How Eco Friendly Is Narrow Boat Life?
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- čas přidán 23. 08. 2024
- I have done a fair amount of research into this video but really focused on my own differnce I would love to know about your water, power, diesel, heating, and all the ways your life has changed to be more or less Eco friendly.
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Biffa (the Canal & River Trust's main waste contractor) claim that around 60% of the waste placed in their 'General Waste' bins is recycled.
Even if it's half that, that's a significant contribution.
The chief problem with recycling bins is their misuse, it's very rare to find a recycling facility that hasn't had the waste in it contaminated by non-recyclables.
its good that the general waste is being sorted too but i am sorting out my recyclables and cleaning them and having to carry them round for months because I cant find a recycling bin, then even more recycling will make it to recycling!
I bought a very small house on the mountains in central Italy three years ago (what I paid for it won't get you a new car!😀). Anyway, I use my wood stove for heating, cooking and heating water to bath, etc, I don't have central heating or hot running water, etc. I have small portable solar panel to charge my phone and mb3 to listen to some audio books a friend downloaded for me. I don't have a car or a tv or an iron or any electrical gadgets. I grow lots of vegetables and forage a lot, I preserve most of my foods, I have chickens for eggs, etc. I don't use any detergents or shampoo or lotions, etc. I use ash, lemon, vinegar and bicarbonate of soda to wash dishes, clean house, etc. I use coconut oil with organic bicarbonate of soda to brush my teeth, and organic unpasteurized apple vinegar to wash my hair. I haven't bought a new piece of clothing for ten years; I never use any makeup (by the way I have the most beautiful skin and hair😄😳 yes I'm bragging 😂) what else! I eat only local, organic and seasonal foods: veggies and meats (nose to tail approach) and what I can't grow/raise I buy it from local family run small farms nearby, just don't go to supermarket. Ah, no wonder people in the nearby village think I'm crazy😀😇
that sounds amazing
🙏 sounds like you have the amazing “basic “ life - enjoy and well done
How do you make a living?? Have you learned Italian?.. ❤🍸🍷🍸🍹
@@johnclark3697 hi John, I help kids with their homework during the school; some week I make €50 another week €30 another week nothing at all. I live with very little as I don't have bills or buy anything. Some of the foods I buy, like organic coffee, salt, etc, I buy from a small organic shop and they let me buy on the account. I.e, I pay when I have the money, they just write down what I bought and how much I need to pay and the date. Sometimes it takes me a long time before I earn enough to pay them back😄 and yes I've learnt Italian, mainly through talking to people or listening to the radio😳
@@warrenbrowne9648 thank you very much. Yes, I do, even lots of people can't understand my choice of living. They think it's mad to live without electricity or a car or not to buy new stuff or go on a holiday, etc. But, I believe I'm the sane one, living without all these stressful unnecessary stuff, free from the burden of the modern life.😄😳
I am watching some of your videos again to feel Spring/summer on this snowy February. 👍
A really thought provoking video. Clearly you win hands down eco wise by living on a boat. As you say you are heating and lighting a fairly small space vs me in a 3 bed semi. I use loads of water and travel to work each day and sit in a large office block which is heated and brightly lit with rooms full of computers running all day.
The difference in our environmental footprint must be enormous. If we all lived in houses the same size as narrow boats our global impact would be reduced dramatically but I don't think you could sell it to the masses. 😊
Yes and more shared more spaces. We could have shared laundry rooms, for example. All having 5-6 appliances etc, is a big energy burn.
love these Information type videos rather than just cruising type
oh good!
Another question what stuff was you told to purchase when you moved on board .....but turned out a waste of time and you made your own alternative .
Hope it made sense 😊
Very helpful information--and as you say, being aware of what you use helps you to limit waste.
:)
CRT provide plenty of recycling points if you cruise enough. The general waste biffa bins are also recycling as they are manually sorted at the depot.
Hmm ...define "plenty". Are these recycling points equally distributed throughout the system?
I note you stated, "if you cruise enough"; some folks might wonder how far that might be.
Or are you including yards/marinas?
I have found "a" marina charges for dumping of rubbish, emptying a poo pot and asks for a donation for water.
Given we pay a licence fee which covers the above services you may think it's a bit of a swizz we have to pay again at a "private" service point if there aren't enough CRT service points.
Some marinas say that CRT will close a service point and "expect" a local marina to cover. One marina I spoke with refused because CRT expected the marinas to cover the services for free. The marinas pay for refuse collection, water supply and sewage services so you can understand a certain reluctance to provide a free service.
There is a downside to closing refuse points and that the canal itself becomes one long linear dump. Black plastic bags can be seen stuck in reeds but nobody will retrieve them in case the bag splits and you don't know what's in it so who's going to risk that on their boat?
As for closing down Elsan points, then I refer you to the above comments.
@@t1n4444 Can you list the marinas crt have asked to take over the rubbish and elsan for free? We have cruised over 600 miles this year on canals all over the north west and have never had to carry rubbish for more than a couple of days only relying on marinas for diesel and pump out which are not included in license fees. I think the problem is the boats may not be distributed throughout the system. The idea is simple the more you cruise the greater number of facility's you have access to. If you live in London and cover a very limited cruising area shared with many others you might feel it is not well provided for.
