how to wire a narrowboat - part 5
first the rules, the 'it must be like this' bit
Now we get down to the rules that have to be followed so the wiring is done to meet the RCD requirements and recommendations.
cable insulation colours
Black cable may only be used for negative cables and the cable must be the same colour throughout its entire length – so if it is a negative it must be black all the way, not a red with a bit of black at each end
If the boat has a three-phase AC system (unusual with our boats but possible) the black is used for an AC live so yellow should be used for all the negatives not black.
Positive cable – a positive cable (battery volts) may be any colour except
- Black,
- Brown,
- Blue,
- Green,
- Green/yellow,
- If a 3 phase boat yellow because that will be negative.
recommendation or good practice
Red is used for all positives except switch positives i.e. the wires between two 2-way switches; the cable from the switch to an item (light, pump etc) should be a different colour to red. The means when testing if it is red it should be at battery volts, any other colour that is allowed to be a positive that will need a switch switched to be at battery volts.
back to the rules:
securing cables and what can run with what or not run with what
All cables should be secured every 300mm, unless they are supported in a conduit or ducting. Where there are only DC cable in the duct they do not need to be secured, if other cables are also in the duct, AC for example, secure every 300mm to keep the two cable types at least 100mm apart.
DC cables should not be run within 100mm of AC cables or gas pipes unless protected in a conduit. (Recommendation I tend to use split-corrugated conduit secured every 300mm to 1000mm) within the duct.
To make this clearer there are two situations
- A Gas Pipe in the picture
All cables closer than 100mm to a gas pipe have to be in conduits be they AC or DC.
- No Gas pipe in the picture
If AC and DC cables are closer than 100mm one of them has to be in conduit to separate them away from the others.
All cables should be protected anywhere they can be abraded by the vibration of the boat etc, This particularly means where the cable crosses an edge of metal or wood, even plastic, goes through a hole in a bulkhead (wall) be it wood or metal etc or where they cannot be secured at 300mm intervals, conduit must be used.
I think that is about it but anyone shout if I have missed anything
finally
You should now have all the information to purchase the cables you need with the terminations, the correct size of fuse/switch board and do the DC installation of the boat from the Batteries via fuse board to the electrical items.
in the appendix are
- How two 2-way switches can control things from two different positions.
- A copy of the full one page drawing of the Lighting circuits
- A copy of the full one page drawing of the Sockets etc.
Copies of the originals are available from me via the 12 Volt Boating Group
The Rose of Hungerford is a traditional canal boat offering public trips and private charters, owned by the Kennet and Avon Canal Trust and run and maintained by fully-trained volunteer members of the Hungerford branch.
The current Duke of Lancaster is Her Majesty the Queen. She travelled on The Rose when officially opening the restored Kennet and Avon Canal at Caen Hill, Devizes, on 8th August, 1990, 30 years ago. In 2013, The Kennet and Avon Canal Trust was honoured by Her Majesty, who awarded the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, the MBE for voluntary groups. In 2014, The Princess Royal visited the Trust’s Headquarters in Devizes to present the Award.
I live on, work in and sell from my little boat ‘Fern’. I am a painter of fauna and flora and resident artist at Fern Floating Fine Art. My work is influenced by folklore, superstition, fireside tales, canal and traveller traditions, the macabre, Victoriana, and I take constant inspiration from the seasons and the countryside around me.
I like to separate my subjects from their everyday existence and instead venerate them to icon status by infusing them with vast amounts of symbolic flora. I pay no regard to accurate or relative proportion, instead preferring to use this to further separate the subject by using the flowers to create busy almost abstracted backgrounds. This technique and my use of colour is very much influenced by my traveller culture where almost everything is highly decorative. My paintings reflect rather than illustrate the stories that I come across through my travels.
Shiam and John Wilcox sell from their narrowboat wherever they happen to be on the waterways.
Staff from waterways and wellbeing charity, Canal & River Trust were on hand to give a warm waterways welcome to their new neighbour Steph McGovern. Today, the former BBC Breakfast presenter launched her new daily lunchtime television show - Steph’s Packed Lunch.
Local boater Caleb Price and his wife Fiona were also on hand to cheer from their narrowboat. Caleb was one of the first to bring his boat into the newly regenerated Clarence Dock area almost quarter of a century ago, with the 1996 opening of the £42.5million purpose-built Royal Armouries Museum.
Written by River Canal Rescue managing director, Stephanie Horton, Narrow Boat Engine Maintenance and Repair is an essential maintenance tool and perfect for those keen to keep their vessels in a good condition, inside and out.
The East End Canal Tales weaves the memories of over 50 local residents together with historical accounts to tell of intriguing, humorous, moving and often surprising stories of life and work on the Regent’s and Hertford Union Canals over two centuries.
Read about canal trades of coal and manure and canal-side industries ranging from timber and metalworks to ice and chocolate. Learn about the canal’s role in what was the equivalent of the Victorian internet. Relive childhood memories of diving from ‘the pipe’ and being chased by the ‘cut runners’. Join the villains’ search for the holy grail of a gold cargo. Find out what happened in the old buildings which you can still find along the canal banks and what it was like to work on the Cut.
