Nice job. I was wondering why you didn't have quick releases for the tilt, I agree that they will make it a lot easier. A word on design. It is easy to second guess and redesign things, but those that make the most noise about how they could have done it better were not the ones that started with a blank sheet of paper. Also they probably wouldn't be able to design it better if they started with a blank piece of paper.
The ones we got were £13 apiece, before tax, and we needed 8 of them. We’d need another 8 more, but those ones haven’t been available for a while, and were the cheapest I found by about £7 per. M
Now that's the info I was waiting for ! Well done, not rushing and getting the mount just right. I look forward to more of your adventures throughout the winter.
Next time you need to make the wood bracket for the curve of the boat do this, apply adhesive sandpaper to the top of the boat and use the boat as a sanding block. This way you automatically have the correct shape.
Fantastic bit of engineering , your talents exceed the normal . Don't think gas struts like being extended / open for too long , stick with your way it's the best way and it works for you guys . Brilliant .
Too many years watching Austrian camera technicians. It does work... I did think about the struts, as well as a Lazy Susan, but they're all more complicated with more moving parts. This works, and is simple. Though after using it in two winters now I do wish I'd used the same quick releases for the pivot points as I did for the panel slide. Would make tilting much easier with cold hands! M
Good evening micheal I have just watched this video as I am wanting to fit solar panels to my narrow boat . Purely because of vanity and my boat being a traditional style with a vintage engine I am opting for flexible panels. Do you have any advice on what power outage I would require to run just a fridge and tv plus lighting. We have very little electrickery besides the usual pumps and webasto etc.thanks for any advice at all . If you can't advise it's really not a problem ,you just seem to be very clued up on such issues. Thanks very much guys and stay safe .
Basically the answer is “it depends on the appliances” I’m afraid... if you’ve got a decent modern 12V compressor fridge, no freezer, it’ll be a LOT less than if you’ve whacked in a 220V domestic model. Our older 12V model consistently draws 5A during the day when it’s running, which is about 1/2 the day... so it’s 60 AH on its own that it’ll pull off the battery. The LED lights and everything else don’t even come close, so basically consider that the fridge is your biggest problem, and if it’s driven through an inverter it’s even worse, because it tends to have to be a fairly big inverter. Flexible panels aren’t a problem except in winter, really, when the tilt can make all the difference, but you’ll just need more of them to hit the same overall output as flat panels... I’d say assume you need about 30% more wattage in panels to get the same output. Our 670 watts wired up is actually a bit of overkill, except in winter and especially when tilted, when it’s a godsend... but I’d tend to say > 500 watts is when you’re starting to get to the point where you’ll be able to run a small inverter and lights a 12V fridge constantly without having to worry about running the engine every day or so... add more as you add more draw, especially if that draw is itself coming though an inverter. Basically wherever possible avoid the inverter! M
I've seen various ways of affixing solar pannels... the best I've seen so far was the system used by Never Enough Cruising: ua-cam.com/video/asf1W0N8W_k/v-deo.html However... I think the best engineering fix would be a single elevating arm (or A-frame) with a ball joint centred on the underside of the pannel. That way you could tilt it up to maybe 70 degrees in any direction. Fewer parts, doesn't matter whether your roof is curved or not (as it's a central anchor point) and will also work just as efficiently if you are travelling east-west.
Hint a wool knit hat with a large piece of foam rubber between the hat and your cranium should diffuse the source of pain to your head ( hey ! What are yee nuts? I wasn't designed to holdup a big panel!!) When raising and lowering the panel don't completely remove the holding the panel uplinks from the mounts as all you need to do is lower the holding links to the horizontal and put the mounting bolts where they won't unexpectedly run for the canal side trying to escape your nasty clutches and swim (?) to safety. This would make taking them down or going back up a mite easier. I'm just playing devils advocate.
+James Shanks It's a good idea, but due to an idiosyncrasy of the design I can't actually leave them on there when down, they sit in a position where they're just proud enough to block the main frame from coming down all the way! Good idea though! M
looks like it will withstand a hurricane. You made it more complicated than it needed to be. Looks like you did awesome job though. Just noticed mushroom, if that wasn't there obviously could have got it lower. love you guys...
+Darren Genge Believe me I looked at all the simpler options, none allowed meaningful tilt angles unless they couldn't withstand a stiff breeze. The minimum possible height without the mushrooms would have saved us 1.5 cm, but as is it's low enough and doesn't interfere. To get lower id have had to get into custom machining. M
Glad someone else other than me gets the British winter sun angle thing. Have you thought about having the panels on turn tables so you can follow the sun through the day? Obviously horizontal angle will be as important as vertical. Cheers
+NarrowBoat Brewer I thought about it, but ultimately a lazy-Susan type setup was beyond my engineering skills given the curved roof, the desire to keep it as low as possible, the weight of these panels, and the complexity of cabling. Had to compromise somewhere, though I wish I could have figured it out! Cheers! M
For the darker days of winter, what about a tilt-up small wind generator to help you any even if it's a hundred watter at your average wind speed in area, 24 x 100....
+SolarizeYourLife The problem with turbines is they're quite expensive and don't put out very much power at all unless you're in a real gale. We've met people with them, and the general consensus of actual owners seem to be they're not really cost effective unless you're always moored where there constant wind. M
You might find if you used more quick release pins instead of the threaded ones, you could just release and change position much easier. Just my view. not sure that it would work as I only see what you have done. Well done on the improvements.
+David Dean Yeah I briefly mentioned that idea, I think... it might have gotten edited out. The reason I haven't replaced them yet is sheer expense, the QR pins are quite pricy and there's a lot of them. Cheers. M
My big complaint about silicone has nothing to do with paint. It is difficult to get silicone to adhere to a surface, it is impossible to get silicone to adhere to cured silicone. To repair a leak where silicone has been used requires mechanically removing all silicone leaving no traces behind or else the silicone residue will cause leaks. Silicone can not be chemically removed by any available cleaners, thus the mechanical removal. I stick with Butyl or Urethane sealants for that reason.
+honor harrington All true, but urethane has more trouble with UV (the thin exposed layer on our first mushroom cap repair gas already dried to a powdery consistency and flaked off), and more importantly we're not using the silicone as the primary seal. Butyl rubber is the primary seal between wood and root, urethane between aluminum and wood, the silicone is a tertiary seal to protect the urethane and butyl rubber from UV and also to protect from sitting water, due to its much better ability to keep water droplets from pooling. I wouldn't use it as a primary seal, or as an adhesive, but as a secondary seal I'm pretty sure it's going to add years to the life of my brackets, though of course we will see. M
Great work. Watching the presentation my first thought was, "What if the Sun is on the other side? Do you have to turn the boat around?" Then I watched you easily adjust them the other way. Makes perfect sense now. We have a 7KW fixed rooftop system in Arizona so we don't have to worry much about pitch. We are tied to the grid and back fill the local neighborhood. Our average electric bill is about $40 compared to $400 for our neighbor. So we paid for about six years in advance. That was 15 years ago. :)
I did not realise that the rays of the sun just bounced off [reflectance]. Did you do a leaflet with specifications and costs, ty. Also, how did you decide on 700watts . I intend to switch off fridge as soon as there is a problem , did you consider this? What was ballpark cost over and above using standard brackets.
