http://www.utilityfreeliving.co.uk/

Utility Free Living, Sheffield (2026)

25/01/2019

My thermal store (calorifier) has arrived. As you can see, it's big. As with chimney flues, size matters. With the insulation on, this tank is 80cms in diameter and it is taller than me.
The largest boat calorifier I could find holds 75 Litres and costs nearly £600. The one I've purchased holds 500 Litres, has two steel coils inside and a huge corrugated stainless steel Domestic Hot Water coil in the top. It's almost 7 times larger than the biggest marine calorifier but less than twice the cost.
It's a heavy beast and needed serious lifting machinery to get it onboard. Full of water and with all the plumbing fittings attached, it'll weight nearly a ton.
So why would I want a tank/thermal-store/calorifier so big? There are several reasons.
The diesel engines that we use for power generation and propulsion are only 30% efficient. This means that 70% of the chemical energy in the diesel we have purchased is emitted as heat; half of that heat goes out the exhaust, the other half goes to the river/canal (once the calorifier is up to temperature). This is wasted heat (wasted money) and given that I am trying to push the limits of self-sufficiency (or maybe because I'm a Yorkshireman) I don't want to waste sonething that I need and I've paid for.
Also, the stove I have (earlier post) is connected to the same tank via its back boiler. Running the stove for 12 hours will put enough heat in the tank to allow me to not light the stove for 48 hours, yet I still have space heating and hot water for showers.
I should be able to take my boat out for a cruise all day without dumping any of my money into the water via the keel tank, and then have several days of space heating and hot shower water.
I've always considered the stove as being the heart of the self-sufficient home but the thermal store is what makes the economics work.
Running the propulsion engine for electricity generation reasons is not a great idea (for efficiency reasons) but all us boaters have to do at times. If we capture and store the engine's waste heat, it makes more sense from a financial point of view.
Now I need to get on with a load more plumbing.

25/01/2019

I was expecting my next self-sufficiency milestone to be 'running water', but this isn't really 'running water'. The water supplied here is from a bottle put in a pump-up spray container from the garden centre. The waste currently drains into a bucket.
However, just having a sink has made washing (hands, face, body, cups, plates, cutlery) so much easier. This is an unanticipated milestone and a vast improvement in quality of life.
It's now time for me to do some more plumbing and finish the original milestone - get water pumped from the water tank in the bow. @ Ratcliffe on Soar

25/01/2019

Size matters. Especially when it comes to stove flues. So I've got myself a big one. From the top of the stove to the top of the cowl measures 3 metres, and it's all double skin (insulated). People spend a lot of time and money choosing and buying their stove but the flue/chimney is often an afterthought.
It is, in fact, just as important, if not more important than the stove design itself.
The stove requires air to burn. It gets that from the ambient air pressure forcing air into the fire box. However, this only happens if the flue creates a draw, negative pressure. The heat from the stove makes the flue gases less dense than cold ambient air, so the flue gases rise up the flue allowing air to be forced into the stove. The longer the flue, the more momentum the gases build up, which means the greater the draw. If heat is taken from the flue (via having only a single skin for example), the flue gases contract, become more dense and slow down which reduces the draw.
With inadequate draw, you get smoke. Smoke is nothing more than incomplete combustion - wasted money.
If you suffer from the hot head and cold feet syndrome in your boat, insulate your flue. You'll get more heat from the same quantity of fuel and in a better place.
Apologies for the geeky lecture. Just had to get it off my chest. Also, I have a few local traditionalists who are mocking me, so I thought it good to justify my big pipe 😂.
P.S. It does detach easily for under bridge manoeuvres.

25/01/2019

More (but slow) progress on my .
Cutting a hole in the roof for my stove flue.
I have finally found something useful to use one of those 4" heat syphons (mushroom vents). I've connecting ducting to one so that the stove can have a dedicated air supply, instead of pulling heated air from the cabin 😁

25/01/2019

This is the building of my stove fireplace. There's no milestone to report here yet but this fieplace has taken a lot of time, so I thought an update was necessary.
The fireplace base consists of a hardwood ply layer then rigid floor tile adhesive then cement board then 15kgs of mortar then paving stone. The pointing and cleaning up after pointing took ages.
The fireplace back consists of an insulated aluminium layer (glued to the ply wall), then some aluminium bars to create an air gap, then two cement boards (with a tiny air gap created by not sinking the screw heads), then a hammered copper sheet attached with high temp glue.
The picture with the copper sheet showing is before the sheet was glued. I had to build a temporary frame to hold the copper in place whilst it cured.
I'm really hoping to get the stove in place and lit before the end of the week because I can't cope with much more of the cold we got night before last - I was scraping ice off the inside of the stern doors in order to get out.

