OK, my bore glazing question has been answered, and this now leads into
my next question, which relates to the onboard production of AC power.
You see we are (finally) thinking about buying a boat for use six
months a year (the max allowed by the UK government for non-residents).
With living aboard for this long a period of time, it would be nice to
have all the "home comforts"- microwave, reasonably-sized fridge and
freezer, dishwasher, washer, and tumble drier. These could use
considerable power. And since my initial plan would be to move the
boat every 4-5 days, the ability to generate power while stationary is
important.
One option is to have a generator to supply this power, but these are
pricey (I saw a Vetus 6.5 kw cocooned for 9000 ukp), and would be a
second internal combustion engine on the boat, which offends my
sensibilities. And you can glaze their bores anyway.
We decided in the bore glazing thread that the diesel engines in
narrowboats and the like have engines with a lot of spare power, so
generating AC power from the engine seems quite reasonable. Thus
something like the TravelPower seems like possibly the best idea. The
TravelPower appears to come in sizes of 3.5kw, 5kw, and 7kw,
corresponding to 4.7hp, 6.7hp, and 9.3hp when fully loaded, which would
exercise the engine as much or more than ordinary canal cruising.
Oddly, the only pricing I could find on these were the additional cost
when added to the buy of an isuzu 55 engine - the range was 2600 ukp
for the smaller to 4800 ukp for the larger, so still costly but
apparently less so than a gennie.
Looks like (from all the familiar web hits) that many of you boat
owners have TravelPower units installed. Are those the only game in
town? Is everyone happy? Or have I reached the wrong conclusion?
- george
www.canals.com [website and canals.com email STILL DOWN]
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