Sunday, 21 December 2008
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- nb piston broke
- After years of working,Paul and I retired early. I worked in accounts departments and Paul spent 39 years as an Electrical Mechanical engineer in the industrial refrigeration industry. Paul also served time as a refrigeration engineer officer with P&O, to-ing and fro-ing to NZ. In 2001 we decided to move to Spain where we bought an old Spanish finca that needed total renovation. We took our 1500 Goldwing with us to Spain planning to explore the country. But because of the amount of work that needed doing to the finca we were unable to get full use of our lovely motorbike. So it was shipped back to England where it was sold. It took us 3 1/2 years to finish the house, by which time Paul was hankering after another bike so we bought a new Honda VTX 1300 cruiser which was a pleasure to use with our biker friends. In 2007 the writing was on the wall so we decided to return to the UK and bought our lovely narrowboat which was a big step for me as I had never dreamt of living on a narrowboat. Paul has had sailing boats in the past and regulary crewed on a Medway Bawley Gaffer and raced in many local events. We are continuous cruisers planning to explore as much as we can.
2 comments:
I have two Solara panels on my boat, charging via a Struder unit with integral solar controller ( you don't need this - just a cheap charge-controller).
They are glued flush to the curved roof with the Sikaflex provided and can be walked on. The optional edge trim is neat and worth a few pounds extra.
I bought mine from Barden Batteries, who are very helpful. I have had one since the boat was new ( 5 years)and added the second two years ago. They certainly help cut down charging time, but even with two big panels there is barely enough power to run the Shoreline fridge in summer. However, combined with l.e.d. lighting and a low-power consumption tv, I only need to run the engine each day long enough to make toast in the morning and maybe 10-15 minutes in the evening.
I can see no sign of deterioration on the 5 year old panel, so they seem well made. I have no experience of any other p.v. panel so do not know whether I bought the best.
Howard Dickenson
n.b."Moondaisy"
PS the cable inlet grommets from Barden are a very good watertight deck fitting ( they also glue on with Sikaflex).
Good luck.
Thanks for the info Howard it has been a great help just need to find a supplier now. We will be heading back up to Braunston and beyond in the Spring so if we havent got anything by then I'm sure we will find the right panels for us.
Lynne and Paul
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