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

[Zen]

How are you planing to handle the power use underway?

eg: night running, needs...
running lights, some cablin light/reading, music, computer or...

I spoke with a guy in the next slip. He has a 31ft hunter, sailed from Hawaii to Mainland. Says he uses, 3 batteries. One is for the motor starting etc. the others are for power, he uses a tranfromer to convert power for goodies. THe solar panel (50watts) charges the system during day hours. I do not remember how many hours he can get out of a full charge.

I'm thinking, changing all running lights to LED's, less power draw. Adding a 50watt solar panel. Change the 12volt cablin lights also to LED. They now have these new stickup bright LED lights that currently cost $20.00. ( wal-mart & some auto stores) They looked handly. Batteries can be replaced, easy, and easy to store many extras. I remember something about 100 hrs at full bightness. 

Currently I have dual battery set-up. I need to run some tests on how long one lasts, once I figure in power consumption.

I was also thinking of keeping a small honda generator onboard, which could be as a backup to charge batteries & run things instead of the A4

Main cabin lighting: Oil lamp...then how much fuel will I need for a 3-6 wk trip needs to be figured. I figure on being out 3-4 weeks at a time.

[Captain Smollett]

To solve the charging issue, I am considering a towed generator.

Towed Generator Info

I particularly like Ampair's Aquair 100 since it can be converted to a wind unit at anchor or in port.

Aquair 100

Everything I've read of sailors using a towed gen. has been very positive.

Anyone here have experience with one?

[Zen]

Interesting I was just reading the logs of a couple of racers that used one or one like it the whole time they were out during some race, NZ to around the Cape. I can find the link if anyone is interested. It has been interesting rading . They used the generator to power a laptop on which they keep in touch on a daily bases. They were on a 40 ft boat, two ole salts in their 60's

[Zen]

try this to read about the tow generator:

http://www.berrimilla.com/log

or just www.berrimilla.com

[Jack Tar]

Triska my Alberg 29 has three Batterys on board. She regularly only uses two. One is stowed for emergency. I also have a Honda 1000 gen set (gas) draw back is having to stow gas somewhere. I use on batt for House and One for Start.

[Dougcan]

(Hic!)

I don't know about you guys but I prefer my generator on board!

It's much easier to start it that way rather than have to swim out to the dinghy and somehow get on board and start it and plug in the extension cord and all that!

<slurring> just thinking (hic!)

Why would you want to tow your genset?  Wouldn't that hurt the thing?  I mean, how do you start it underwater?  ???

[s/v Faith]

Why would you want to tow your genset?  Wouldn't that hurt the thing?  I mean, how do you start it underwater?

  It' smore quiet, an it runns cooler that way......

some folks.  ::)








;D

[Zen]

Triska my Alberg 29 has three Batterys on board. She regularly only uses two. One is stowed for emergency. I also have a Honda 1000 gen set (gas) draw back is having to stow gas somewhere. I use on batt for House and One for Start.

What do you run on your "house" system and how long?

Yeah there is the gas storage thing and if you took it from the tank,  your running supply drops.
Perhaps a couple of 5gal tanks straped to the stern, like off road jeeps.

[s/v Faith]

Led lighting is definitely a boon to the small boat cruiser.  If you see the thread I started in 'bits & gear" on the anchor light, they have some other good cabin lighting.  Much can be done with a little reading though and you can save a lot of money by making your own.  I don't care for led light for everyday use as the pale while light is depressing, but I understand if you add some colored led's to the mix that improved things considerably.

The incandescent 'screw in' light bulbs that came installed aboard 'Faith' were 50w 12v bulbs.  P=IxE so 4.16a!  and there were 4 of them!  Tuning on a single lamp was enough to drop the voltage to the point that the inverter would trip off line!~


  A useful tool (for me) has been working up an energy budget.  Not so much as a budget (it is very hard to quantify how much the solar panel will produce in practice, with uncertain weather, etc) but it is a good exercise to figure out where your current is flowing to and evaluate what you really can 'afford' in terms or energy.

  I had a line on a really cheap power windlass.  I passed it up as I figured using it (even for the few minutes it would be used) might mean I would only be on oil light for a while, or forced to run the outboard to power the depth sounder if somewhere it was needed.

  Likewise the navonics chart plotter I came across.  It did not really fit my style of navigation..... and the 1.5a draw sealed the deal.

[Jack Tar]

If anyone is interested in running their lap top. I have a nice little step up transformer I use. Draw is very small. Less than 1.5 amps. It boost voltage up to what ever is selected on it. I use 14.5V DC for the lap top. I can use E charts. Do work on the puter and or watch a movie. Hook the GPS to the lap top and using electronic charts it just like an expensive chart ploter.

[Zen]

JacK T, I like it! being a computer head. I want my computer to work whereever I am. more so on a passage. I would not take my "good" laptop, but a cheapo one would be perfect onboard.

More details please, purchase location, cost...

[Jack Tar]

Bought the addaptor on E bay.