+Jo Allan Yeah, my background taught me that; angle of incidence equals angle of reflectance; light coming in at a shallow angle leaves at the same angle on the opposite side of a reflective surface, so effectively they get more reflective the lower the sun is in the sky. Didn't do a leaflet, there's just too many variables (if you chose different panels you'd have to drill in entirely different places, for instance) as every boat and it's needs are different. We did a calculation of what our needs were in terms of Amp hours, how much time we thought we'd get of full sun on an average day, then ran it though the calculator on Bimble Solar's site (www.bimblesolar.com/solarcalc)... and out of due dilligence I tried a few other calculators as well. We added some fudge factor for being liveaboard, and overcompensated for the English weather, and came up with around 600-800 watts given our battery bank. We have relatively small electrical needs though, others might need to add a third or fourth battery, and more batteries means more wattage needed to fill in the same time.
+Jo Allan Ballpark costs were about 110£ per panel for the brackets and hardware; most of the simple A-frame brackets I see run between 30 and 70 £, depending on height and materials. Ours is definitely pricier, but also way more flexible than other options. And if you didn't need the slide-to-tilt functionality and went with a panel that fit the SunSolar brackets directly it'd be much cheaper! M
+Gareth Lloyd-Hughes That's the first I've heard that it's pronounced "alumin-u-im" ... I've been at pains to explain that the American pronunciation was actually from the original spelling by the British scientist who first described the metal chemically, and that the a Royal Academy added the "i" in England after that spelling had stuck in America, but no one seems to want to know that they're, officially, according to IUPAC, both correct pronunciations, though the British style of spelling is the preferred written form!! So I shall endeavor to pronounce it both wrong and right in the future! M
When balancing the panel on your head you may use that great fashion statement the wooly hat with pom-pom (the pom-pom is important both for comfort and for looks otherwise one may end up not looking daft enough). Manufacturing instructions for these hats appear to be hard wired into most Grannies heads although a box of chocs helps to access that facility.
Nicely thought out and engineered, look's like you subscribe to the good ol' measure-twice-cut-once rule. I look forward to your next electrics video. Cheers.
Great job and the mods are a good idea. Looking forward to a review of the power output on a wet and windy day in December with them flat and tilted. As for the Torpedo tube it could be deck mounted and having the reactor would free up some space as no log burner required ;-) BTW we have 320W solar mounted flat in the MH now with no engine charging required but we have no TV which makes a big difference :-)
+Desmond's Donders - A Motorhome goes Wild the deck mounted torpedo does make a lot of sense, but I'd feel a bit silly on a narrowboat without some sort of cast iron stove, as where else would we cook our jacket potatoes (baked potatoes to the N. Americans)? We look forward to -- hopefully -- proving me right on the tilt come winter! We'll be following it up for sure. M
+kmurray96 Will try to, but if I were to radius every sharp corner on this boat, we'd be sunk! Liverpool Boats didn't give a toss about flesh wounds or digits! M
What you guys really need to do is have a rotating centre mounted telescoping Trunnion bracket. That way you can optimise the panel tilt directly to the sun no matter which way your boat is oriented when moored. This system only works when your moored facing east west. What you could do with your existing system is mount your brackets to a lockable lazy susan turntable. Another trick may be to use gas struts mounted on a lazy susan. Then you dont need to tilt both ways and only need to restrain the gas struts with an adjustable chain. Yep, thats the best way.
I do like the Lazy Susan idea; I do not like rotating bits of sharp, potentially pinching metal around thick cables transferring power to a steel boat in what can sometimes be described as "water". But yeah basically I looked into it and a rotating solution that could handle the problems of wind and weather, but also not scissor through power cabling was just too cost ineffective. But I agree it's the ideal. M
Minimal List. Just unplug and plug in the cables once they are adjusted. I think you can get nylon bearings that will not rust and keep the weight down. You can use the existing hole from a mushroom vent and then re site the vent elsewhere. If you run the cable down the centre of the bearing you wont have to worry about it pinching either. I think you can also get electrical connectors that are rotatable. Being off grid myself I find that the more power you can extract from your panels the more flexibility you have to run the washing machine etc. In the UK where the sun is often behind cloud it becomes even more vital to get your panels perpendicular as possible. Anyway, its fun to play with ideas and let them ferment in your head until you get the ah ha moment. The great thing about gas struts is you dont need any pins, holes, and lock wheel nuts. Stainless chain will hold the frame to a fixed hook at the angle you need and the struts will keep the chain in tension. If the panels get knocked the struts will absorb shock too. Enjoying your vids by the way.
Minimal List. You can scrounge gas struts of every size at a wreckers yard. They usually have ball and socket mounts too which eases install considerably.
This is an important subject for me as, having spent 2 years in a marina, I am planning to go CC next year. I like the idea of the panels having a travel position (which I hadn't thought of), and I like the idea of optimium tilt to catch our (relatively high latitude) rays. My next thought is designing a system which could also track the 'clock' movement of the sun when the vessel is moored. An Arduino could control it, or if less lazy I could just pop out on deck occasionally and move it myself! Simple is often better, as I found with my new luxury mattress; I had all sorts of fancy ideas about lifting bed-bases, until I realised that the mattress itself could be lifted and would stay in place ;-) Great video and keep those ideas coming :-)
Yeah, I wouldn't worry about the automated clock idea too much, in winter if you can just point it south at optimum tilt for the month, you'll do well enough. Trying to track the sun will involve motors and gearing and some level of triangulation, all of which eats power (and remember these panels are NOT light)... the panels are pretty good if they're generally facing the right way, so fighting to point them exactly the right way becomes a bit of a low return on investment problem. M
Ah, so that was just me overcomplicating things again. So a simple turntable device would suffice, given that we can't always moor our boats to align with the sun. Thank you!
That's a properly nice job and a great thorough explanation! One question, what dimensions are your panels? I only ask because the description on sun works says those brackets support panels up to 95cm width, and most big panels seem to be 1m wide. If the overhang is that small, could you have made the wooden supports thicker, increasing total height but allowing for slightly more overhang each side? I hope that makes sense...
