Power: Solar, wind, lights, towed....???

[CharlieJ]

From someone currently out cruising- Using a single 32 watt solar panel for charging, and a pair of group 27 batteries. We used to cruise for up to 14 days with a single gropp 27 and NO charging. Laura has been aboard the boat for 9 weeks now, and I joined her 5 week ago. After five very cloudy days, and three very hot nights when we ran the fan,  we ran the batteries ALMOST down and used shore power and a charger to recharge. First time in 4 years of cruising this boat, which includes two round trips between Texas and Florida

Get rid of any incandescent lights you possibly can, particularly anchor lights and interior cabin lights. LEDS are MUCH more efficient. Bebi Electronics in Figi has an EXCELLENT anchor light that uses LED's

We have a kerosene cabin light we often use when we aren't reading- just to light up the cabin- works great. In fact on our first cruise to Florida and return that's all the interior lights we had.

Dump one of the two laptops- you REALY won't need two. We have one aboard and use it seldomly, usually only when we are somewhere where WIFI is availble,, or if we need to check a chart we already have downloaded.

Simply forget about everything in your second list, except possibly for the GPS- you really don't need that stuff. Hot water is much more efficiently gotten by solar or heating a teapot on the stove, when needed. In fact we use ice and zero food that requires refrigeration. We find we eat very well, and should we not be able to find ice, it's no big deal. Depending on refrigeration will wind you up in some port waiting for parts- Gauranteed.

A micro wave would really suck power.

My serious advice to you, as a long term cruiser on a smaller boat, is to forget about as much electrical stuff as you possibly can- in the long run, you'll be happier and find you can stay away longer from civilization. Keep the boat as simple as you possibly can.

[Piraten]

I'd like to swap everything to LED, but the prices for replacement fixtures and bulbs would set me back quite a bit, that'll be a slow conversion.  Anchor light on the top of the mast will be first replacement.  The second list was just the "wanting" wishlist, I know I don't need any of it.  And yes, I know that a huge charging system and storage bank is way more expensive than a full out LED conversion.

Skylark,
The battery that used to be for the atomic is going bye bye.


The house bank will be 2-3 deeps, the engine bank will just be one small normal start battery hooked to the original "1,2,off, all" switch.  That way I can use it if the house bank craps out at the wrong time.  Since the engine charges its own battery, I won't be using a outside source to charge that one.


Charliej,
My problem with giving up all my elctrical toys at once is that I still have land lubber mentality and don't want to go from one extreme to another and then hate sailing because of the association.

On the other standpoint, my wife and two kids have spent the last two days on the boat,  the engine battery is the only one that is good, the other two crapped out ten minutes after leaving the dock, they were going bad anyway.  Had a great time with absolutely no house power.

[skylark]

An anchor light and a good reading light may be all the LED lamps you need.  Those are the ones that get the most use, and you can use incandescents for a short time for things like cooking or cleaning up.

[s/v Faith]

An anchor light and a good reading light may be all the LED lamps you need.  Those are the ones that get the most use, and you can use incandescents for a short time for things like cooking or cleaning up.

Yup.  Your energy budget will tell you where your biggest drains are and where you will get your best bang for the buck.

[Piraten]

I remember reading about a squirrel cage style wind generator somewhere but can't find it again.  It was supposed to be VERY quite.  It had a dimensions of something like 12"x12"x18".  It put out like 300w.  Anybody know where I can find info on it?

[CharlieJ]

I must point out that I am NOT a fan of anchor lights on top of the mast- In my opinion, that's absolutely
the worst place for one.

This based on several years of live aboard and anchoring out for many many nights. In fact, we once went an entire year without the boat ever touching a dock.

Colregs states a location " in the fore part of the vessel where it can best be seen".

I feel that the mast head is a spot where the very people you should be concerned with- local fishermen types, won''t be looking- they tend to look across the water surface. We hang ours on the forestay or on a bungee running from mast to upper shroud, just above or at eye level to us. In the normal anchorage, I'm not at all concerned about whether a ship can see us.

[Piraten]

CharlieJ,

While I understand your point, I wonder what the over abundance of law agencies in FLorida would have to say.  If your mast is in the way of seeing the light, then they can technically say it can't be viewed 360 degrees and write a ticket.  I would think a mast head and then a lower eye level one might be in order.  I have a really nice oil anchor light that was passed to me by my parents, it'd give me a good excuse to actually use it.

[Grime]

My masthead light doesn't even work. No plans to fix it. Our plan is to get the Bebi Owl light for an anchor light like Charlie has. From what I understand they are so bright that you will see the boat any way.  I don't care if a ship sees me or not its the shrimper and power boaters that I worry about.

We have two small led lanterns from Wal-Mart for cabin lights. I'm looking for one that is even brighter to read by. Wal-Mart had one that would run for 500 hours before needing batteries. They are out right now.

Nav lights, VHF and depth sounder is our only power drain. We now have a 20 watt solar panel that keeps the group 27 battery up even when I leave the vhf and depth sounder on all night.  Plan on getting one more 20 watt panel that will give me 3.4 amps per hour charging during the day. Would like to get a notebook and a garmin 276cxs chart plotter. That would be the end of my power needs.

KISS

[Piraten]

Battery bank question.

-I just bought two 24s, the only thing that fit in the space allowed.

-My outboard starting battery currently resides in a cockpit locker, it's doing to be moved at a later time.

-I have one of those 1-2-off-all switches

My question is, would it be better to keep the two house batteries seperate and use them as 1+2 or put them in parallel using postion 1 and put the outboard battery on 2.

[skylark]

Put the two house bank batteries in parallel.