@@philelliott5327 I could mention the marinas but would be inappropriate as the issue might be resolved by now.
hi phil I actually had never heard this info about biffa bins before the comments of this video, and tbh I'm not to sure i trust that i will need to look into it. seems like i cant win in the comments half the people saying i don't contribute and assuming i don't work and the other half assuming i don't move enough, I am a free lancer with 4 jobs and also currently studying, I cruise a lot in the school holidays usually we do 55-100 miles a year on our big trips alone, and then probably anther 20 or so in the bits in between when we are working, but you can see that in my videos we have been to reading, oxford , welling bough, godalming Milton Keynes, Northampton ect.
It seems you need two more solar panels and four more batteries to keep up with necessities like a refrigerator. Companies are now starting to make incinerator toilets that use propane so they not only alleviate the waste dumping they also warm the bathroom depending on how much there is to burn. They say that a family of four makes about one cup of ash per week in those toilets. Thank you again for your hard work at making these videos.
What they don't say is that the incinerator toilet for a typical family uses at least one 13Kg propane tank every week or two. The cost of which is ridiculous let alone the carbon footprint of burning that amount of gas.
Check out composting loos, been around for a very long time.
But, instead we like to treat our waste, and associated plumbing, with respect so insist on using only the finest fresh drinking water. Hmm ...
@@theotherstevesteve Propane is the cleanest burning gas of all and has a very low carbon footprint, much lower than natural gas or compressed natural gas. Propane can't hurt water or soil because it's not toxic. When you switch to it, you reduce carbon monoxide, hydrocarbon and greenhouse gas emissions. Propane has less carbon than any other gas and a propane incinerator toilet will use less than 4 kg of fuel per week for a family of four.
@@yonatanbenavraham6598 A fair point ref the chemistry YBA, but, it is still consumption of resources and a couple would expect to use up a 13kg bottle in around seven months for cooking to give you some context.
Latest trendy green thing for us narrowboaters is the composting toilet. Plus narrowboaters very keen on saving cash and presumably this incinerator unit is not cheap and then continuing expense to run it???
Somehow I don't see it doing that well over here.
tbh we just need a new fridge its old and not as effective as it once was
WOW only 250 litres, are you sure you don’t mean gallons, we have a 110 gallon (500 litre) stainless steel tank, and this lasts us about 7 days
We do have an automatic washing machine and do 2 loads of washing between fill ups.
Is your tank integral or a drop in stainless one?
We are constantly on the move so use on average about 40 litres of diesel per month and a 13kg gas bottle lasts about 10 weeks
It does make you more aware of the environmental impact our lives have on the planet and through a few lifestyle changes and changes in shopping we feel we are doing our small part to lessen these impacts
Great vid 👍
Mark & Debbie
I'm a narrowboat live -aboard, have a 180ltr (litres) water tank which is filled around every tenth day. Two people living on board.
@@kitwest61 I think that's very brave of you CW, I too think personal cleanliness is vastly overated, if not actually de trop.
Napoleon certainly didn't press Josephine ... he, being a soldier, definitely understood the theory of water conservation.
we dont really do gallons in the uk
I use 2000 litres of diesel a year driving my car. So that's a big saving being on your boat. Two showers a week, well as an Aussie we always knew that about the Brits. I need a shower daily. Love your lifestyle.
you probably sweat more living in a hot place
@@ThisNarrowboatAdventure ...And by the look of his thumbnail pic, rather 'large' too haha
@@bspilcker Haha, but you did say 'I NEED a shower daily'
@@bspilcker HAha You Aussies love giving it, butya just can't....
@@limmoblack You probably live with ya mum.
I'm late watching this one but it has to be your best video yet...lovely day, backdrop, lighting, and you too of course lol. It's a very interesting subject.
You have me beat hugely, Jasmin. Your 200l/yr diesel consumption made me back up and listen to that part again. I burn more than that in a couple weeks just fueling my truck - and compared to most in my country(USA) my truck gets absolutely fantastic mileage.
yours goes faster than 4mph
Our boats have a similar setup. never thought about using my Pie on the boat before. Doing that this weekend! This has been my 1st year with solar panels, and i i’ve worked out my diesel usage before and after fitting them and they’ve paid for themselves already - They’re a must if you’re not moving your boat a lot. Great video as always! @NBLovie - River Wey
they are also much nicer since you don't have to sit on a boat with the engine running
Great pastoral setting for background. Good choice!
cant tell you how much i love this packground !!!
This is an interesting subject. I think eventually as batteries, solar cells and appliances become more efficient manufacturers of narrowboats would start building more electric boats. in some of the marinas here in CA electric Duffy boats are very popular for cruising within the marina. You could never live on one, too small, but for a day picnic they are fun and relaxing. After my neighbor bought a used trailer, he swapped out all the lighting to LED. He has 4 solar panels on the roof, a fridge which can use both electricity or propane, he installed a tankless water heater, and also has a portable propane generator.
we get a lot less sun here..... it will have to be very efficient
You've got it! Think, act, and think again
love the view with hay bales in the background
me too wish i had filmed more while i was there!
They are straw bales not hay. Hay is a green colour and comes from grass . Straw is from Barley,wheat,oats, etc and is yellower in colour.
Nice video thanks. You must live a lot cheaper than us house bound folk. Plus on a boat you don't waste space. I have a four bedroom house which is far too big now the kids are grown up and gone. Xxx
to be honest i don't think it is that much cheaper, but it suits me better!
In Sweden where I live we nowadays pay approx 60p a plasticbag in supermarkets, the big sturdy ones and 4p for the flimsy ones they provide for fruit and stuff. Soon we´ll have to pay 15p a mug for take away coffee and other hot drinks, 40p for the plates when we go and buy sausages, kebab and such things, all of it is taxes so the consumption of plastic has gone down significantly.