+Martin Burke Our panels are ~107cm across, so basically 6cm over the 95cm limit on each side, BUT the brackets are NOT 95cm wide, that's just the stated limit of how large a panel they can support. When I contacted SunWorks they assured me that stated limitation is for panels that see use on caravans and other setups that might encounter way more force due to wind speed than could occur on a narrowboat, and that they're strong enough to handle my larger panel given the slow speeds. At 95cm there's considerable overhang already, our panels take that out even further. Still, if we'd been willing to sacrifice full tilting the brackets without my modifications would have been quite sufficient and still allowed tile similar to what you get with the usual A-frame supports. Making the wooden brackets thicker though would only have added height, but not any greater support as such. Cheers! M
Awesome job people! Mike you just seem to be able to turn your hand to anything and make it a success, the panels look fabulous glad it’s all worked for you both, brilliant cam work jo x gotta give the lady some credit here too 💪🏻😉x
+Loving Narrowboat She gets all the credit for the videos! Yeah I seem to figure his stuff out; I get it from both my Dad and my Mom, they're both pretty good at mechanical thinking. Dad once built an actual sawmill from a truck engine and a bunch of raw steel, then used that to make a log cabin. So I guess it comes naturally. M
+Bev Beresh Don't worry, Mom, I never throw caution to the wind, I just realized I didn't really need to look out for a spanking before crossing any street! Especially the massive thoroughfares you find in places like Headrick! ;-) M
What? No outtakes? LoL!! Really enjoyed seeing the effort and excellent final result. A little fun fast forward editing... Jo's work? I'm looking forward to the next power video and seeing the internals.
+Marty Rule She does all the edits, I just yammer on! Sorry about the lack of outtakes, there weren't really on this one as she stopped filming the install whenever I started cursing too much. M
Congratulations - a very well thought out design and very well executed with experiential learning too.👍 I agree quick release pivot pin doohickeys will be a great improvement. I was thinking that the pitched holes give you an angle interval which could be labelled by month and to make things easy you could bond a small block on the back of the panel with a stopped hole to take a temporary support post - and you could have these posts made up of the correct length for each month (1/2 inch dowel would do) - just a thought 😉 Anyway - well done and I feel sure it will be adopted by others All you need now is to select your berths for optimum panel direction. Do you see passing the wires down through the mushrooms as 'permanent' or do you intend fitting proper cable glands in the future? Apologies for the verbosity.😳
+Norman Boyes Thank you! Yes the QR pivots would be a big improvement, I think I'll add them next year. I like the idea of the dowels per month, and the nice thing is you'd actually only need six, as the optimum angles are the same on say March as October. We definitely want to mark them and make it easier to get them into the correct location without more damage to my skull! I do hope others take the idea and improve on it, as I feel the SunSolar brackets are perfect for the correct size (and therefore lighter) panels, but so many panels these days that are ideal for liveaboards are sized where they need something like my modifications. The mushroom cap system is permanent; it works great, in no way impedes airflow (in fact it means it's always allowing more than minimal ventilation, while also being covered from rain most of the time), and saves yet another hole through the hull. Honestly I feel like a gland would be a worse option, but we were lucky enough to have the correct positioning available for us, so mileage may vary for others. Thanks for taking the time to be verbose! M
Presuming the solar system is up and operating might we be allowed to see the controller and how many amps are arguing with the batteries for admittance to the battery bank please? Cheers !!
+James Shanks We're planning to do a follow up video with just that, and have been waiting for a good winter's day to shoot it, but it also has to be a non-moving day. Hopefully soon! M
Quite a difficult install. I'd not noticed the heavy curve to the roof before. Great for shedding the rain quickly but what a pita to install anything! Love the use of fuel hose to prevent chafing... Out of interest what do the panels weigh as they look fairly weighty!
+Matt Allen The curve is something I curse constantly! Many fitful nights trying to figure out how to make those supports! The panels are 18kg each, nominally, but feel like 150 on the skull when lifting! M
Cracking job. Congratulations! Looking forward to the next clip of the setup as I'm just about to embark on new solar panel(s) and controller, inverter etc and probably nick your setup without the Lithium batteries.
+James Norton We'll try and get one up soon with more about the rest of the setup! Though honestly the Lithiums are turning out to have been worth every penny and then some! M
Think this was brilliant video I am also thinking of installing solar panels and it has made me think about how I can install these to my boat thanks for sharing your experience this has been a big help to me
Wow! Well done! All your calculations gave me a headache....I can only imagine the headaches you two had figuring it all out. Now to enjoy all that power. Great job!
+Al Lorenz It would be, but practically speaking with panels this large and heavy it would just be too much of a problem with too much potential for pinching the conductor and electrifying the hull, unless you used some form of isolated conduction collar that would allow power transmission through the rotating joint. I know how those work, but building one would require machining capabilities WAY outside of what I can do on a boat! M
Great video. I admire your ingenuity and tenacity in finding solutions to the problems of installing such large panels. Why did you opt for such large panels? Smaller ones would have been easier to install.
Maybe I need to clarify. Your panels are 335 watts but the output voltage is 34.1 volts giving a current output of 9.83 amps. I intend to use low voltage panels whose width is 670 mm. The panels are 165 watts with an out put voltage of 18 volt giving a current output of 9.5 amps. This is very similar to yours. In a 12 volt application amps are more important that watts because it is the amps that are being fed to the battery.
+Robert Gould Well, actually they're all interconvertible: you'll notice that 335W / 34.1V = 9.83A... that's the W=AV or "wave" rule. If your 165W panels are actually 18V, then they should give out 9.17A... if they actually give out 9.5A then their current should be 17.36V, but all of these are nominal values, not representative of actual efficiency. The larger the total wattage the more active cells capable of being struck by photons, the more photons strike the cells, the more photons can actually be converted to electricity, and therefore the more "real" amps realized to flow into the batteries: we've wired in series so what we've got is 670W @ 68.2V and 9.83A, and the idea is not to get more amps instantaneously, but keep more amps flowing in lower light or partially shaded conditions, which is what the MPPT algorithm in the controller is designed to do. Ultimately we based the total wattage on the calculations we got from Bimble's calculator, cross referenced with several others and with a liberal margin for being liveaboard, and then we could get to that wattage either by more smaller panels or fewer larger ones, and we wanted to save roof space. After that fits which way to wire them; in parallel for max amps, or serial for max voltage, in both cases the wattage being fixed by the panels themselves: we were advised that modern MPPT controllers do best with system voltages at or approaching their rated limits, and were told to go series. That limits the momentary amperage, but allows the controllers to do their job of maximizing what we get throughout the day as light levels change. Hopefully all of that pans out, but certainly it seems to be working exactly as described so far! M
+Am. Blades Because of the extra wind speed you might want smaller panels that fit the brackets better, or get similar made up out of stronger materials. On boats we don't have motorway cross-breezes to worry about! M
that's a really great job you guys did on that. when you are holding the panels up with your head (LoL) you might try some fuel or engine vacuum hose that is split on one side and put that on the sharp metal edge so that it's less likely to damage your cranium.
