Noob trying to plan a narrowboat setup

[cotswoldphoto]

Is it OK to ask questions here?

My wife and I are planning to build a narrowboat (we are in England, and a narrowboat is a flat bottom steel hulled boat, in this case 57 foot long by 6 foot 10 inches wide - loaded weight about 14 tons, that you cruise on canals).

Traditionally, these are propelled by a 40(ish) hp diesel engine and have one starter battery and maybe one or two leisure batteries (both charged via alternators). Typically Lead Acid. They might have inverters, and a few have one or two solar panels. Some boats use the main engine for 12V DC and 240V AC electric power as well, but they are very inefficient being used like that, others have a separate diesel generator.

Given our climate - cold, wet, cloudy with occasional sunny days - it would require a tennis court sized array of panels to charge a battery banks to run most things on the boat, and at best you might fit 4 or 6 panels on the boat roof. Also, it is necessary to walk on the roof quite a lot, and the boat has to go through tunnels and under bridges often with only a few inches clearance (above or at the sides). So, solar is possible, but only as a top up bonus.

Often boats will rent a 'permanent' mooring to get a shore power hookup.

We plan to become permanent cruisers, which means no shore power. The canal licence provides regular access to water, waste (trash and toilet) disposal. But, we want to use an electric propulsion motor. That will be a Marlin 8 motor; 48V 8kW. To power that, Lynch, who make the motor, recommend a 800W Lead Acid deep discharge bank, or a 400A Lithium battery bank with the ability of 2C discharge. The only real choice here in the UK is Victron batteries (hideously expensive), or buying off Aliexpress. My experience with Aliexpress makes me very wary of buying built batteries, so I plan to bulk buy 32700 7A cells (I will assume they will really be 5A). Adding in the other electrical needs of the boat, make that 48V at 560A. That means 1792 cells (I will probably buy 2000). I will stuff these in to some marine battery boxes.

There will be a marine diesel generator on board. That is likely to be the Pegaru 9000V (8kW 240 AC) as it is a marine unit that can hook in to a traditional narrowboat fuel, cooling (calorifier) and muffler system.

So far so good. For the inverter and charging system, we will use (maybe more than one) Victron Quattro charger/invertors. For the solar panels, six cheap poly crystalline 100W 18V panels.

So, some things I have figured. You can see, a lot I have not. What other bits to I need? Do I build the cells into batteries? Does each have its own BMS? Lots of questions. Most of the lights on the boat are 12V LED, but I can see two types of these also. Voltage regulated ones seem to be the ones to get. I presume I need a transformer to take the 48V down to 12V, but where? Once at the power bank (at the rear of the boat), or in multiple locations in the boat, closer to where the 12V would be needed?

On cables, is High performance Solar PV Cable the same as marine grade? The stuff I see here, each strand is tinned with copper core, and insulation layer, and then an outer XLPE cover (red or black).

I am sure I will have a whole bunch more of questions, so any help would be much appreciated.

 

[offgriddle]

I'd never even heard of narrowboating untill this very moment and I must say very COOL! Thank you for the introduction! Hopefully you can use diesel & shore power and a solar panel or four to charge lifepo's so that you might enjoy some silent electric propulsion run time free from the diesel. Good luck with your endeavors.

 

[offgriddle]

PS: I am a humble electrician with a deep base of technical knowledge in the field of RF, but kind of a rookie as far as solar goes. There are people here who are more advanced than myself in the field of solar and they love to help and I trust they will be along shortly with bells on!

 

[cotswoldphoto]

I'd never even heard of narrowboating untill this very moment and I must say very COOL! Thank you for the introduction! Hopefully you can use diesel & shore power and a solar panel or four to charge lifepo's so that you might enjoy some silent electric propulsion run time free from the diesel. Good luck with your endeavors.

The canals were the start of the industrial revolution (horse drawn boats), but fell into disuse with the advent of rail, and by WW2 many started to close. Many good souls recognized the alternative lifestyle use they could be put to, and started to renovate and encourage alternative living and holiday use. Today the Canal & River Trust manage almost all of them and the connecting tidal rivers, funded and run mostly through donations and volunteering. There are many more canals still disused, some partly built over now, sadly, slowly being restored by volunteers. And yes, that water is mainly clean (although I would want to drink it), hence some parts of the canals are designated SSIs (Sites of Scientific Interest, for their diversity of wildlife). You will see many Herons, Kingfishers and so much wildlife that is now rare elsewhere in Britain.

You can get one of two licences to use the waterways. The great majority have liveaboard/permanent mooring licenses (expensive) and simply use them as houses. Most are encouraged to moor them in private marinas, off the actual byways. About 5000 boats have continuous cruiser licences (a handful of which are North Americans who previously lived the RV life), but most are actually cheats using the cheaper licence for permanent living (the legal process to fine them and remove them is expensive and lengthy).

Living most of my life in and around the canals, I would estimate the real number of continuous cruisers to be only hundreds. Unsurprisingly, it is a small but very welcoming community. The five 'best' YouTube channels are these (in my order of preference):

Foxes Afloat
The Narrowboat Experience
CruisingTheCut
Minimal List
Journey with Jono
Narrowboat Chef

You will see the 'real' England (and parts of North East Wales) cruising slowly through rolling hills and sleepy villages and past real pubs (there are a lot next to canals, in my village there are three such pubs; The Blue Lias, The Two Boats and The Cuttle). Of those channels, both Journey with Jono and Foxes Afloat show the process from boat build to life aboard. The Foxes got artisans to do it for them, Jono is doing it himself (sort of like I will be). Each makes decisions based on their own needs.

Do watch their videos, maybe become their Patreons. Or, in the case of Annamarie (in The Narrowboat Experience), buy some of her adorable art (and yes, she is Australian, and her wife, Kath, is Welsh). You may well catch sight of the occasional American family on vacation (flying all that way to then spend a few weeks aboard a narrowboat, such nirvana).

But, I want my next boat to step forwards towards a new generation using off grid technology. Hence reaching out to the North American off grid community. You guys are so far ahead of us and know so much more.

 

[Ped]

All I know is ive watched this guy upgrade his narrowboat with lifepo4. Seems like a great channel for you.

EDIT: sorry it was already referenced

 

[cotswoldphoto]

Jono is a nice guy and has a few videos on electrics (batteries, solar panels, inverters etc), but he had the 'support' of Victron, so he paid very little for their branded kit (he gets to visit their head office in one video). I am having to build my own battery packs from cells, but Will's Battleborn teardown has given me so many ideas. A shame there are so few plastic standoff/holder parts for 32700 or 32650 batteries.

 

[Ped]

Other than their actual batteries their components are not terribly priced. Its nice they all work together. And theor controllers are one of few that have low temp cutoff. I think epevers triron does too though.