Challenges of going cruising

[DeanS]

As many will know...in our boat, we chew a lot of elec.

 

Having bought a sailaway widebeam, we've been connected to a shorepower supply for months. I want to go cruising for the year, so needed to gear things up.

 

This week, I...

 

1. connected the 2nd 175A alternator. When the engine runs, the voltage at the batteries is 14.5V and nothing blew up. Success.

2. connected up 6 leisure batteries. (660AH)

3. Removed temp battery from lounge and wired all 12V supplies through fuses, fed via isolator from batteries.

4. installed 3000Watt invertor. (cheap Chinese one)

5. Today, ran the boat, with invertor. It has a digital display on it showing the output. Powered 2 desktop PCs, and fridge. Output..700Watts. PCs had buzzing noises from power supplies, but seemed to work fine. Laptops all fine. TV worked fine.

 

Nothing blew up.

Everything worked well.

 

Lets hope for a nice weekend

[dor]

If the power supplies are buzzing they may not last very long...

 

If it is a PSW inverter, it may not have a very good waveform.

[Wild Is The Wind]

Good luck Dean, will be interested to hear how you get on with the batteries.

 

We started cruising 12 months ago with 4 x 110ah leisure batteries, seperate starter battery, 2 alternators, 3000w Victron multiplus inverter.

 

We knew very little about power management on boats, but were told we could run a washing machine, microwave, toaster, hairdryer (with the engine running) and 240v tv, laptop and fridge (fridge off a night) through the inverter once batteries were charged. We have led lighting, electric flushing toilet, water and bilge pumps.

 

At the end of this 12 months the batteries are knackered I think. We gave up using the microwave, toaster and hairdryer long ago. Now the washing machine won't run even when cruising because the batteries get too low straight away even if the engine's been running for a while. We don't use the tv or fridge because the red light on the inverter flashes almost instantly even after charging the batteries for 3 hours or more.

 

The batteries just don't charge like they used to - it was like there was a secret drain somewhere at first but we've concluded they are well and truly knackered.

 

Its disappointing but we've learnt a lot and will definitely do better with the new set of batteries! We now charge laptops on 12v and watch tv on these for now, and the other basics on the list work fine.

 

All of this said its been a great year and we've learnt to live happily without all the power hungry stuff we started with.

Edited March 27, 2013 by Wild Is The Wind

[Gypsey_Kings]

Good Luck Dean.....Very envious...Hopefully will be joining you end of May for a week holiday and then permanently before the end of the year. ..... Another Durbanite on the cut !!

[DeanS]

Things we are switching off when leaving shorepower are:

 

Washing Machine (will only run it on a gennie.)

XBox.

TVs. (Will switch to laptops)

Dishwasher (Cooking on outside gas barbecue and paper plates)

Computer speakers

Microwave

Kettle

Toaster

Freezer

 

Things we're using:

 

2 desktop pcs

2 laptops

Fridge

 

Jobs to do while cruising.

 

1. More wood trims

2. paint boat bow and stern - some nice artwork

3. some decking in the bow cratch area floor.

4. Fit a stern fender

5. Put a nice box over the 12V fuse/connections

6. Finish some kitchen doors

7. More cupboards in the bathroom.

8. Buy a viola and pennywhistle and master both on a towpath

 

Good Luck Dean.....Very envious...Hopefully will be joining you end of May for a week holiday and then permanently before the end of the year. ..... Another Durbanite on the cut !!

 

Go for it!

Say goodbye to your tans.

[smileypete]

Nice one Dean

 

Do you have a Smartguage or voltmeter, and ammeter too? Maybe even something that counts amp-hours.

 

The ammeter is very useful gauging how full a charge the batts are getting. A proper full charge at least once a week when away from shoreline will help preserve their capacity.

 

Also do you really need the desktops as lappies with a mobile processor and chipset are a lot less thirsty on power. The lappies with Intel 2nd gen (3xxx) core i3 and i5 aren't too bad.

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

[matty40s]

with a roof that big,surely you are going to grow some solar panels, you could get a decent array on there???

[DeanS]

Nice one Dean

 

Do you have a Smartguage or voltmeter, and ammeter too? Maybe even something that counts amp-hours.

 

The ammeter is very useful gauging how full a charge the batts are getting. A proper full charge at least once a week when away from shoreline will help preserve their capacity.

 

Also do you really need the desktops as lappies with a mobile processor and chipset are a lot less thirsty on power. The lappies with Intel 2nd gen (3xxx) core i3 and i5 aren't too bad.

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

 

Bought a voltmeter off Ebay today. Installing it in the kitchen. Told family....when it says lower than 12.4, it means Daddy is getting stressed

Ammeters dont make sense to me...if it says the batts are getting a good charge or bad charge...means nothing to me...I just want to see those batts settle at a healthy voltage. Unfortunately, with 3D animation work, both my kids need serious rendering power, huge graphic cards..etc etc. Teen is doing Game Development...very graphics intensive...laptops wont cut it. (apparently)

 

with a roof that big,surely you are going to grow some solar panels, you could get a decent array on there???

 

we CC-ed for 8months, and had 160Watts of solar on the roof (old boat). The thing with solar is that if you are eating loads of batt power daily....solar just doesnt compete with giving the batts 8hrs of gennie recharging? A gennie is cheaper. I think solar is cool if you have 1 laptop, live alone, watch tv an hour a day, and have loads of time in between for solar to do it's trickle charging...but if you are eating more than it can put in anyway...permanently....it's not worth it...you still have to hook up to shoreline or gennie to recharge batts anyway?

[Les&Gerry]

Have a nice time, and hope to bump into to you in the future.

[lewisericeric]

Dean just seen this thread. Definately think you should consider solar. You said most things were off now anyway apart from a few laptops and the fridge....we have 690w of solar, an array sizeyou could easily get on your WB roof and we were getting over 30 amps today which is a lot! That would easily run yor items and still charge the batts. Not only that but in the summer we were getting 47-55 amps all day until around 6-7PM and finally dropping down to maybe 20-30 amps after that time (peak summer)

 

Last year we were running a desktop mac, fridge, pumps, phone charging, TV, mini twinny, etc and our batteries were still getting charged.

 

Gennie is great but solar is silent and easier to "live" with in terms of inconvenience. We've been off shoreline since last June when we left new Islington and have no intention of ever going back on it - battery management and solar is much more satisfying and cheaper (initial outlay excluded ! But once you have put out for the initial outlay there's no ongoing bills like with shoreline etc!)

Edited April 1, 2013 by lewisericeric