Can you find/use groceries with less plastic wrapping, plastic alternatives such as reusable beeswax wraps, zero waste toothpaste tablets, bulk purchase of dry goods foods that can be stored in glass containers, etc? I’d imagine eco friendly shopping might be a challenge on the canal. Enjoyed this episode - an important topic. Bottom line is that narrowboaters are more conscious of the waste you generate and your carbon footprint because every action has consequences for you, a lesson us land-bound types mostly haven’t learned.
we do when we can but it isn't consistently available along the canal, we don't use bees wax or plastic rap.bigger supermarkets thankful often have non rapped vegies we tend to go for them.
Great video. We use eco washing and cleaning products too and have loved finding refill shops as we move along the canal. We don’t use coal on our fire; just logs and my husband is researching a way to create a fan system to blow it around more. We don't have any other heating but the boys have lovely fluffy bedding and onesies are our favourite evening attire lol We are saving for solar panels 😀 Lovely to hear all the things yours power. Do they still get good power in the winter? In terms of recycling this has shocked me since living aboard this year but I now use recycling centres at places like Sainsbury’s as I can’t bring myself to landfill reusable materials!!! Also M&S by my parents house has a facility to recycle crisp, bread, film type packets so we do that once a week. We have a compost toilet and we are currently experimenting with composting the waste in bins in the well deck - so far it’s going well. We cook mostly on our wood burner in the winter and use it to boil the kettle too. It’s my fave thing to instagram about at the moment 😂 Looking forward to your video about your raspberry pi as we are thinking of laptops etc for our home schooling experience. We just purchased a twin tub because as a live aboard family of 4 I am finding the washing a bit of a challenge! This will reduce our water consumption too as we won’t be using big washers as much and I can re use the water on the boat plants!
we have a great eco fan czcams.com/video/xfbT-CDcwIs/video.html . we do sometimes run out of power in winter and have to use fair lights
sounds like you are doing really well!
Composting toilets are much more eco friendly. Don't like the idea of sewage being dumped into the river
I work in the plumbing industry, The largest flush from years gone by is 9Ltr. Modern toilets are dual flush 4/2.6Ltr
Yeah, 14ltrs is ecobull
In US,old property, very little money,signed for wind gen electric,hang laundry,rain water for garden, recycling is 40 mi away, only go when other errands, compost, unfortunately due to muscle disease high heat and cold and oxygen concentrator at night means use more power than I want.loved the way. Light changed in you in video
I totally agree with you on urging the CRT to provide recycling other than take the what seems to be an easier option for them of forcing boaters not to run their engines to recharge their batteries to make it look like they are doing something constructive for the environment.
I also agree with you about electricity usage. Land based power generation still consumes masses of coal and a lot of that power is also used for heating via air conditioning in offices and shopping centers.
But on the subject of water usage, Jasmine you are in England where you are blessed with regular rain fall. Down here in Australia we have many towns who have no water in their dams and people are surviving on less than 5 liters of water per day and the chance of them getting any rain in the near future is zero. Cheers
goodness
Thanks for the heads up on the Raspberry Pie, they look awesome and not in the slightest fattening. lol. Myself, I live in a flat where all the utilities are included in the rent, so being eco-friendly is something I have to concentrate on and is actually had work. However, I am in training for van life so have been down scaling and learning to live with less of everything. Thanks as always for your insights and beautiful smile.
thank ian glad it was of interest
Thank you for the video!
Im building a pickup camper and a lot of your information is helpful, it's a plus that you are such a delightful beautiful lady. I could sit quietly and listen to you do a dissertation on "the reason for why", lol.
thank you leroy
@@ThisNarrowboatAdventure welcome ma'am
Great video,thank you Jasmin,people lose awareness when everything is hand fed to them,it's true .
very true
Excellent video containing some very interesting facts. We are land cruisers (Small x2 Motorhome) and when out and about we survive on solar, a bit of gas for cooking and hot water and just simple techniques to manage our use of everyday items. We run a 12v TV, a HAM radio and have plenty of power to charge phones and a laptop for the usual browsing. Many Thanks for sharing.
and petrol or diesel I assume?
@@ThisNarrowboatAdventure Indeed, we probably see diesel as our biggest expense.
Spot on! The awareness! Same for us vanlifers, but I think it's a great thing!
Well explained, nice video 😀👍
thank you :)
I was about to buy a wide beam but at the last moment a 100 year old Dutch barge came up. she is 63ft by 10ft 6. I'm still restoring her but have everything ready, this includes, 4.1kw of solar panels, 20kw Lynch motors, composting toilet and 50kw battery. I'm not sure how this will be to live with but should be fun. I'm on the Great Ouse. I'll update when there's something worth seeing.
sounds really good graham!
Enjoyed your take on sustainability girl. I guess other than only using my vehicle only when needed and not for pleasure there is not much I can do living in my own home. The years are warming up so we need heating less during the cold months so that is a big help. Have been working on getting things in place if we have a power outage for more than a day and have it fairly well sorted. All the best
hi ken lovely to hear from you as always, :)
Hello great channel iam also a boater I've a electric powered navy patrol boat that I use for adventures I like your channel and just subscribed 😀
Excellent
I just got a RP 4. If you get an aux SSD to store large files, USB connected. Hard link, in OS, the storage to SSD, and all is good. Hide the works in a cupboard. The RP WiFi will work throughout. A little simplified, but that is roughly how it could go together, to keep power usage low for the RP.
Cheers
Great video - thank you.
