Just like a house that moves - not

We never cease to be amazed by the number of people that either hire, or increasingly buy a narrowboat and think that it has an unlimited supply of everything - electricity, water, gas, heat and who fail to make any adjustments - concessions if you prefer - to 'boating', believing instead that it is a house that moves. Much of this is bought about by a combination of glossy brochures produced by both boat builders and hire companies helped along a certain television show all about narrowboats. Whenever a boat leaves its' moorings it immediately needs to become self sufficient - or more exactly the crew need to ensure that it becomes self sufficient. The following paragraphs cover this in more depth but can summed up as  . . .

Plan to be self sufficient

Electricity

The only electricity on board is that you have stored (in batteries) or that you make as you need it. Most boats have 1 battery dedicated to starting the engine and between 2 and 4 'domestic' batteries - those dedicated to storing a DC supply we nominally call 12v and just like a car if you ask too much of them they go flat. The alternator(s) on the engine will do their best to recharge all of them whilst the engine is running but this can take a surprisingly long time - 6 to 8 hours not being uncommon - more if you have more batteries or have flattened them.

If you want 'mains' electricity this can be obtained by running a generator set of some description either an independent one or 'mains' alternator driven by the boat engine or using an inverter. The generator option, unless you use a very expensive 'super silenced' set brings with it noise and vibration but an otherwise unlimited supply until the engine / generator gets turned off. The inverter option is silent but draws around 20 times the current from your batteries as the 'mains' it creates. For example to get 5 amps at 240v needs 100 amps at 12v - and that assumes a perfect 'no loss' conversion.

We often see hire boaters running their engines for hours at a time 'to charge the batteries'. This is normally down to them leaving every possible light on, running the TV for endless hours and otherwise being frivolous with their energy use.

Yes, we have a full sized domestic fridge freezer, washing machine, TV electric kettle, a hair drier and a whole collection of 'normal' appliances but as soon as we are away from 'mains', either because we've moved or the power supply fails we change into what we laughingly, but with an element of truth call 'siege mode'.

Gas

We recently saw a boat who had run out of gas. How ? There are always 2 bottles and quite often 3. Running out is a real pain and totally predictable. Because the only thing we use gas for is cooking a 13Kg propane lasts us around 10 weeks in winter, longer in summer. We purposely choose not to have an automatic change over valve because that means we'd not know when one of the bottles ran out. With the best will in the world, no one is going to get into the habit of checking the gas bottles every week to see if one has emptied (with the possible exception of a hire base - and the boat we saw was a hire boat so they're not foolproof) and even if it feels empty there may still be a significant amount left in. Most marinas sell propane, but if you are in an idyllic spot, settled down for a few days over a bank holiday and run out of gas you're stuffed.

Water

When I asked about for a water level meter I met 1 company that would sell me a ready made solution for around £70 (but wouldn't guarantee it would work on our boat because we couldn't site it where they suggest. I also met a whole load of suggestions about how to know when the water is getting low by looking at how far out the water the front is. In the end I downloaded a circuit diagram from the net, went to Maplins and built one. A truly great gadget given that we have a varying number of crew for varying numbers of days so the 'how far out of the water' trick becomes unreliable.

Like gas, running out of water really isn't a joke, in fact much less of a joke. It instantly turns you into a 'must have water' junkie and becomes THE only important thing in life.

Fill up whenever you can - at the very worst every 2 days.

The toilet

One way or the other what goes in must go out. Cassette system or pump out best you know what your capacity is. If on cassettes you can always carry a spare tank or two but even so if you are on cassettes then empty whenever you can, if on a holding tank plan to empty at least one place earlier than you could. That way if you get to a sanitary station and find it out of order you can still move on to the next.

Fuel

We have, as an ex hire boat a large fuel tank. Whilst at the marina we can go quite literally months without needing to refill, the only fuel used is for our Eberspacher heater that provides hot water and heats the radiators. Whilst cruising we obviously use more. A very sophisticated measurement system, otherwise known as a stick tells us what is in the tank. Once more, anything less than 1/2 a tank has us planning where to fill up next. We tend to fill up as we leave the marina and we know that this easily gives us 3 weeks or more cruising, then re-fill on the way back.

Our siege mode

The biggest change we make is the use of electricity. Once we are off mains the washing machine is off limits unless we turn the generator on. Because we do this so rarely we bought a cheap(ish) diesel that therefore isn't over quiet or pretty but does produce plenty of mains to run the washing machine. Whilst we are cruising and the engine is running we use all other mains appliances as normal except the hair drier which we limit to half heat. However as soon as the engine goes off the electric kettle gets unplugged (so we don't accidentally use it), every light not lighting anywhere we are gets turned off any chargers (mobile phone etc.) get unplugged and the TV only goes on for specific programmes, not any old dross.

We continue to use gas at a normal rate, knowing that we have between 10 and 20 weeks supply at any time.

We try and empty the toilet holding tank as soon as we can after leaving the marina. That way we know that we have at least 4 weeks capacity. After 3 weeks we start to look for an emptying point. On the way back we always try to empty out again.

Water we fill up with before we leave and monitor what is in the tank daily. As we don't normally use the washing machine whilst away from the marina our water tank lasts much longer but even so when we get down to half we start looking to fill up. Showers are planned so that a) the engine has been running and therefore we are on 'free' hot water and b) when we know that we either just have, or better still, are just about to refill with water. If we are going to use the washing machine the same rules apply.