Auto DC Power regulated addaptor   Model SDR-70W

THIS IS A POWERFUL 70W  CAR ADAPTOR WHICH WILL POWER UP YOUR LAPTOP FROM YOUR CAR'S CIGARETTE LIGHTER JACK. THIS ADAPTOR IS BRAND NEW IN FACTORY SEALED BOX, AND IT IS GUARANTEED NOT TO BE DOA, NO ADDITIONAL WARRANTY IS AVAILABLE THROUGH US. THERE MIGHT BE FACTORY WARRANTY LEFT ON IT, BUT WE CAN'T GUARANTEE. THIS ADAPTOR WORKS WITH ALMOST ANY LAPTOP WHICH TAKES A CIRCULAR ROUND SHAPED PLUG. AND THE GOOD THING IS IT HAS MULTI ADAPTORS TO WORK WITH DIFFERENT LAPTOPS AND OTHER ELECTRONIC DEVICES. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT NOT TO REVERSE THE POLARITY IF YOU NEED HELP YOU CAN CONTACT ME AND I WILL WALK YOU THROUGH STEP BY STEP TO SET THIS UP PROPERLY.  REVERSE POLARITY OR WRONG VOLTAGE COULD DAMAGE YOUR LAPTOP

INPUT VOLTAGE IS DC 11V TO 14V

OUTPUT VOLTAGE IS DC 15V, 16V, 18V, 19V, 20V  @ 3.5A           22V, 24V   70W

COMPATIBLE LAPTOPS

SONY VAIO ,   IBM THINKPAD ,   COMPAQ PRESARIO AND ARMADA ,   TOSHIBA SATELLITE AND TECRA ,   HITACHI ,   HP OMNIBOOK ,   FUJITSU LIFE BOOK ,   PROSTAR ,   AND MANY OTHER MODELS WHICH TAKE ROUND CIRCULAR TIP. IT WILL NOT WORK WITH THOSE LAPTOPS WHICH TAKE SQUARE SHAPED TIPS SUCH AS DELL LATITUDE, IBM THINKPAD 760 ETC


$18 to $25 . Comes with enough adaptors to fit almost any lap top

[Dougcan]

Hmm cool!  Cheaper than making my own!

Thanks Jack!  I'll go looking for one now!

[s/v Faith]

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT NOT TO REVERSE THE POLARITY IF YOU NEED HELP YOU CAN CONTACT ME AND I WILL WALK YOU THROUGH STEP BY STEP TO SET THIS UP PROPERLY.  REVERSE POLARITY OR WRONG VOLTAGE COULD DAMAGE YOUR LAPTOP

I know they make these things reversable for a reason, but has anyone ever seen anything that had the positive runinng to the outter ring?

Would seem not to make sense, given the risk of shorting when used in a car.

[Dougcan]

Some do, most don't.

If you look at your power brick or wall wart, it should indicate what the polarity is.

[Oldguy52]

"The Plan" is to get about a 65 watt solar panel to mount on the stern. I would also like to replace most of the cabin lights with LEDs. As far as other electronics go, I try to keep them to a minimum. We do have a VHF, GPS, depth sounder and a DVD player so we can watch a movie now and then. Of course there's the rechargeable batteries for handheld stuff which we can do with solar now and the cell phone which will charge off the boats 12v system.

Not sure I even want a computer on the boat. Once I'm "out there" I'm thinking I might not really WANT to communicate with the outside world all that much.

[Zen]

"Not sure I even want a computer on the boat. Once I'm "out there" I'm thinking I might not really WANT to communicate with the outside world all that much."

Ah yes, I understand that. For me though, I am an artist, the computer is one of my tools/instrments, recording music, digital photgraphy, webdesign, graphic art...
I can write, record the music, do the art work,  record whale and bird talk, write lyrics,  mix everything and burn a CD out in the middle of the Pacific. Then upload a mp3 copy to anyplace once in port. The added fun to that is sending a email to ths board saying, hey hey hey, I am in a Fiji Bay  8)

Now that to me is sweet.

[starcrest]

I sailed a total of 15,000 miles most of it single handed.basically to hawaii from so.cal 3 times and back twice.most of the time I generated power with a "sea generator" or more aptly called hydro-electric power.absolutely the way to go.I had to wear gloves when pulling in the tow line but I am toying with the idea of using the lower unit from a small outboard and putting the generator itself inplace of the power head.I am also considering putting portable diesel generator where the old a-4 was ,and using the same idea putting an a-c electric motor inplace of a gasoline powerhead ontop of an outboard lower unit.in this fashion I will be diesel -electric powered.the motor from a 10 inch table saw is about 3 hp,and when there is no wind this will suffice.

[djn]

Hi Jack Tar, I am just now getting back into sailing and also am a professor for a couple online universities.  I can live were ever there is internet.  How can I get internet while at sea?  Most marinas here on the Great Lakes have internet service, but I'd like to be able to anchor in a harbor and teach classes.  Thanks.

[Zen]

Ok, So the question that came to mind after tinkering around on "zen" yesterday. Sea-generator: How is that better than just a plain old windvane? more volts/watts?
Someone said something about a sea-generator that could covert to a windvane while at the marina, ok, why not have it all the time then. Again is it a matter of output?


Internet:
As far as that goes from mid -ocean. I hear it can be done via $atilite, or a couple of ISP co. however again $$, or some special marine band. I figure by the time I'm really to go anywhere far they will have a dependable reasonable priced way to do that.
There is some world-wide wireless network eg: astound or earthlink ( I think) you can access, but that only if there is a access portal where you are.