be able to help me out. Firstly the hot water: The boat is fitted with a Lister LPSW4 engine connected to a 30 litre (possible surecal) calorifier. Within 30-40 minutes of having the engine running I get piping hot water - about ten litres of it and then it's stone cold. Today, after a full day's cruising I could fill a quarter of the hip bath that is fitted on the boat, or two sinks full. From what I have read from other posts on living aboard and using a calorifier this doesn't seem normal. The unit is mounted horizontally in the engine bay slightly above the engine. It is also fitted with a 1kw immersion which I have not tested. I work full time and often long hours - I have thought of retrofitting a Morco/Paloma type gas water heater, but I am sure that if I can get the calorifier working well then I would rather stick with that. Can anybody offer me some guidance on what may be the issue here?` Secondly, the power: When I moved onto the boat I spent an afternoon fitting a new 12v fuseboard, with proper fittings and working out exactly what everything did. There were lots of bits and pieces that had been added in over the years. I'm now refitting all of the lighting inside with LED downlighters and strip lights. The original lighting was poor, a mix of incandescent bulbs, halogen units and failing fluorescent strips. Having said that, it appears today that one or more of the domestic batteries has fallen over. I cannot get enough charge into the bank and the alternator is working fine. There is a sterling procharge intelligent charger fitted, but having no shoreline makes it unusable. Testing it using my portable generator showed a fault on the panel which I have not been able to identify as yet. A reset did not clear it. I need to replace the batteries and I would like some recommendations for new ones. I was also thinking about replacing the alternator - It appears to be an aging 70amp unit with a bit of a grumbly bearing. Has anyone got any opinions on the Sterling 140/200 amp alternator + "PDAR" kits? If there is a better or less expensive way of doing this then I am all ears! With Kind Regards, JamesMW

Hi bottle, You're correct - I don't need both. There is a charging system already on the boat and I will not be using shore power - not for a while yet anyway. I had completely forgotten that washing machines had electric immersions in them. My plan would be to only use the washing machine with the engine running - but I suppose that depends on the alternator that is fitted and whether this second alternator is a 'Travel Power' generator as previously suggested by Tony Brooks. I think I really need to go away and take a proper look at what is already fitted on the boat. It's being pulled out of the water this coming Thursday for a survey and I'm going to go up to discuss with the surveyor, although I do not expect there to be any structural issues as it was only out for blacking with the BSS certificate done at the same time in May this year. I'll work out exactly what the capacity of the bank is and also what the current output of the 12V alternator is at the same time. I really don't want to get in to a position where I could ruin my batteries for the sake of having a standard domestic washing machine on board. Perhaps one of these twin tub jobs would be a better option! Thanks again to all for your advice - much appreciated. All the Best, James

Hi Everyone , Many thanks for the advice. I was looking at removing it and replacing it with a more modern inverter. I don't have anything that needs to run over about 2000W (I dislike microwaves so that is going - It's only a washing machine I would like to keep). If available a 3000W constant inverter with a slightly higher peak power would be ideal. Prices seem to vary wildly between the likes of Victron and those advertised on eBay and the like such as this one: Inverter Can anybody suggest a middle ground to replace this antiquated rotary job with? With Kind Regards, James

Hi All, Pearley - that is exactly what it looks like from the outside, although I am not sure that it is a 'REDI-LINE' unit. I figured that it might not be very efficient. Do you think that it would be worthwhile replacing this unit with a more efficient modern inverter? I'm going to be continuously cruising until at least next June and whilst I can manage with 12V for most things it would be nice to be able to install a small washing machine rated for around 1800W. All the Best, James

Hi All, I have been lurking for some time now - last week I placed the deposit on my new (to me) floating home which will be transported and craned into the Grand Union near Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire on or around the 1st December. When I first enquired about the boat I noticed on the brochure that there was an onboard AC 'Generator' fitted - it seemed like a perfect solution for a liveaboard vessel as my experience of Inverters (mainly fairly inexpensive modified-sine wave jobs in 'RV' type set ups has found them to be quite underwhelming) Upon further investigation when I went to see the boat the generator was not as I first thought, and is something that I have never seen or heard of before apart from in industrial applications. I wondered whether anyone here had experience of a similar set up: Essentially, instead of a standard wall mounted inverter or diesel/propane powered onboard generator it has what appears to be a small M-G set; A permanent magnet DC motor driven from the 12V battery bank directly coupled (with a small flywheel) to a 230V AC Generator unit. The boat has 4 very large domestic batteries and a starter battery on a split charge system. The 'generator' spins up as soon as demand is placed on it from the cabin by switching something on. It's very quiet and appears to handle at least 1000w without much trouble, but I cannot see any specifications for it at all on the body of the unit, which is mounted in the engine bay. There are also two very large alternators fitted to the Beta Marine engine. I'm afraid I haven't got any pictures at this stage but I will endeavour to grab some on Thursday when I go to meet the surveyor. How efficient is this set up likely to be? I can see it being a big drain on the batteries. Has anyone lived with or experienced one of these before? All the Best, James