When I lived on a yacht (not a narrowboat; 24' long, GRP) in the 90s, solar wasn't a widely used option but quite a few boats had wind turbines. The turbines often received complaints from other boaties because of noise, especially when the wind was over 40 knots or so. When I've been back to the marina in recent years, most boats have solar panels.
Smaller spaces inside the boats was a major advantage in reducing heating and cooling (and here in south east Australia, we don't have the cold winters you do), but the water also acted to even temperature out. Houses in the last couple of decades here have become much larger, and not many people are noticing that one of the many problems that causes is greater demand for heating/cooling.
On water, usage on a boat is lower, and a big part of that is, as you said, greater awareness and the consequences of running out of water. However, land folk here have also cut back their water consumption considerably (and reuse grey water on gardens, for instance) as a result of the "millennium drought" (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000s_Australian_drought) we had: boaties still use much less, though.
When I moved onto th boat initially, I did some experimenting with a reuse system using filters for grey water, but it didn't work as well as I wanted, and I gave up on it in the end. However, I've now seen some systems in another state using dissolved air flotation (DAF) to pre-treat grey water before it is discharged: it works well, but uses - for a boat - a significant amount of power.
On the recycling, I used to bundle it all together and take to a friend's place to add in to theirs.
PS - a lot of yachts will catch rainwater off sails when cruising, let the first flush go to get rid of the salt, but I don't think that could easily be done on a nb.
really interesting ti hear how the technology has developed!
Great to hear your getting into the Raspberry Pi! There's a great community surrounding them. You'll have the boat fully automated with it soon!
I don't want the boat fully automated, just a little techy would be great
Congrats for doing a video on this subject. Your necessarily careful use of resources helps balance out your use of diesel for locomotion.
I'm not a regular boater but I would think that you could improve your footprint by installing more solar panels and using the capacity for some of your hot water.
For accuracy, your diesel-fired water heating should really be compared with land-based domestic heating, currently being done by gas - another fossil fuel, but it produces less CO2.
You could save about 14% CO2 by changing to propane for water heating. This not as effective as natural gas, but that is not a feasible option.
Ideally, water heating would be done by burning sustainably-sourced wood in a back boiler.However, there are two problems with this. Most obvious is the need to replace your stove. A more complex problem is finding a wood source that is actually sustainable. Doubts have been cast on the alleged sustainability of wood from North America (US or Canada), used in a British wood-burning power station.
Clearly running the diesel engine to power the generator is wasteful. However, the engine does heat the hot water and boat engines run at low speed so they make little if any of the harmful pm2.5 particles. The old classic twin cylinder engines are even better as they run too slowly produce any fine soot.
Well done! Keep doing what you're doing.
thanks Jan
I'm just getting into the Rasp Pi thing. Good fun.
Thanks once again for a lovely, well considered vid.
For me you both provide a great example of how to live aboard in a very eco way. I’m interested in the pros and cons of having more power reserves onboard and whether that is actually more eco-friendly. Maybe relying on that for some cooking to cut out the gas use. Appreciate that the up front costs of significantly more battery capacity, sundries and an AC inverter are needed.
I noticed that the government are making moves in the medium future to stop putting gas into new build homes. I guess we’ll all have to ween ourselves off all forms of fossil fuels ultimately.
Keep making your ever so lovey vids. Balm for the soul! X
Glad it's made you more aware of the amount of consumables we all go through in our daily lives, i am much older than your good self and i have to tell you that back when i was young, we re cycled much more than is possible today. More was wrapped in paper not plastic, Bottles were washed filled and re labeled, cracked eggs were bought for Baking and not thrown away as they are now what a waist. A huge amount of energy is used melting broken glass only to re make it as a bottle, and sorry but i can't accept that a wood burner of any kind can be described as carbon neutral, you have fire you produce CO2, and don't forget when you lived on land you must have used some diesel such as buses or trains surley, and now you are using much less, i think your lifestyle looks great by the way so carry on sailor
what an interesting perspective! thank you for sharing
That's a lovely video. Very well explained. You have a new subscriber!
thank you :)
Me too
Hi, loved the vlog as always. We are currently trying out a little set of solar powered garden lights inside our narrowboat. so far the ones we picked to try first, do not give out quite enough light to be able to read with. if we find the right set that suits us, I'm sure it will help cut down our light power consumption during the winter months. let us know if you have already tried these? Steve & Andy
you might try to find a solar camping lantern, you would likely have to leave it outside until needed but it should give more light.
maybe consider having a look on bimble its not too bad for a solar set up
Great vlog - really interesting to share how eco friendly us livaboards are. Great to read comments also on each other's setups. So here is mine;
I live alone on a 58ft narrowboat.
Two 245W solar panels charging two 100Ah 12v batteries. Provides more than enough power during summer months cruising. I usually stay in one place during the week then move on at the weekend due to holding down a job. The panels don't quite provide enough for this time of year (mid October) especially as we have had some darker rainy days so I sometimes have to run the engine. I run a 12v fridge permanently. Don't know how you get away without running a fridge! I have 12v LED spot lighting throughout, and charge phone, laptop, and have an inverter so I can watch TV - but only for an hour or two in the evening. Inverter is off when not watching TV or charging laptop as it uses power to just run itself.
I have on board wi-fi from a 4G router. Runs off 12v. Don't know the power consumption of it but I don't think it's much. I get through about 50GB data a month. only tend to stream TV not watch live TV.
I have 450L water tank in the bough, that can last me up to 2 weeks. Shower 2-3 times a week, and have pumpout toilet which does consume a lot of water on a flush - so I don't flush it every time. I have a portable twin tub washing machine which I use once a week.
I need a pump-out every 3 to 4 weeks. Must be full of s**t!