+Norm Anderson Thanks for that! It's not actually sharp, the nice folks at LG made a cm wide base with nice radius edges and everything. It's not super comfortable, but not as painful as it Lola either, and when the cameraperson is available to help it's also really not necessary! ;-) M
+Norm Anderson Also, as we're trying to demonstrate on this channel, albeit by accident, no known force can permanently damage the Morehouse cranium; there's no denser or thicker material known. M
😂😂😂😂bloody funny just wait till it's a cold windy wet afternoon in November I bet you find a simpler dumbed down work round priceless good luck guys classic 👍👍👍👍👍
Absolutely! Standard 6' mounting brackets must surely be the way to go? Granted, they don't tilt to to 90 degrees but a simple push points them in the right direction. Imagine faffing round with that setup every two hours to get optimal amps!
+Scott Childs it's pretty simple, we really just need marks for the places to put the supports for each month's angle. Once that's established it's easy, though replacing the bolts with quick release pins would help! M
+stonedrose81 There's no reason to change them every two hours, there's one optimal average angle for every month of the year for any given latitude, six angles in total. You set it to the angle for whatever month you are in and forget it. But basically in December in England if you don't have a tilt of 76 degrees, you're literally wasting sunlight... now try to get there with standard mounting brackets and a push. M
+stonedrose81 it's a question of priorities; our priority is optimum solar performance, that requires a 76 degree tilt off horizontal in December in most of England. If your priority is quick setup, well once we've got the quick release pins where the threaded bolts are now we'll be able to get both panels to 76 degrees in under two minutes, and leave them there for the two weeks we're at any given mooring, happily getting 20-40% more amps than anyone around us with flat panels tilted on an A-frame bracket, 70-100% more than anyone with a flat mount rigid panel or a semi-flexible. It suits our priorities, and that's all that matters. M
+tinvek Rotation adds a whole heck of a lot of other problems, mainly related to the cabling. I've had to build LOTS of Lasy-Susan type devices over the years for cameras and lighting rigs, and when you combine in electrics there's just so many ways of pinching and cutting vital cables. Besides, the boat rotates pretty good! M
Oh dear, looks a bit over the top for my liking and too much hard work fannying around changing tilts and angles every five minutes. I am sure the gain in energy charge is not worth the hassle.
+david ife Well, really it's much less than every five minutes, and there's fixed angles for each month so once you know those it's quite simple. And a >25% increase in average efficiency will add up over the winter to quite a significant savings, on the order of a few hundred £ on diesel costs. Panels mounted flat in winter when the sun is low lose most of their potential photons to reflectance, so that's when it will matter most. But we will do a by the numbers check in a follow up video in December, though I'm very confident that it pays for itself inside a year. M
OUTSTANDING!!!! And I know what I am talking about.... So looking forward to your set up. Well thought out brackets! Now where are you going to put the nuclear pile, I prefer the LFTRs? just kidding hehehe I used to be a Nuclear Reactor Operator and Electronics technician in the US Navy, then I was Field Engineer for Northrup Grumman IT, and worked on Data center hardware (servers, networks, printers, plotters etc.) You are on the right track with your trek ....Cheers
+William Jordan My first question is: where in God's name will I get the Thorium?? Stuff doesn't exactly grow on trees in Berkshire and Wiltshire!! My second is where do I move the torpedo tube I had planned for that space? Either of those aside, glad a professional approves! M
Actually, Thorium is one of the most abundant elements on the planet! It is that nasty Uranium that is scarce! As for the Torpedo tube.....that is a problem to relocate..... hmmmm If you are interested check out this video... Cheers. ua-cam.com/video/uK367T7h6ZY/v-deo.html
Nice job. I was wondering why you didn't have quick releases for the tilt, I agree that they will make it a lot easier.
A word on design. It is easy to second guess and redesign things, but those that make the most noise about how they could have done it better were not the ones that started with a blank sheet of paper. Also they probably wouldn't be able to design it better if they started with a blank piece of paper.
+Ted Gallucci Thanks, and very true! The expense is the main reason, the QRs are brilliant, but pricy unless you order in VERY large quantities! M
@@MinimalList How dear can they be?. When all you can find is click here for a quote, a fair bit dearer than I expected.
The ones we got were £13 apiece, before tax, and we needed 8 of them. We’d need another 8 more, but those ones haven’t been available for a while, and were the cheapest I found by about £7 per. M
Now that's the info I was waiting for ! Well done, not rushing and getting the mount just right.
I look forward to more of your adventures throughout the winter.
+Alan Locke Thanks! Yeah took quite a while as it progressed in fits and starts. M
Next time you need to make the wood bracket for the curve of the boat do this, apply adhesive sandpaper to the top of the boat and use the boat as a sanding block. This way you automatically have the correct shape.
Hmmm, interesting point, thanks for that! M
Fantastic bit of engineering , your talents exceed the normal . Don't think gas struts like being extended / open for too long , stick with your way it's the best way and it works for you guys . Brilliant .
Too many years watching Austrian camera technicians. It does work... I did think about the struts, as well as a Lazy Susan, but they're all more complicated with more moving parts. This works, and is simple. Though after using it in two winters now I do wish I'd used the same quick releases for the pivot points as I did for the panel slide. Would make tilting much easier with cold hands! M
Ooooh another minimal list vid. Time to put the kettle on and the feet up...... many thanks for another A1 video. Happy cruising
+C Cooper Glad you like them, but keep the feet off the kettle! M
A really informative video. I was confused until "a month and a haircut later" came up on the screen, I thought can his hair really grow that fast?
Good evening micheal I have just watched this video as I am wanting to fit solar panels to my narrow boat . Purely because of vanity and my boat being a traditional style with a vintage engine I am opting for flexible panels. Do you have any advice on what power outage I would require to run just a fridge and tv plus lighting. We have very little electrickery besides the usual pumps and webasto etc.thanks for any advice at all . If you can't advise it's really not a problem ,you just seem to be very clued up on such issues. Thanks very much guys and stay safe .
