Michael Askin wrote: > £150 per 8 days, £18.5 a day, about £2.30 an hour so not stupidly more > expensive than diesel, but still more even when diesel prices go up! > Just read your other message, I worked on 8 hours days on a light use > day! > > We tend to use around 5 gallons on a heavy river run (Humber/Trent) a > day (usually long days though, about 10 hours or more). > > I wonder if there is any millage in using steam-electric? A steam > turbine with a generator charging batteries to run an electric motor. > I guess to get up steam takes some coal on it's own, but you wouldn't > need to run it all day as the batteries would carry it. Not sure if > the losses in the system would make it worse than a steam engine > driving the prop direct. This is the way most power stations are > setup, but then there is often economy in scale, and they are running > 24/7 (well most are anyway). > > Boiler tests are only every so long (every year/4 years? a fairly long > time) so I guess that doesn't really increase costs to much and > minimal maintenance on the engine probably less than replacing the oil > and fuel filters cost on a diesel.
IIRC it's an hydraulic test every 4 years for copper and 2 years for steel. Also every 14 months for a steam test. I would also expect any insurance company to insist on a yearly test. How long the boiler survives will depend on water quality, water hardness (too soft can be as bad as too hard), and what anti-corrosion extras one uses. Remember this is not like a boiler at home where the water just gets hot and cycles around - these are steam boilers, so all the "stuff" dissolved in the water ends up being concentrated in the boiler. Ron Jones Process Safety & Development Specialist Don't repeat history, unreported chemical lab/plant near misses at http://www.crhf.org.uk Only two things are certain: The universe and human stupidity; and I'm not certain about the universe. ~ Albert Einstein ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/canals-list/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/canals-list/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