Two 13kg propane bottles in the bough, for cooker only. I get through one bottle every 5-6 months.
Diesel heater for radiators and hot water- but the radiators aren't very efficient so i keep the thermostats low and only use them for drying clothes. It's mostly for hot water use. It's on a timer, half hr in the morning and half hr in the evening gives me all day hot water. it's meant to use 0.5L of diesel per hour but I've never measured it. Diesel tank is about 100L. Not sure on fuel usage because i often go to a boat yard with the excuse of a fuel top-up so that I can offload my rubbish and recycling.
I produce a bin bag of rubbish and an Aldi bag of recycling every 2-3 weeks. I only know of one CRT recycling point in Stratford upon Avon. I've been cruising around the North Stratford canal and the Birmingham - Worcester canal all summer and it's the only one I've come across. I'm probably not that good at being eco with my rubbish though.
Wow thank you for all that info sounds like you have a very civilization boat life
After I stop needing milk for the children we then converted to long life we actually got rid of our fridge we also got rid of washing machine and found that it was a lot easier to just get our clothes laundered when it was convenient to do so the other thing is if you happen to have your boat in a marina for a long period of time there are a lot of rules and regulations as to what you can and cannot do one of them being that they do not like you to hang your washing out or have since toured on your roof so now all our roof actually has on it is our solar panels we have no washing machine no fridge and we seem to still be doing very well we've recently had to replace the batteries which we tend to have to do every two to three years.
when we replaced our batteries they had the date they where put in on them, 8 years they had lasted, I was very impressed
Congrats on your new Raspberry Pi! Have two myself.
thank you we like her
Very insightful video. The 'next step' (fully self-generated electric household and drive) would require much higher efficiency solar panels and higher capacity batteries; those don't (yet) exist. And even then you would still want to warm up your living space, shower water and food. So: about as eco friendly as it possibly gets. Well done you! Never mind the detractors, their 'whataboutism' really shows embarrassment for not doing anything at all.
hello, well hopefully one of these companies will crack clean neuculer(sp?) energy soon and we can have a small one in the boat engine
I've lived all my life near the cut and I cycle up and down the cut, and while I see a lot of solar panels on boat's I have only seen one solar water heater ( bunch of pipes in a panel ) , I would think that would be a good addition to any boat.
I dout we get enough sun for it to work well
The current logic for house solar is to use PV panels to supply you instant consumption, followed by charge any batteries or cars, then use any excess to run an immersion heater after which export to the grid.
The same could follow for a boat in that you charge your batteries then shunt the excess into either space heating or water heating. One panel would then be multi function.
Ive found the main thing about boating is seeing where everything comes from, so you are more connected.
i think you have a point there
Thanks for sharing. I have a 42ft Colecraft cruiser stern. I use approx 100 litres of diesel yearly to move and another 100L to top up 2 batteries. I have a solar panel (2nd hand), which I have yet to install and enjoy the benefit of. Unfortunately I drive a fair amount to work, which isn't so eco friendly, but the advantage is that I can take my litter and recycling to various public sites en route to work daily. I don't have gas installed yet, so my cooking is done on my custom built 4kw multi fuel burner, which I also rely on for heating. There is no back boiler, nor radiators, so at bedtime in the winter, I'm kept warm by conventional methods, ie bedding, dog etc. I use a 280 Litre water tank about once a month, use ecover also and most of my wood comes from a friend in forestry, all dry and seasoned. The rest is scavenged, or from discarded pallets. I have a chainsaw for which I use approx 10 Litres of petrol per year. Most of my clothes are second hand too. I empty my cassette about once every 3 weeks.
Everywhere I moor I have nature on my doorstep, no idiotic neighbours, peace and quiet and this lifestyle, by no means 'simple', as it is often hard work, is the envy of nearly all my house bound friends and colleagues.
sounds like your doing well
As someone who worked in waste management, all waste gets separated at yards so the general waste bins that are provided by the crt goes to get recycled anyway!
Great video yet again...
Lovely back drop scenery..
Keep up the good work
thank you! was in a lovely spot when i filmed this
I came across your channel a few months back and have enjoyed catching up on your episodes (sporadically binge watch, as it were). I am a sailor at heart, but enjoy MV's as well and recently have become enthralled with the canal life and narrow boats of England and France (Vicariously thru CZcams of coarse).
In my professional life I provide process monitoring and consulting to mining, smelting, manufacturing and transportation companies. This unique observation point has given me a bit of a gilded view point of "Eco Friendly" or the "Green Movement". I hope you or your viewers due not take offence at my conclusions, as I had many late night debates with my cruising friends.
There is absolutely nothing eco friendly or green about a boat. Having made that bold statement... I applaud everyone that is attempting to live free of the grid (I mean that on a multi facetted level of self-sufficiency). The key phrase is "Self-Sufficiency"... not green, not eco friendly. Many of my friends say that I am arguing semantics, but I am not!
I KNOW the amount of resources and energy that it takes to produce the goods and end product that I, you and my sailing community rely on. It is "almost" incalculable. Almost!
I am thrilled to see my world become aware of its wastefulness. I am in my sixties and the last thirty years have been the worst. Yes, we have begun to clean up "some" of the industrial polluters, but in turn have turned a blind eye to the consumer polluters. Growing up we did not have single use plastics... we recycled soda bottles, paper bags and news papers (we currently have more forested acreage on this planet than we did 200 years ago and plant based fiber is renewable), we had gardens or traded for goods, we didn't consume electricity by the megawatt and we did not have the internet ( it pains me to say that I helped build this infrastructure that I am currently using). I remember the day that paper bags disappeared from the groceries, to be replaced by plastic bags because we were killing trees. Today the argument is that the plastics that were to be "ECO FRIENDLY" are now killing the environment.