Basically the answer is “it depends on the appliances” I’m afraid... if you’ve got a decent modern 12V compressor fridge, no freezer, it’ll be a LOT less than if you’ve whacked in a 220V domestic model. Our older 12V model consistently draws 5A during the day when it’s running, which is about 1/2 the day... so it’s 60 AH on its own that it’ll pull off the battery. The LED lights and everything else don’t even come close, so basically consider that the fridge is your biggest problem, and if it’s driven through an inverter it’s even worse, because it tends to have to be a fairly big inverter. Flexible panels aren’t a problem except in winter, really, when the tilt can make all the difference, but you’ll just need more of them to hit the same overall output as flat panels... I’d say assume you need about 30% more wattage in panels to get the same output. Our 670 watts wired up is actually a bit of overkill, except in winter and especially when tilted, when it’s a godsend... but I’d tend to say > 500 watts is when you’re starting to get to the point where you’ll be able to run a small inverter and lights a 12V fridge constantly without having to worry about running the engine every day or so... add more as you add more draw, especially if that draw is itself coming though an inverter. Basically wherever possible avoid the inverter! M
I've seen various ways of affixing solar pannels... the best I've seen so far was the system used by Never Enough Cruising: ua-cam.com/video/asf1W0N8W_k/v-deo.html However...
I think the best engineering fix would be a single elevating arm (or A-frame) with a ball joint centred on the underside of the pannel. That way you could tilt it up to maybe 70 degrees in any direction. Fewer parts, doesn't matter whether your roof is curved or not (as it's a central anchor point) and will also work just as efficiently if you are travelling east-west.
Hint a wool knit hat with a large piece of foam rubber between the hat and your cranium should diffuse the source of pain to your head ( hey ! What are yee nuts? I wasn't designed to holdup a big panel!!)
When raising and lowering the panel don't completely remove the holding the panel uplinks from the mounts as all you need to do is lower the holding links to the horizontal and put the mounting bolts where they won't unexpectedly run for the canal side trying to escape your nasty clutches and swim (?) to safety. This would make taking them down or going back up a mite easier.
I'm just playing devils advocate.
+James Shanks It's a good idea, but due to an idiosyncrasy of the design I can't actually leave them on there when down, they sit in a position where they're just proud enough to block the main frame from coming down all the way! Good idea though! M
looks like it will withstand a hurricane. You made it more complicated than it needed to be. Looks like you did awesome job though. Just noticed mushroom, if that wasn't there obviously could have got it lower. love you guys...
+Darren Genge Believe me I looked at all the simpler options, none allowed meaningful tilt angles unless they couldn't withstand a stiff breeze. The minimum possible height without the mushrooms would have saved us 1.5 cm, but as is it's low enough and doesn't interfere. To get lower id have had to get into custom machining. M
Glad someone else other than me gets the British winter sun angle thing. Have you thought about having the panels on turn tables so you can follow the sun through the day? Obviously horizontal angle will be as important as vertical. Cheers
+NarrowBoat Brewer I thought about it, but ultimately a lazy-Susan type setup was beyond my engineering skills given the curved roof, the desire to keep it as low as possible, the weight of these panels, and the complexity of cabling. Had to compromise somewhere, though I wish I could have figured it out! Cheers! M
For the darker days of winter, what about a tilt-up small wind generator to help you any even if it's a hundred watter at your average wind speed in area, 24 x 100....
+SolarizeYourLife The problem with turbines is they're quite expensive and don't put out very much power at all unless you're in a real gale. We've met people with them, and the general consensus of actual owners seem to be they're not really cost effective unless you're always moored where there constant wind. M
You might find if you used more quick release pins instead of the threaded ones, you could just release and change position much easier. Just my view. not sure that it would work as I only see what you have done. Well done on the improvements.
+David Dean Yeah I briefly mentioned that idea, I think... it might have gotten edited out. The reason I haven't replaced them yet is sheer expense, the QR pins are quite pricy and there's a lot of them. Cheers. M
My big complaint about silicone has nothing to do with paint. It is difficult to get silicone to adhere to a surface, it is impossible to get silicone to adhere to cured silicone. To repair a leak where silicone has been used requires mechanically removing all silicone leaving no traces behind or else the silicone residue will cause leaks. Silicone can not be chemically removed by any available cleaners, thus the mechanical removal. I stick with Butyl or Urethane sealants for that reason.
+honor harrington All true, but urethane has more trouble with UV (the thin exposed layer on our first mushroom cap repair gas already dried to a powdery consistency and flaked off), and more importantly we're not using the silicone as the primary seal. Butyl rubber is the primary seal between wood and root, urethane between aluminum and wood, the silicone is a tertiary seal to protect the urethane and butyl rubber from UV and also to protect from sitting water, due to its much better ability to keep water droplets from pooling.
I wouldn't use it as a primary seal, or as an adhesive, but as a secondary seal I'm pretty sure it's going to add years to the life of my brackets, though of course we will see. M
Great work. Watching the presentation my first thought was, "What if the Sun is on the other side? Do you have to turn the boat around?" Then I watched you easily adjust them the other way. Makes perfect sense now.
We have a 7KW fixed rooftop system in Arizona so we don't have to worry much about pitch. We are tied to the grid and back fill the local neighborhood. Our average electric bill is about $40 compared to $400 for our neighbor. So we paid for about six years in advance. That was 15 years ago. :)
I did not realise that the rays of the sun just bounced off [reflectance].
Did you do a leaflet with specifications and costs, ty.
Also, how did you decide on 700watts .
I intend to switch off fridge as soon as there is a problem , did you consider this?
What was ballpark cost over and above using standard brackets.
+Jo Allan Yeah, my background taught me that; angle of incidence equals angle of reflectance; light coming in at a shallow angle leaves at the same angle on the opposite side of a reflective surface, so effectively they get more reflective the lower the sun is in the sky.
Didn't do a leaflet, there's just too many variables (if you chose different panels you'd have to drill in entirely different places, for instance) as every boat and it's needs are different. We did a calculation of what our needs were in terms of Amp hours, how much time we thought we'd get of full sun on an average day, then ran it though the calculator on Bimble Solar's site (www.bimblesolar.com/solarcalc)... and out of due dilligence I tried a few other calculators as well. We added some fudge factor for being liveaboard, and overcompensated for the English weather, and came up with around 600-800 watts given our battery bank. We have relatively small electrical needs though, others might need to add a third or fourth battery, and more batteries means more wattage needed to fill in the same time.
+Jo Allan Ballpark costs were about 110£ per panel for the brackets and hardware; most of the simple A-frame brackets I see run between 30 and 70 £, depending on height and materials. Ours is definitely pricier, but also way more flexible than other options. And if you didn't need the slide-to-tilt functionality and went with a panel that fit the SunSolar brackets directly it'd be much cheaper! M
Can you cruise with them tilted up or do you have to put them down when you are on the move?
