April 24th, 2026 Posted in Narrowboat

Narrowboat log: April 26

It’s been a while as I’ve been busy coding about 100 different projects for work and pleasure, but here’s the latest work I’ve done on the narrowboat.

Stove

Last October I upgraded the terrifying home made stove with a lovely Salamander Hobbit SE with side boiler to power my radiator at the back of the boat. Ripping the old one out was a mission – the roof collar was so rusty it just came off on my hand, but removing the old over engineered flue was a blade snapping nightmare. The old tiles all had to come off too so I could check for burning (yep) and install calcium silicate board and tile over that.

Salamander were fantastic before the install answering my questions and also fitted the side boiler for me. They also price matched a stove retailer and delivery was stress free. I fully recommend them as a small family company!

I moved the stove away from the wall as it had been scorching the wood behind the tiles, but then it was too close to my steps. I bought the side heathshield from Salamander and fitted it in 15 mins following their excellent install video. i didn’t realise you can use a battery drill to tap metal! Between the heatshield and adding some cement board panels,. the steps are fine now.

The Hobbit is easy to control so can tick over on low for hours on end, even overnight if I wanted it to. It has kept me cosy over winter without it being too hot. The dual insulated flue looks great and is cool enough to touch (if I fall down the steps and need to steady myself for example..)

After constantly running out of coal last winter I bought a ton of coal from the manufacturer, which was way cheaper and I’ve still got some left over. Recommend.

Underlay & Secondary Glazing

I’ve insulated under my bedroom and lounge floor as well as adding more secondary glazing, insulation on my side hatch and curtains inside the front and back doors. It’s been super cosy this winter and these tweaks were cheap way to stay warmer. Fitting the underlay with the furniture in was a bit of a fuckabout, not going to lie.

The front and rear doors and side hatch are getting redone with insulation board this year as the wood stuck to metal just passes the cold straight through!

Solar Install

I’ve installed an Anker c1000 gen2 portable power station that prioritises solar over mains – something the Ecoflow I tried doesn’t do. Two 190w panels in parallel wiring on tilt brackets tapped into roof and fitted stainless bolts with OB1 sealant to hopefully prevent leaks. Inline fuses and  down through mushroom vent to chunky isolator near my desk.

Working out what panels to get was a faff as Anker want you to buy their overpriced folding panels. 600w max but 60v and 14.5a max inputs is an odd combo. It’s possible to safely overload the ampage but definitely not the voltage. Was looking at one large house sized 500w panel but then someone gave me these two 190w panels. There’s capacity to add another on of these and probably will do.

I could slightly overpanel too as we don’t get massive amounts of strong sun in the midlands of the UK. The Iran war meant that panels have gone up in price and are hard to get locally – or expensive to have delivered singly as they are palletised.

All computers and phone chargers plugged into the Anker, and during the day while I’m working the solar covers it with around 150w in early April 😀

Kitchen Upgrade

My physio was chucking his old kitchen away so I snagged a base unit and some doors/drawer fronts. Some jigsawing later and adding some soft close hinges and new knobs, my kitchen looks way less cluttered. My legendary gym buddy knocked my up a huge toekick drawer too, for even more storage! Debatable whether it would have been less effort to just make a base unit after all the cutting down required, but it’s saved it from landfill so all good.

What’s next?

Insulate all the doors, maybe a new side hatch with windows that actually closes properly, running cable for 12v sockets down the length of the boat, refurbing and painting windows, paint the roof AGAIN.