DIY update

I know most will not have slept well last night worrying about the success or not of my DIY project, well all seems to have been ok. We were not woken at night with the pump cycling away as the boat filled with water. Better than that after we ran the engine we had hot water plus the rads got hot as I'd left second loop open. This gives us another way of heating the boat. Just got to decide if it is worth adding an extra rad to the system now.

I will also look at wiring in the emersion heater element so on shore power or genny power we have another option for heating water.

One thing that is also better is that I have taken out a lot of copper and replaced it with plastic, better for the winter frosts and the last method of insulation was the yellow loft insulation that was horrid, it is now all lagged with pipe insulation. I think I'll cover it with some of the bagged type loft insulation as a belt and braces approach.

Before and after pics below. Note the amount of copper......









I have also added an expansion tank (the red tank at the top of the pic) this will take the expansion as the water heats up. The old system did not have such and I expect the expansion was managed by the accumulator on the cold side as there did not seem to be a non return valve installed?

Now on to solar panels.........

Nev


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Location:Fradley

Boat DIY

I blogged here about my waterworks problem on Waterlily. I received some sound advice and took the decision to do a full upgrade rather than a bypass repair.  I cannot see us upgrading boats for some time so we might as well have the benefit from heated water from the back boiler and hot water for longer. Plus the replacement has a immersion heater element that I will wire up for it we are on shore line or powered by the genny.

The Surecal Calorifiers in Midland Chandlers were a whopping £430 so I brought direct from Surecal for £350 I also made a good saving on an expansion cylinder that my system does not have at the moment. I ordered it when in Cornwall and it was delivered on time so top marks for Surecal.

A trip to B&Q for loads of fittings - good thing is you can take back what you don't use so I always over stock just in case. The biggest challenge will be the pipe runs as the old cylinder was fed both ends and the new one is all one end. I have oped for plastic as its simple and hopefully a little more frost resistant but it will all be lagged when completed. So an update later maybe.....

Cornwall sunset

Just sat and watched the sun melt into the sea........ What a great end to a really lovely day.




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Location:Tintagel

Stunning Cornwall

We are staying a few days at the Camelot Castle hotel. As hotels go it is one of the best I have stayed in for a long while. The location is stunning, the service is so friendly and attentive and the food has been excellent.









It is blowing through a storm at the moment and we have a grandstand view as our room overlooks the coast and we have panoramic views over the the island where it is reputed Arthur had his castle and up the coast to Boscastle.


Te plan later is to walk the costal path up to Boscastle and then catch a local bus back to the hotel.

If you get the chance you should have a stay at the Camelot Castle hotel in your bucket list.




Nev


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Location:Tintagel

Just awesome......

Close to if not one of the best days on a bike.








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Magnificent

On the way up Glencoe, touched by hurricane Irene, truly fantastic.


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Off to Scotland

A weekend away to Dunoon for me with a couple of friends. On the motorbike of course, those west Scotland roads are deserving of nothing less

Nev


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