+Robert McAuley Must be dropped into the down position for cruising; even if height wasn't an issue, they're basically be a pair of sails! M
It's pronounced aluminuim... not aluminium..but nice it of engineering non the less
+Gareth Lloyd-Hughes That's the first I've heard that it's pronounced "alumin-u-im" ... I've been at pains to explain that the American pronunciation was actually from the original spelling by the British scientist who first described the metal chemically, and that the a Royal Academy added the "i" in England after that spelling had stuck in America, but no one seems to want to know that they're, officially, according to IUPAC, both correct pronunciations, though the British style of spelling is the preferred written form!! So I shall endeavor to pronounce it both wrong and right in the future! M
;)
Michael you look so much younger with your beard and hair cut keep it up!
When balancing the panel on your head you may use that great fashion statement the wooly hat with pom-pom (the pom-pom is important both for comfort and for looks otherwise one may end up not looking daft enough). Manufacturing instructions for these hats appear to be hard wired into most Grannies heads although a box of chocs helps to access that facility.
+C Cooper Not a bad idea, proceeding to choc shop! M
Nicely thought out and engineered, look's like you subscribe to the good ol' measure-twice-cut-once rule. I look forward to your next electrics video. Cheers.
+Laurence Dayton Measure twenty or thirty times, then cut, and pray just in case when you're cutting through steel with an unknown backing! M
Great job and the mods are a good idea. Looking forward to a review of the power output on a wet and windy day in December with them flat and tilted. As for the Torpedo tube it could be deck mounted and having the reactor would free up some space as no log burner required ;-) BTW we have 320W solar mounted flat in the MH now with no engine charging required but we have no TV which makes a big difference :-)
+Desmond's Donders - A Motorhome goes Wild the deck mounted torpedo does make a lot of sense, but I'd feel a bit silly on a narrowboat without some sort of cast iron stove, as where else would we cook our jacket potatoes (baked potatoes to the N. Americans)?
We look forward to -- hopefully -- proving me right on the tilt come winter! We'll be following it up for sure. M
Avoid Murphy's Law and radius those sharp corners, please.
+kmurray96 Will try to, but if I were to radius every sharp corner on this boat, we'd be sunk! Liverpool Boats didn't give a toss about flesh wounds or digits! M
What you guys really need to do is have a rotating centre mounted telescoping Trunnion bracket. That way you can optimise the panel tilt directly to the sun no matter which way your boat is oriented when moored. This system only works when your moored facing east west.
What you could do with your existing system is mount your brackets to a lockable lazy susan turntable. Another trick may be to use gas struts mounted on a lazy susan. Then you dont need to tilt both ways and only need to restrain the gas struts with an adjustable chain. Yep, thats the best way.
I do like the Lazy Susan idea; I do not like rotating bits of sharp, potentially pinching metal around thick cables transferring power to a steel boat in what can sometimes be described as "water". But yeah basically I looked into it and a rotating solution that could handle the problems of wind and weather, but also not scissor through power cabling was just too cost ineffective. But I agree it's the ideal. M
Minimal List. Just unplug and plug in the cables once they are adjusted. I think you can get nylon bearings that will not rust and keep the weight down. You can use the existing hole from a mushroom vent and then re site the vent elsewhere. If you run the cable down the centre of the bearing you wont have to worry about it pinching either. I think you can also get electrical connectors that are rotatable. Being off grid myself I find that the more power you can extract from your panels the more flexibility you have to run the washing machine etc. In the UK where the sun is often behind cloud it becomes even more vital to get your panels perpendicular as possible.
Anyway, its fun to play with ideas and let them ferment in your head until you get the ah ha moment. The great thing about gas struts is you dont need any pins, holes, and lock wheel nuts. Stainless chain will hold the frame to a fixed hook at the angle you need and the struts will keep the chain in tension. If the panels get knocked the struts will absorb shock too.
Enjoying your vids by the way.
I do like the gas struts idea, cause getting those things titled when it's cold is a right pain' m
Minimal List. You can scrounge gas struts of every size at a wreckers yard. They usually have ball and socket mounts too which eases install considerably.
Hmm, shall try and see at the next wrecker's yard! M
This is an important subject for me as, having spent 2 years in a marina, I am planning to go CC next year. I like the idea of the panels having a travel position (which I hadn't thought of), and I like the idea of optimium tilt to catch our (relatively high latitude) rays. My next thought is designing a system which could also track the 'clock' movement of the sun when the vessel is moored. An Arduino could control it, or if less lazy I could just pop out on deck occasionally and move it myself! Simple is often better, as I found with my new luxury mattress; I had all sorts of fancy ideas about lifting bed-bases, until I realised that the mattress itself could be lifted and would stay in place ;-)
Great video and keep those ideas coming :-)
Yeah, I wouldn't worry about the automated clock idea too much, in winter if you can just point it south at optimum tilt for the month, you'll do well enough. Trying to track the sun will involve motors and gearing and some level of triangulation, all of which eats power (and remember these panels are NOT light)... the panels are pretty good if they're generally facing the right way, so fighting to point them exactly the right way becomes a bit of a low return on investment problem. M
Ah, so that was just me overcomplicating things again. So a simple turntable device would suffice, given that we can't always moor our boats to align with the sun. Thank you!
A turntable would be nice, yes. Just remember that it needs to carry the full weight of the panels, and remain secure in (possibly heavy) wind. M
I used to sail a 12-tonne replica of a Scandinavian post yacht on the Baltic. Tying things down is something I'm good at ;-)
Hah, well then you're well prepared. People forget that flat bottomed boats are basically sails. M
Very nice fittment
+Steve Wildman Thanks! M
That's a properly nice job and a great thorough explanation! One question, what dimensions are your panels? I only ask because the description on sun works says those brackets support panels up to 95cm width, and most big panels seem to be 1m wide. If the overhang is that small, could you have made the wooden supports thicker, increasing total height but allowing for slightly more overhang each side? I hope that makes sense...
+Martin Burke Our panels are ~107cm across, so basically 6cm over the 95cm limit on each side, BUT the brackets are NOT 95cm wide, that's just the stated limit of how large a panel they can support. When I contacted SunWorks they assured me that stated limitation is for panels that see use on caravans and other setups that might encounter way more force due to wind speed than could occur on a narrowboat, and that they're strong enough to handle my larger panel given the slow speeds. At 95cm there's considerable overhang already, our panels take that out even further. Still, if we'd been willing to sacrifice full tilting the brackets without my modifications would have been quite sufficient and still allowed tile similar to what you get with the usual A-frame supports. Making the wooden brackets thicker though would only have added height, but not any greater support as such. Cheers! M
Liking the thought and design, looking forward to the next part.
