Hi there, So I've moved the boat down onto the Coventry Canal. I'm out of the flood risk
areas on the Trent & Mersey. And today I'm going to be talking about one of the sources
of power you usually have on a narrowboat. There's usually four sources, the first would
be plugged into shoreline, which is, in the UK it's 240 volts usually at about 16 amps, mains
electricity effectively. And that would plug into your boat and that would allow you to
charge your batteries and do all sorts of things.
The second thing is using your engine. On the engine of a narrowboat there is an alternator.
Sometimes one, sometimes two. I've got two. They charge your starter battery as well as
your house batteries. The problem with that is your adding extra hours of usage onto your
engine and therefor it needs servicing more regularly and your using a huge great big
engine to run some alternators. There's also the theory that some people say that the engines
better and it runs more efficiently when it's under load so, some people put their boats
into tick-over, even when they are moored up, and charge their batteries.
I don't really like doing that because you create a wash, you annoy other boaters and
more importantly, you erode the banks of the canals, especially as I moor up in country
areas.
The third thing you can use is solar power. I've got two solar panels on my roof. I will
be going into a couple of real detailed couple of videos on my electrics. Now that's been quite
good, but during the dark and dingy days of the winter, it's been quite tough. So around
about a year ago I purchased a Honda generator and today I'm going to talk about the generator,
I'm going to talk about servicing it. My generator has been converted to use LPG as well as petroleum,
effectively gas or petrol as it is in the UK and which is more fuel efficient.
I have a Honda EU 20i generator. It can produce 1.6 KW of power at the UK rate of 240
volts. It's said to be one of the quietest suitcase generators on the market and I purchased
it converted to use either petroleum or LPG gas.
It has two UK sockets, and has the ability to put the generator into eco mode. This switch
allows the engine to run in idle but when required it throttles to cope with a higher
load. This I have found keeps the generator as quiet as possible and is more fuel efficient.
For safety it's always best to operate a generator on the tow path. Because of this, I have had
a thick anchor chain welded into one of the stern lockers and is long enough to connect
the generator to the boat at all times, either when stored away or when in use.
When operating a generator on LPG you can have the secondary regulator fitted to either,
the side of the generator or the top of the gas bottle. To reduce the width of the generator
I decided to have the bottle mounted version. The double regulator is fitted to the bottle
and the LPG is fed to the generator via a flexible orange pipe. As I store my gas bottles
in the stern in my gas locker, I requested the hose be extra long to reach the towpath
on either side of Alice.
At the bottom side of the generator is a small orange hose and connector. The hose from the
gas bottle is plugged into this, the gas it turned on and the priming button is pressed
on the larger regulator.
As long as there is no petrol in the generator it can be started exactly the same.
I have plugged a standard energy measuring meter into the generator. Here are my calculations.
I have a standard sized 13Kg LPG gas bottle. This is the most frequently used size and
I have on average paid £28 for a replacement.
A 13Kg bottle is said to have between 24-26 litres of LPG in it, so let's say 25.
That calculates to £1.12 per litre of gas. After what seems like months and months of testing, I have
generated 15.99 kWh so let's say 16 kWh from the full bottle.
That is 1.5625 litres of LPG gas per kWh produced. £1.75 per kWh
I've also tested the fuel efficiency of petroleum.
At the moment, a litre of Unleaded petrol from a UK forecourt is £1.189
I generated 22 kWh from an equivalent volume of 25 litres of petrol
That is 1.1363 litres of petrol per kWh produced £1.35 per kWh at the current pump prices.
So my calculations have determined, running a generator on petrol is currently cheaper
and uses less fuel per kWh produced.
It's now time to service my generator.
For the service, I'm going to use the oil provided to me when I purchased the generator
and that is 10W40 type. I also have a new CR5HSB spark plug.
The tools I will need are:
A pair of gloves, a large flat headed screwdriver, a small funnel, some paper towels, a spark
plug wrench and a spark plug gap feeler gauge.
Using the flat headed screwdriver, unscrew the holding screw on the side of the generator
and remove the maintenance cover. Then unscrew the cover from the air filter. Remove the
two filters from the housing. Clean both filters in some warm soapy water. Squeeze them in
the water to remove any dust or dirt. Try not to twist or ring the filters.
Dry the filters on a bit of towel, and again, pat dry rather than ringing them. Dip the
filters in a small amount of the clean engine oil. This applies a small coating of oil to
the filter. Put the filters back into the generators housing, replace the air filter
cover and screw back on.
Whilst the maintenance cover is still off, at the bottom left corner is the oil filler
cap. I removed it and tipping the generator
slightly, I poured the used oil into a container. Although I was able to get most of the oil
into the container, it does have a habit of spilling, so that is where the paper towel
came in handy.
Once the oil has all drained out I put a small funnel into the filler cap, tilted the generator
back and added around 350 ml of oil. The generator holds 400 ml so using the side of the
bottle I could guesstimate what I was putting in. Levelling the generator, I topped up the
remaining until the oil was level with the top of the screw in cap hole. I then replaced
the oil filler cap.
Finally, on this side of the generator, I replaced the maintenance cover and screwed it back on.
In this service, I will also replace the spark plug. Using the screwdriver remove the spark
plug maintenance cover. Pull the spark plug cap off the plug. Using
the spark plug wrench I unscrewed the spark plug.
I removed my new spark plug from its box and checked it for cracks or damage. The gap
between the electrode and the plug should be 0.024-0.028 inches.
Using the feeler gauge I slid the plug onto the gauge at its smallest point. I then slid
the plug around until it stopped. This plug stopped at about 0.026 inches. This was the
correct gap I required.
I screwed the plug back in by hand and tightened it using the wrench. I will keep an eye on
it's tightness after a few uses to ensure it hasn't loosened off.
I then replaced the spark plug cover and my generator service was complete. I have included
links to all the items I've used and discussed in this episode in the description below.
If you like this episode please do give it a thumbs up and don't forget to leave a comment.
Until next time, see ya later.