It is a sad state that we have let ourselves fall to. We ALL rely on this technology today and what would happen if it all DISSAPEARED?
You can get wind turbines, there really small and they are really good they run all year round 24 hours a day,my mate has a couple on his garage roof and they charge a few batteries.and then he uses the power to run a fridge freezer and lights.They was a stall at crick boat show showing these wind turbines
ive not seen good reviews
Your walls are metal (steel) which holds the heat well. However, the hull is constantly cooled by canal water, so it's the insulation that is keeping you warm. not the thermal capacity of the steel.
we try to compat this by being above the waterline in winter and below it in summer
quite informative
thank you :)
I don't think I would have that much of a problem with heating bills. I was raised with the house thermostat on 13c. It would only ever come on to stop the pipes from freezing. Our gas bills are really quite low all year round.
I have come to realize that live is too short to be cold in winter
@@ThisNarrowboatAdventure I do have one thing in my favour.... I come with extra insolation... Aka I'm a fatty boy.
If you can shop at Waitrose 7:40 you must be saving a fortune, just kidding love the videos.
Your minimal diesel usage is tiny compared to heating a small house using heating oil (which is essentially red diesel) - much more common for people like me who live in the countryside where there is no gas, oil and electric are the only options - this will burn on average around 500 litres every 3 months! Don't even mention the huge reduction in car fuel usage as many boaters do not have or need a car! ;)
On the subject of showers when my wife went to the UK many years ago a B&B owner apparently screamed at her " You Australians come over here & take all our hot water" so she's not seeing this video (I'm originally from the UK). I'm pretty certain that your carbon footprint is a lot lower than the average landlubber. Heating your boat it's a vastly smaller volume than a house, I presume that you have a high level of insulation, to stop condensation as well as to conserve heat. You must use less fuel. Over here in Australia, we have rainwater tanks mine runs the loo, the washing machine, the garden & filtered for drinking water. Don't know if you can harvest any on your boat. It has paid for itself many times over, as well as conserving water. Oh & if you didn't own a car you probably used public transport so there are your 200 liters of fuel.
we do have good insulation, condensation on the windows but they are designed for it to run outside in little tunnels
i do still use public transport when it too far to cycle so i figure not much has changed in usage from then to now
Australia, the Gulf Nations and The USA have by far the highest ecological footprints in the world.
thanks for that……. very interesting ……keep em coming …...
Will do
Interesting vid. I'm looking at all different ways to be more eco friendly (hopefully to put into use next year when I finally get my boat).
I recently discussed on an FB group if people about harvesting rainwater as I've a few land off grid friends. And apparently quite a few do have a system in place. Thought it might be something interesting for you :)
I have seen a couple of wide beams that do
Raspberry pie and custard...yum yum. Custard has to be thick enough such a spoon dug in vertically must not fall over .....
Raspberry and apple crumble ...well now you're talking....not forgetting blackberry and apple crumble....and custard of course...
Do a vid on your favourite puddings Jasmine!
haha thats a great idea!
The Raspberry PI’s are excellent. I have hem dotted around the house performing different jobs from home security to VPN’s and DNS servers
you have several! very fancy
@@ThisNarrowboatAdventure haha, some are the zeros which are about £4 each 😉
Really informative. Thank you.
thank you for watching miles
Oh, and all geeking out aside, awesome video ( as usual )!
thank you matthew
I shared this on my Facebook group Jasmin, all the best =)
thank craig, what is your facebook group about?
@@ThisNarrowboatAdventure it is called Great British Canals & Waterways
Great venue behind you, looks peacefull
I know right!
Your multi fuel stove will be around 4.5 to 5 kilowatts. So that is all the power used to heat your whole home and probably heat the water too. It's far less than a house would use.
thanks dude :)
If uou get yourself a pulp pres you can turn all your waste papee n cardboard into bricks for burning which takes just as long as a log to burn by shredding paper n card and adding to water press and leave to dry out you will be making your own log burner fuel from your waste material
thats really interesting, the only ones i can see online are for making apple juice is that right or am looking at the wrong thing ?
I have 12v compresor fridge freezer 35lt run off my solar panel ,best thing I ever bought, extremely low consumption. and nearly silent.
but down it have an effective freezer compartment ?
@2m53s: "...two amps per hour..." The "per hour" is unnecessary; if a device draws 2A, then it draws 2A period. An ampere is a unit that already includes the unit of time, i.e. a coulomb of charge per second. In any case, a better measure of energy consumption is kW-hour per month. But if it's locally generated solar, then help yourself to as much as you like. Because it really makes no difference if you're using your own solar, as long as you have enough. A bit like my on-site well and septic system, which means that I can use (borrow?) as much water as I like.
sorry ?
Wow that was really very interesting Many Thanks.
glad you liked it
What happens with your sewage? Do you have a waste water tank?
LiFePO4 batteries are not low cost but over time they have a much longer life than lead-acids. Water is heated by the engine - free heat (sort of).
Rubbish (apart from metals and glass) are better burnt in incinerators though not on domestic stoves. They are fossil but using them to make power is displacing virgin fossil fuel.
Wood burning stoves can have a flue catalyst installed to burn off the fine particles and smoke. Sadly, they are damaged by coal, paper, wood pellets, etc. You could perhaps install a LPG gas burner in the stove to use when you are not allowed to burn coal.
that's interesting we will look into those batteries next time we need some, we only burn paper and card that's not covered in plastic. i don't have a wood-burning stove I have a multi-fuel stove, made for multiple fuels.