+darren slater Thanks! M
Awesome job people! Mike you just seem to be able to turn your hand to anything and make it a success, the panels look fabulous glad it’s all worked for you both, brilliant cam work jo x gotta give the lady some credit here too 💪🏻😉x
+Loving Narrowboat She gets all the credit for the videos! Yeah I seem to figure his stuff out; I get it from both my Dad and my Mom, they're both pretty good at mechanical thinking. Dad once built an actual sawmill from a truck engine and a bunch of raw steel, then used that to make a log cabin. So I guess it comes naturally. M
+Bev Beresh of course she didn't mean to teach me they caution was an obstacle to overcome as well! ;-) M
+Bev Beresh Don't worry, Mom, I never throw caution to the wind, I just realized I didn't really need to look out for a spanking before crossing any street! Especially the massive thoroughfares you find in places like Headrick! ;-) M
What? No outtakes? LoL!! Really enjoyed seeing the effort and excellent final result. A little fun fast forward editing... Jo's work? I'm looking forward to the next power video and seeing the internals.
+Marty Rule She does all the edits, I just yammer on! Sorry about the lack of outtakes, there weren't really on this one as she stopped filming the install whenever I started cursing too much. M
Congratulations - a very well thought out design and very well executed with experiential learning too.👍 I agree quick release pivot pin doohickeys will be a great improvement.
I was thinking that the pitched holes give you an angle interval which could be labelled by month and to make things easy you could bond a small block on the back of the panel with a stopped hole to take a temporary support post - and you could have these posts made up of the correct length for each month (1/2 inch dowel would do) - just a thought 😉
Anyway - well done and I feel sure it will be adopted by others
All you need now is to select your berths for optimum panel direction.
Do you see passing the wires down through the mushrooms as 'permanent' or do you intend fitting proper cable glands in the future?
Apologies for the verbosity.😳
+Norman Boyes Thank you! Yes the QR pivots would be a big improvement, I think I'll add them next year. I like the idea of the dowels per month, and the nice thing is you'd actually only need six, as the optimum angles are the same on say March as October. We definitely want to mark them and make it easier to get them into the correct location without more damage to my skull! I do hope others take the idea and improve on it, as I feel the SunSolar brackets are perfect for the correct size (and therefore lighter) panels, but so many panels these days that are ideal for liveaboards are sized where they need something like my modifications.
The mushroom cap system is permanent; it works great, in no way impedes airflow (in fact it means it's always allowing more than minimal ventilation, while also being covered from rain most of the time), and saves yet another hole through the hull. Honestly I feel like a gland would be a worse option, but we were lucky enough to have the correct positioning available for us, so mileage may vary for others.
Thanks for taking the time to be verbose! M
Thank you for the vlog i found all of it very interesting, looking forward to finding out where the wires go, and to what.
+adrianuwant3 The next DIY / power video should cover all of that! M
Presuming the solar system is up and operating might we be allowed to see the controller and how many amps are arguing with the batteries for admittance to the battery bank please?
Cheers !!
+James Shanks We're planning to do a follow up video with just that, and have been waiting for a good winter's day to shoot it, but it also has to be a non-moving day. Hopefully soon! M
Quite a difficult install. I'd not noticed the heavy curve to the roof before. Great for shedding the rain quickly but what a pita to install anything! Love the use of fuel hose to prevent chafing... Out of interest what do the panels weigh as they look fairly weighty!
+Matt Allen The curve is something I curse constantly! Many fitful nights trying to figure out how to make those supports! The panels are 18kg each, nominally, but feel like 150 on the skull when lifting! M
Cracking job. Congratulations!
Looking forward to the next clip of the setup as I'm just about to embark on new solar panel(s) and controller, inverter etc and probably nick your setup without the Lithium batteries.
+James Norton We'll try and get one up soon with more about the rest of the setup! Though honestly the Lithiums are turning out to have been worth every penny and then some! M
Brill 👍
+steve cooney Thanks! M
Everything always goes easier when the camera operator gives a hand. But that's reality TV, which is what this is in the long run.
+Charles Damery It'd be a lot easier on the divot in my head! M
That's what happens when you 've had a concussion, your head is very sensitive to anything, from flies to using it as a prop.
+Charles Damery and it's nowhere near my first concussion. M
Think this was brilliant video I am also thinking of installing solar panels and it has made me think about how I can install these to my boat thanks for sharing your experience this has been a big help to me
+Garry Stacey Glad we could help! M
Great job. I don't see any hassle at all. A few minutes effort to raise/lower is no big deal.
+WorldofRandometry Thanks! M
Nice - but: Doesn't water now get into the panels through those holes that aren't covered?
Which holes?
Wow! Well done! All your calculations gave me a headache....I can only imagine the headaches you two had figuring it all out. Now to enjoy all that power. Great job!
+Luann Crownover I think I represent this year's profit margin in paracetamol sales! M
Be careful fully with those Tribbles, they breed quite rapidly! :-)
+robbo312 Just never feed them quadrotriticalene! M
Nice job, I really like your work ethic. Looking forward to your refinements. Adding some degree of rotation around the vertical axis would be cool.
+Al Lorenz It would be, but practically speaking with panels this large and heavy it would just be too much of a problem with too much potential for pinching the conductor and electrifying the hull, unless you used some form of isolated conduction collar that would allow power transmission through the rotating joint. I know how those work, but building one would require machining capabilities WAY outside of what I can do on a boat! M
Thank you for the hard work. It is a great prototype - not much faff once installed for the benefit gained. Well done!
+Jon Auty Not too much, though there were a few lessons learned! And knuckles bloodied! M
Your capslock button is stuck..
WOOPS! STILL IS! M
@@MinimalList CRAP, NOW MINE IS STUCK TOO...
ARG!!
Wow, that;s a lot of engineering you had to come up with. Fantastic job.
+tootz1950 Thanks! M
well done you patient man.looking forwards to your next video.thanks.
+peter baddock Thanks! M
Nice installation! You are about ready to mass produce the wooden brackets and sell to other boaters.
+Marshall Poe Well, only it I get a lot of orders from people with Liverpool Boats boats ... never seen a curve like that on any other! M
Loved this. Very clever thought gone into overcoming so many issues. Miss The outtakes though 😀👌
+Steve Teasdale We don't always have outtakes to add, especially on these fixer upper / DIY ones, but more coming in other videos soon! M
Nice Job Micheal...Great to see someone explain it all in such detail :-)
+Russ B Thanks! M
Great video. I admire your ingenuity and tenacity in finding solutions to the problems of installing such large panels. Why did you opt for such large panels? Smaller ones would have been easier to install.
Maybe I need to clarify. Your panels are 335 watts but the output voltage is 34.1 volts giving a current output of 9.83 amps. I intend to use low voltage panels whose width is 670 mm. The panels are 165 watts with an out put voltage of 18 volt giving a current output of 9.5 amps. This is very similar to yours. In a 12 volt application amps are more important that watts because it is the amps that are being fed to the battery.