[s/v Faith]

If so a http://Kyocera Solar KD-135 135 Watt 12 Volt Solar Electric Panel[/img] ($415 which is a steal) mounted on the stern rail

.....

Man, this was SUCH a great deal I just can't pass it up.  I just ordered one, and would recommend anyone looking for  a panel to consider doing the same.  Last time I priced these panels they were ~$700!

[Captain Smollett]

Was browsing some online cruising stories the other week and ran across one site where the electrical system was described in detail.  Since I have been working on energy budget considerations lately, I found their 160 amp-hour per day budget simply fascinating.  The following charging system was NOT able to match load:

• 100 Amp alternator on engine, ran at ~85 amps for 1.5 hours per day
• two 85 watt solar panels, gave average of 40 amp-hours per day (concluded he will need at least two more panels just to meet refrigeration demand); this was in well lit Caribbean.
• wind generator giving average 3-15 amps in 'normal' winds

His conclusion:  A diesel generator is required to meet his charging needs.

Question for cruisers (been asked before, I'm sure...like some updated numbers):

What are your REAL WORLD energy budgets...what electrical requirements have you actually seen while away from shore power for extended periods (say at least a week as a minimum)?

Charlie, you gave some info above..any update/modification of that?

For our part, our single biggest draw underway is navigation lights, and LEDs are in the plan for that. 

[CharlieJ]

ROFL- I'm totally slack jawed at that!!

We use a single 32 watt flexible panel mounted on the aft half of the Bimini.. We've been aboard now, full time for something like 6 months. In that time we haves resorted to shore power recharging twice. Both times to prollonged cloudy weather durinng this crummy Fl winter.

We use LED lighting inside, with one exception. That's a 5 1/2 inch incandescent right over the stove and it's going LED just as soon as we locate the appropriate bulb. Every time we've
looked, they've been out of stock. We do have halogen running lights but soo far that hasn't been a problem. We intend to cut over to LED's as finances permit though.


We use an LED anchor light (from Bebi Electornics in Fiji) which is low draw and extremely bright. So bright that we often have oher cruisers asking for info on it. I KNOW Bebi has sold at least four others due to us-grin

Now I must also add- we run a small oil lamp for general cabin lighting at night. We don't read by it but do all else from it's light. Since we use an oil stove to cook on we already have the fuel.

Also we don't use refrigeration of any sort. We did use ice for a while but it gets to be not worth it. We realized all we were keeping cold was drinks, so we quit buying it. Laura just recently canned 26 half pints of various meats so we're good to go there for a while. That can be replenishd at any time too, since she does the canning aboard.

I've learned that good beer really is pretty good at bilge temps- I wouldn't bother wwith something like Bud though.

So I suppose we are ( quite happily) at the other end of the power
spectrum-BIG grin

edited to add- I WOULD like more solar capabilities. Either a second panel same size or one of the newer more potent ones. When finances allow, we'll upgrade. And Laura can't STAND the sounds of a wind generator so it's unlikely we'll go that route.

[geneWj]

Harbor Freight has a small gen set, a 9 amp unit which my neighbor bought;  ;)tried it out and it ran, my 6" orbital sander, my 3/8" drill motor and would produce 6 amps using my battery charger.   will run all day on less than a gallon of gas. All for $159. If u have a outboard on board, it would be hard to beat since u'r carrying gas anyway.
Just one sailors thoughts
geneWj

[CapnK]

Gene, was it this one? (pic attached)

If so, how noisy is it? Can you give us an idea as to its dimensions?

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=66619

[Grime]

I looked at one of these at Harbor Freight just a couple of days ago. They have it on sale for $109.00. Only problem I could see is that this one recommended a gas oil mix of 40:1. My outboard uses a mix of 50:1.

I also wonder how noisy it is. The Honda 2000 is very quite.

[Mr. Fixit]

I was on the boat for 6 weeks last fall. I have 4 golf carts and 2 -130watt panels. I had plenty of power and only had to run the generator if the weather was cloudy for 2 days or so. I was cooking with electric and would run the generator if i was using the convection oven for baking or roasting. For cooking for short periods,(eggs,coffee,tea etc. I would use the inverter) I was on the NYS Canal system so when I was on the move the engine did the charging--I do not have a high output alternator (55 amps). Although it was fall at several  times I saw 15 amps going to the batteries at anchor from the sun. The only problem I had with my electric hot plate was that it did not get very hot, I am trying to find a halogen hot plate. It was ok for some things but not for everything. If i can not find one i will switch to propane cooking. I expect to spend the next year on the boat,starting in May if my health holds up. I intend to continue with electric, if I can not find a halogen hot plate, then I will switch--splash time is getting closer--50 deg. today, snow is melting

[tomwatt]

A quick math exercise tells me that adding about 3/4 oz. of oil to your existing 50-1 gas/oil mix for your motor should allow you to use that in the generator, so I don't see that as a major issue. Someone else might want to check my calcs.
That little generator is a neat idea. Wonder how well it holds up.

[AdriftAtSea]

Shouldn't be much of an issue. I'm willing to be that your outboard would run just fine on a 40:1 mix.

I looked at one of these at Harbor Freight just a couple of days ago. They have it on sale for $109.00. Only problem I could see is that this one recommended a gas oil mix of 40:1. My outboard uses a mix of 50:1.

I also wonder how noisy it is. The Honda 2000 is very quite.

[Grime]

Thanks guys,

The only reason I'm thinking of a generator is the wife has to have her sewing machine with us when we leave here. I think she would give me up before leaving her sewing behind.

I can't get her to sew a darn thing for the boat.