25/01/2019

It's arrived!🙄 This is the heart of my .
This old-school gadget will run on any solid fuel and provides the following:-
- space heating
- water heating via a back boiler
- an oven to cook in
- a large hotplate for pan cooking and kettle boiling
- a visually attractive focal point due to a glass door
- a method of disposing of waste paper and cardboard
- a method of disposing of compost toilet waste (a mixture of saw dust and dehydrated poo)
- an efficient way to dry logs (wood not poo😄)
It's quite small but at 140kgs was quite a challenge getting it in.
There's a lot of work to do before I can run it:-
- design the fireplace - build the fireplace - cut a hole in the roof and fit a flue
- plumb-in a temporary radiator (can't run the back boiler dry)
- fit the dedicated air supply routed to outdoors.
So it'll be a week before I tick-off any more milestones.
I'll post a video of the first light/run

25/01/2019

Update 2: moving closer to .
The second wall is now up. This, itself is not a high priority task but it gets me closer to having a stove and therefore some desperately needed warmth. This second wall is where the fireplace will be built.
I've also positioned (not yet installed) the kitchen units. This helps me visialse how the wiring and plumbing will need to be fitted.
The next task is to sort out the dreadful heat losses associated with the stern doors and hatch. I've spent so much time blocking the gaping holes around these doors every evening then unblocking them in the morning. To call this a bad design wouldn't be enough - the doors and hatch are barely fit for purpose. Don't yet know how I'm going to fix this problem though.

25/01/2019

Update 1. My journey to is progressing. My has arrived and I now have my first wall up. These are major milestones because they allow me to live on my . With my bedroom sectioned off, I can use the shoreline power supply to run my 2kw electric heater to keep that room warm (It's not good enough to heat the whole boat). It's now quite a cosy studio flat.
The composting toilet was a bit of a risk because I can't yet vent it to the outside. It is currently venting into my bedroom via an activated carbon filter. The risk has paid off though. It's amazing! Not even the slightest of smells. I highly recommend them.
I've also got my staircase fitted, unfortunately that happened after I took delivery of 2 tons of building materials and kitchen units 😣. It wasn't easy getting all that stuff in using ladders.

25/01/2019

The starting point of my journey to . At this point I have shelter from the elements and not much more. I have shoreline power bit 16 amps isn't enough to heat the whole boat. The first job is to build the stud wall of the bedroom. This room will be small enough to hèat with a 16 amp oil-filled electric heater.
I have no toilet but a composting toilet will arrive soon. I will have no external vent for the toilet so I've ordered an activated carbon filter. I'll let you know how I get on.

25/01/2019

Exactly how self-sufficient can you be? I'm going to find out.

This project is about self-sufficiency and off-grid living – taking what nature gives you for free and making the best of it. I'm going to be using existing renewable technologies and a few new ideas from me. It's a journey and I'll be documenting all of it as I go along.
The metaphorical journey is going to be done in a live-aboard boat on the UK river and canal system. It's not just a boat thing though. All the technologies, life-style compromises, and attitude to available resources are equally applicable to living on land. I'm just building an off-grid home that can move (emphasizing the fact that I have no utility connections whatsoever).
The starting point for this journey is a 60' x 12' boat named Rosetta. It's just a shell really. The steelwork is complete and painted, the inside is spray-foam insulated and battened, and there is a plywood floor. I also have an engine and a water tank and that's about it.
I am also very interested in:-
- environmental protection and sustainability
- waste recycling
- minimalism - healthy eating
- circular and community economics
- wildlife and nature
- foraging
- survivalism

The technologies that I plan to use include:-
- Solar PV
- Solar thermal
- Heat recovery ventilation
- Rainwater harvesting and purification
- Composting toilet
- Home-brew from food waste

08/09/2018

Exactly how self-sufficient can you be? I'm going to find out.

This project is about self-sufficiency and off-grid living – taking what nature gives you for free and making the best of it. I'm going to be using existing renewable technologies and a few new ideas from me. It's a journey and I'll be documenting all of it as I go along.
The metaphorical journey is going to be done in a live-aboard boat on the UK river and canal system. It's not just a boat thing though. All the technologies, life-style compromises, and attitude to available resources are equally applicable to living on land. I'm just building an off-grid home that can move (emphasizing the fact that I have no utility connections whatsoever).
The starting point for this journey is a 60' x 12' boat named Rosetta. It's just a shell really. The steelwork is complete and painted, the inside is spray-foam insulated and battened, and there is a plywood floor. I also have an engine and a water tank and that's about it.
I am also very interested in:-
- environmental protection and sustainability
- waste recycling
- minimalism
- healthy eating
- circular and community economics
- wildlife and nature
- foraging
- survivalism

The technologies that I plan to use include:-
- Solar PV
- Solar thermal
- Heat recovery ventilation
- Rainwater harvesting and purification
- Composting toilet
- Home-brew from food waste

16/05/2017

To some people, used plastic bottles are waste. It's all about attitude.

Utility Free Living

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16/05/2017

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