+Robert Gould Well, actually they're all interconvertible: you'll notice that 335W / 34.1V = 9.83A... that's the W=AV or "wave" rule. If your 165W panels are actually 18V, then they should give out 9.17A... if they actually give out 9.5A then their current should be 17.36V, but all of these are nominal values, not representative of actual efficiency. The larger the total wattage the more active cells capable of being struck by photons, the more photons strike the cells, the more photons can actually be converted to electricity, and therefore the more "real" amps realized to flow into the batteries: we've wired in series so what we've got is 670W @ 68.2V and 9.83A, and the idea is not to get more amps instantaneously, but keep more amps flowing in lower light or partially shaded conditions, which is what the MPPT algorithm in the controller is designed to do. Ultimately we based the total wattage on the calculations we got from Bimble's calculator, cross referenced with several others and with a liberal margin for being liveaboard, and then we could get to that wattage either by more smaller panels or fewer larger ones, and we wanted to save roof space. After that fits which way to wire them; in parallel for max amps, or serial for max voltage, in both cases the wattage being fixed by the panels themselves: we were advised that modern MPPT controllers do best with system voltages at or approaching their rated limits, and were told to go series. That limits the momentary amperage, but allows the controllers to do their job of maximizing what we get throughout the day as light levels change. Hopefully all of that pans out, but certainly it seems to be working exactly as described so far! M
Well done!
+Julie Phelps Thanks! M
You guys have had a lot to do recently. Lots of thought behind this. Great job
Thanks for watching. Jo
Thank you I can see this working on my road rig. Thumbs up !
+Am. Blades Because of the extra wind speed you might want smaller panels that fit the brackets better, or get similar made up out of stronger materials. On boats we don't have motorway cross-breezes to worry about! M
that's a really great job you guys did on that. when you are holding the panels up with your head (LoL) you might try some fuel or engine vacuum hose that is split on one side and put that on the sharp metal edge so that it's less likely to damage your cranium.
+Norm Anderson Thanks for that! It's not actually sharp, the nice folks at LG made a cm wide base with nice radius edges and everything. It's not super comfortable, but not as painful as it Lola either, and when the cameraperson is available to help it's also really not necessary! ;-) M
+Norm Anderson Also, as we're trying to demonstrate on this channel, albeit by accident, no known force can permanently damage the Morehouse cranium; there's no denser or thicker material known. M
This one needs an update... how you've got on with it etc. Maybe you have and I've missed it?
Basically we have far more power than we need!
@@MinimalList shame you can't sell the excess back to the grid 😜
😂😂😂😂bloody funny just wait till it's a cold windy wet afternoon in November I bet you find a simpler dumbed down work round priceless good luck guys classic 👍👍👍👍👍
Absolutely! Standard 6' mounting brackets must surely be the way to go? Granted, they don't tilt to to 90 degrees but a simple push points them in the right direction. Imagine faffing round with that setup every two hours to get optimal amps!
Not wanting to dog the two of them - really enjoy and look forward to their vids. Mountains and mole hills come to mind is all.
+Scott Childs it's pretty simple, we really just need marks for the places to put the supports for each month's angle. Once that's established it's easy, though replacing the bolts with quick release pins would help! M
+stonedrose81 There's no reason to change them every two hours, there's one optimal average angle for every month of the year for any given latitude, six angles in total. You set it to the angle for whatever month you are in and forget it.
But basically in December in England if you don't have a tilt of 76 degrees, you're literally wasting sunlight... now try to get there with standard mounting brackets and a push.
M
+stonedrose81 it's a question of priorities; our priority is optimum solar performance, that requires a 76 degree tilt off horizontal in December in most of England. If your priority is quick setup, well once we've got the quick release pins where the threaded bolts are now we'll be able to get both panels to 76 degrees in under two minutes, and leave them there for the two weeks we're at any given mooring, happily getting 20-40% more amps than anyone around us with flat panels tilted on an A-frame bracket, 70-100% more than anyone with a flat mount rigid panel or a semi-flexible. It suits our priorities, and that's all that matters. M
Awesome. Brilliant, just brilliant. Well done.
+Nick Cheney Thanks! M
Nice but not sure if I'm missing something, how do you cope if the south is on the other side of the boat or at the bow and stern?
Ok just saw about it being reversible but seems a pity o go to all of that trouble without a provision for rotation
+tinvek Rotation adds a whole heck of a lot of other problems, mainly related to the cabling. I've had to build LOTS of Lasy-Susan type devices over the years for cameras and lighting rigs, and when you combine in electrics there's just so many ways of pinching and cutting vital cables. Besides, the boat rotates pretty good! M
The music woke me right up
oops, sorry.
“Now, witness the power of this fully operational battle station.” ......Had to, sorry, (grin).
+CoRN it's a trap!! M
Beautiful craftsmanship sir.
Thank you.
Great job
+sonic3333 Thanks! M
Brilliant design and I love the intro :)
Thank you! M
great vlog and very interesting
+wsatnutter Thank you! We will do the follow up to the power audit one soon too! Jo
Oh dear, looks a bit over the top for my liking and too much hard work fannying around changing tilts and angles every five minutes. I am sure the gain in energy charge is not worth the hassle.
+david ife Well, really it's much less than every five minutes, and there's fixed angles for each month so once you know those it's quite simple. And a >25% increase in average efficiency will add up over the winter to quite a significant savings, on the order of a few hundred £ on diesel costs. Panels mounted flat in winter when the sun is low lose most of their potential photons to reflectance, so that's when it will matter most.
But we will do a by the numbers check in a follow up video in December, though I'm very confident that it pays for itself inside a year.
M
nice job
+carmadham thanks! M
OUTSTANDING!!!! And I know what I am talking about.... So looking forward to your set up. Well thought out brackets! Now where are you going to put the nuclear pile, I prefer the LFTRs? just kidding hehehe I used to be a Nuclear Reactor Operator and Electronics technician in the US Navy, then I was Field Engineer for Northrup Grumman IT, and worked on Data center hardware (servers, networks, printers, plotters etc.) You are on the right track with your trek ....Cheers
+William Jordan My first question is: where in God's name will I get the Thorium?? Stuff doesn't exactly grow on trees in Berkshire and Wiltshire!! My second is where do I move the torpedo tube I had planned for that space?
Either of those aside, glad a professional approves! M
Actually, Thorium is one of the most abundant elements on the planet! It is that nasty Uranium that is scarce! As for the Torpedo tube.....that is a problem to relocate..... hmmmm If you are interested check out this video... Cheers.
ua-cam.com/video/uK367T7h6ZY/v-deo.html
+William Jordan Abundant doesn't mean easily obtained in purified form! They don't sell it at Maplins, Tesco, or Screwfix! M
Brilliant bit of engineering I say ol' chap!!!
+djprophetinterview Thanks! M