Category: Storage
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Our Scandinavian challenges part 2
In Our Scandinavian challenges part 1 I covered the time/permission complications of getting to spend time in the fantastically beautiful (and remote) parts of Scandinavia and the Baltic given the impact of Brexit. I ended with “In part 2 I’ll look at the other key challenges these cruising grounds have for us (particularly heating and…
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House Battery Bank: Should we go 48 Volt?
While we wrote Going 100% electric: the “house” after Going 100% electric: the Motor we had in fact made most of the decisions around the house electrical system before we made the decision that we would go straight to an electric motor instead of the diesel. Now we are thinking about making a change. The…
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Avoiding engineering calculation paralysis
Two recent examples have in equal measures frustrated and amused me. In their plans for Ruby Rose 2 Nick and Terysa have oodles of calculations but they appear to be aimed at justifying fitting large diesel engines because an all electric boat isn’t possible. They seem to have totally missed what was shown to be…
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Arriving and building motivation
So we arrived and were unpacked onto Vida just before midnight to be ready for the next Friday progress. This picture of our saloon floor is there as motivation to get the motor compartment completed enough to install the house battery bank.
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Saturday extra
So we had an extra day this week. The house battery bank box got the last bits coated in epoxy. I finished the vertical posts that the corridor and cockpit sides will fasten to. These got coated in epoxy and fastened in with thickened epoxy. They will also support the horizontal beams that the house…
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Friday progress 24
I suppose the most significant progress is that we has a guest sleeping on board with us for the first time. Stephen, one of our sons, in our social bubble, joined us for the night. The saloon single berth got a good rating. Today, I ended up working for the morning but Jane and Stephen…
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Holiday progress day 9: Electric Motor reliability
Well not much progress today because we nipped home last night as our old Diesel engine was being collected today. The forecast had also helped make the decision with another storm coming through. So rain nearly all day for the time we were in Manchester, rain for the journey back to Beaumaris and rain most…
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Going 100% electric: the “house”
I recently detailed where we are at with the Electric Motor, now for the domestic “House” side. The House power supply I have started building the battery box which will sit above the motor and motor batteries in the motor compartment. We have 4 x 120AH Lithium (LiFePo4) batteries from KS Energy KS-LT120B. These have…
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Holiday progress day 7: miscellaneous
So today we picked up a few jobs, none of which got completely finished. However, we did succeed with selling our Diesel engine (and have got paid this time!). First job was to create FR4 backing plates for the new seacocks (the TruDesign fittings need a minimum thickness which is greater than the hull at…
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Going 100% electric: the Motor
A few people have been asking for product information about our electric plans. Bear in mind that this isn’t yet fully implemented and certainly not proven by us. Also that our choice is to be fossil fuel free and live with the impacts. If it means we can’t go as far or as fast, or…