An even huger part of it is that y'all are young and healthy enough to do it.
Disability changes the game.
Those of us who are disabled and have a couple incurable illnesses, and those are no longer less than half a century old, will by necessity use more resources of one kind or another to some degree or another. Water, for one instance, because of a few neurological, endocrine, and immunological, diseases which currently have no cure, I have ended up using water for 2 showers today after my body broke out in dripping sweat for no rational reason other than the disease & if the sweat doesn't get washed off soon then skin infections will follow. Some days it is 3 showers. And then there is the resultant extra clothes washing. And because of how those same things affect my hands I no longer build model railways anywhere near as often as I used to, but mostly, I now buy a lot of packaged foods which are already sliced or peeled. And then there's how often we now drive short distances we used to be able to walk with no discernible exertion. And there's more, but that is all I'm going to tell here.
very true
I think you doing good effert in being echo friendly i dont like use of gas or petrol or diesel as dont see any of it as carbon neutral im converting my boat to be all elecrric n im useing the elements i am going to be useing rain water harvesting solar power recirculating shower log burner but using only seasond hardwoods from forageing the whole fit out of boat is being done with recycled wood from palets or wood thrown in skips etc even the sink is been restored from old hintage sink that was dug up etc everything is done from recycled material n it will also have an h2ot with some mods system on roof of boat ect also its best to avoid supeemarkets where can n use local little shops or markets as far less packaging
I wonder if you will need a winter mooring or how you will get past less light in winter?
It is important to reduce the amount of particulates and NOx released from engines and heating systems to keep the air clean. Also important to keep the amount of chemicals released into the air and water. Important meaning in order to get clear clean air and water. Carbon dioxide is the second most essential element after oxygen, all food relies on it. The connection between CO2 and climate is the warmer it gets the more CO2 is made by life. Just unplug your freezer to see that. The assertion that CO2 causes climate change is a hypothesis. It can trim the temperature, but the changes are caused by several other factors, especially the Milankovitch Cycle. Check out the GWPF for more information.
i don't have a freezer
@@ThisNarrowboatAdventure How about a refrigerator lol
a 12v one that we use in summer ( i think i mention in the video ?)
will get cleaner with the removal of red diesel and the use of pure white diesel with full duty payable ie pump price the cost will go up hugely
Awesome!!! Raspberry PI!
I wonder which one?
What are you using for a screen?
Are you using a straight raspian distro, or something else?
I have far too many of them, especially once the local store dropped the price of the Raspberry PI Zero W to $5...
youll have to wait for the pie video
@@ThisNarrowboatAdventure no worries. I have a Raspberry PI 3B setup as a desktop PC, as it is very handy. As well as one hosting my web sites, several running cameras, several doing crypto currency. Oh, and I have a whole host of other projects planned as well.
There is so much you can do with these little computers!
Only twice a week ! So it is true that narrow boaters have dirty bottoms ? ( on a serious note - wooden pegs are eco friendly. ) On a serious serious note ; thank you Jasmine. From Neil of winser .
every two-three days is a normal amount of time between showers for people who dont sweat much
Well done !!
If I had a boat then it would probably have a monster-battery-bank...seriously, I don't use super many appliances at my current home, but I have powerful (despite being 8 years old now! I put it together myself and it is still able to run all modern games because I switched the graphics-card twice in that time...a new rig will be bought next year after the "new" consoles, so that my PC can again last an entire console-generation (seriously, buy a good PC and you'll essentially safe money, unlike what most console players say - their games cost more after all!)) desktop and I would not get rid of it :)
hi a monster battery bank if very hard to keep charged so generally not ideal unless you plan to run a generator all day
How many months you live in London a year and how long do you travel ?
Sounds like the c&rt has it's priorities scuwed can't burn a fire but s^# recycling, I think you live a good gentle life on the planet especially if you think about the average amount used. I'm not a narrow boat person but I'm disabled so not an option for me, so I just have to watch you and dream.
i find them very frustrating
Don't know what is meant by geek. Lovely I totally agree. Cheers Jasmin.
geek for me is some one smart and passionate! thank you derrick!
@@ThisNarrowboatAdventure Jasmin, your naturally a lovely geek then, cheers
Hi Jasmin, is there and wind generators on boats, where the propeller drives an alternator to generate power to charge the batteries, like the alternator on your engine does? The videos are great keep up the good work. A Fan from Aus.
Col Mornane, yes there are a few wind generators on boats. If you look close enough you will see one every once in awhile when passing moored boats. I don't think they are used when moving as they stand up too high to safely pass through the tunnels.
@@johninokla2635 Many thanks for the reply, as it would be free power (After installation costs) could a pole be attached that lays along the length of the boat near the edge of the boat. with one end of the pole anchored through a pole hinge with a locking device, then with a ropes it can be lifted and lowered when yo need to travel. What voltage is your boats electrical system 12 volt or 24 volt? What wattage do the solar panels deliver? Regards A Fan from Aus.
@@colmornane5684, I don't have a boat I was commenting from seeing a few wind generators on some of the narrow boat channels I watch. I even noticed one attached to a wooden dock on another channel. If I remember correctly I even saw one that was working while the boat was moving down the canal. So yes it is possible to put one on a pole that lays down to go through the tunnels. The wind generator wasn't moving very fast so it wasn't producing a lot of power. But then any power produced would be better than none.
Wind generators are used by some but can be noisy. Plus a wind generator can set up a "hum" or resonance depending on how they are mounted.
This is guaranteed to make your neighbours love you all the more and crave your company 24/7.
Some stretches of canal have a set of bridges one after another so if you did deploy a generator on a pole you'd be forever raising and lowering it.
Anyway, whilst you are moving your engine driven alternator is charging away so probably not worth bunging up your wind powered generator.
Solars are also charging continuously at the same time as the alternator but they are cut off at the programmed voltage, so to speak, by the mppt controller.
Plus of course wind generators, being electro mechanical, need some sort of servicing.
Solar panels don't need any maintenance other than washing and checking connectors for corrosion.
If you on a permanent mooring then you more than likely be on shore power. The batteries are then simply trickle charged by the "intelligent" battery charger, sometimes for months at a time.
I've looked into them but they are kinda noise and apparently don't give a good charge with less than 5mph of wing
Another good one
thanks david!
interesting..but how much does the licence cost per year and other costs boat related...and any mooring fees...
can I recommended this video czcams.com/video/uZAqDESCaCc/video.html
Well, i now know why i never seen anyone swiming in those canals.
So i guess, filtering the canal water for drinking is out of the question.
I always wondered why you would full up with freash water..
Does anyone you know filter the waste water before discharge.
@Experiencing Alternatives England - yes, but if caught using them you'd be up in court - not to mention lynched by angry anglers.
@Big Toe
Oh please tell as why?
some do filter canal water, cant sat id want to, quite happy with my tank.
@@ThisNarrowboatAdventure
Don't knock it till you try it. Im in the U.S. so your alot closer then i.
The world has too know!
Jasmin you have a lovely accent - West of England?
I think its a mix of fenny and london now but I've also trained as an actor so lost some accent there too
So, How do you get the internet? Do you float around looking for someone with an open WiFi connection available?
dot com it right I have unlimited data on my phone and stream off it. used to use a mifi which is like a router but with a sim card inside.
Don't know what a Raspberry Pie is. The only Raspberry Pie I do know about, is great when it's hot with a scoop (or two) of Vanilla Ice Cream on it
www.raspberrypi.org/
Do you use/have access to bio-diesel? Looking forward to the Raspberry Pi video.
It's all bio diesel now. Google up FANE and go from there. Articles usually explain about lowering sulphur content and complying with EEC directives.
There is a pretty precise amount of bio diesel added "today" but the amount is to increase by another few percent in the future.
Even though we might be, eventually, leaving the EU our diesel fuel may have to continue to comply with established directives for us to take vehicles across the Channel. (That's speculation by me, btw.)
One problem with bio diesel, as you probably know, is that it supports "life", aka "diesel bug".
Diesel bug can produce a few issues, such as clogging fuel filters for example, but there are a lot of remedies which, amazingly, do work.
They act as water dispersing agents and biocides.
Again a Google around will give you chapter and verse.
i have never heard of it before i will look it up now but frankly the only kind of diesel i could buy is red , unless i do it 10L at a time from a petrol station.
Хорошо дама излагает, хоть и не понятно. Пазуха впечатлила. Спасибо!
When you travel, your engine heats water for domestic use, is this water stored in a tank so one can shower, wash dishes etc at the end of the day or is it just pumped through the engine while running and when you shut it off , no hot water?
Eric L can’t say for others but my boat certainly has a calorifier tank that has a coil from the engine coolant system that heats the water. It can also be heated via a 1kw immersion heater or via a diesel fired Webasto heater that also heats the radiators.
@@Admiral_Pumpout thankyou, somthing I have always wondered about.
I have a calorifier that keeps it warm, thought we always boil the kettle for washing up
@@ThisNarrowboatAdventure thanks, being in the US terms like calorifier are heard but not really understood in detail.
A good little computer is the Raspberry Pie
The environmental costs of coal or coke is not limited to energy output. Coal and coke emit a whole host of pollutants beyond CO2. I'm sure multifuel stoves emit sulphur oxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, and mercury. You may have a catalytic converter that may help with particulates, but small multifuel stoves typically don't have scrubbers to remove the rest. Individual stoves don't emit much, but the aggregate from all boaters may be quite a lot. What about using pelletized wood? That is a common wood stove fuel here in the US. It can be made from wood waste or recycled wood. It is carbon neutral and although it still releases CO2 and other pollutants, the chemical mix is much more benign that coal or coke.
If you can be arsed have a squint at DEFRA approved wood burners.
DEFRA is an HMG department if you were unaware.
You are very, very definitely not wrong ref emissions from coke etc. If you were daft enough to regularly stroll alongside the towpath on a damp, windless evening then I defy you not to eventually collect some sort of respiratory problem.
Really.
we do sometimes use the pelletized wood too, offten depends on what is available.
Your fuel use suprised me i more in a week than you use in a year heating depends on how cold it is 3 ways to heat propane diesel wood stove 650 watts of solar with 250 amp hours of battery available we go about 2 weeks between water fill up 60 gallons and dumping our tanks we would be pretty comparable to you except for diesel and since we live in a bus and travel i guess that is to be expected rarely have to run the bus or generator for power except for if run the ac and it is easier for us to get to trash and recycle bin
Have a good day
THE GRUMPY BUS
You say that you never used diesel before moving aboard but if you used public transport then you did. I bet that would far outweigh your current consumption. As for energy costs (if it’s any help to you) I live in an end of terrace Victorian 2 up 2 down and I spend about £10 per week over the summer and £30 per week over the winter. I’m guessing that you come nowhere near that ?
I still use public transport