I GOT MY FIRST BOAT, NOW HOW DO I POWER IT ?,

[Dawncraft geezer]

Hi, ive purchased a dawncraft dandy to live on for a while (i know its small)

it currently runs the electric off of two car batteries and a solar panel, i want to put my 32inch tv and playstation onboard and have no power issues.

So i'm thinking more solar panels, more batteries, and a backup low power genny for if i do run out of power on occasion.

THE QUESTION IS , how many batteries will i need ? can i just get aload of car batteries and hook them up parallel ??

ALSO, how many watts am i going to need off of the solar panels ?


i currently have a Car 1500W converter power inverter DC 12V to AC 220V 230V 240V invertor USB

and a "30A Solar Regulator Charge Controller 12v and 24v system 30I Battery charger"

i dont know the current watt of my solar panels as my friend i purchased the boat off of is a dope lol

[Chewbacka]

First of all have a look at the rating plate on the TV as some of the older sets due use a fair few watts, so I would not like to guess.

Also how many watts is the Playstation.

Will you have a fridge that is electric - either 12v or mains?

Lights for the evening are they LED

etc

 

To tell you how much battery capacity we need to know how much power you will be using and for how long on a daily basis.

[Dave Payne]

'and a backup low power genny for if i do run out of power on occasion. '

 

I think you might find you will be running this a lot...

 

 

 

I dont even know where to begin with this thread so i shall leave it for someone else.

[Dawncraft geezer]

lights are all LED, no fridge will be needed, i just want to be able to play playstation for a few hours of a evening, probably around four five hours of gaming x

Edited February 1, 2016 by Dawncraft geezer

[Tony Brooks]

I am sorry but there is no short cut for this and if you try to use one it is all likely to end in tears.

 

Again, I am sorry, but when I see 1500 watt inverter, 32" TV, Playstation, and I assume the usual pumps, lights and possibly a fridge followed by "and have no power issues" I immediately think "not a chance" and cut you expectations according to your cloth. This may seem harsh but if you do not then you are heading for very frequent battery replacement because you will ruin them by never charging them and over discharging them.

 

You could use car batteries and I am sure a lot of people do but they are no the optimum choice for long, slow discharges, however as at present you will probably destroy them in weeks they may be the cheapest option.

 

Solar is far from the answer for livaboard battery charging, especially at this time of year. One of our more technical members has reported getting less than 0.5 amp from (I think) 300 watts of panels this winter so say about 3 Amp hours per day at the moment. If you are lucky and angle your panels to the sun you will get more but I doubt it will cover your needs but might do in high summer.

 

You need a shoreline or generator and a decent battery charger for use in the winter.

 

You also need to do a power audit and then the charging calculations to see how large a battery bank (how many Ah) you need and then how much charging capacity and the time it needs to run so you fully charge your batteries again. You could probably get away with recharging to 80% each day during the week and then fully recharge at weekends. Only you can do the power audit because only you know what electrical equipment you use and for how long.

[Dawncraft geezer]

'and a backup low power genny for if i do run out of power on occasion. '

 

I think you might find you will be running this a lot...

 

 

 

I dont even know where to begin with this thread so i shall leave it for someone else.

dave, they don't educate you on how to power a boat at school so as you may guess i am learning and looking for advice lol

[RLWP]

Power consumption of a PS4:

 

 

 

ccording to tests by Eurogamer, initial consoles drew approximately 80 W when operational in menu mode, rising to around 110–120 W in gameplay, with peaks of 140 W with both gameplay and menus active,^[58] tests by the Natural Resources Defense Councilshowed similar power consumption figures with 137 W gameplay peaks (with PS4 Camera connected); power consumption in (internet connected) standby mode was measured at 8.8 W under the same conditions, with a lower power "off" state drawing 0.5 W.^[59]

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_4_technical_specifications

 

Richard

 

MORE: and a telly is up to 70 W: http://energyusecalculator.com/electricity_lcdleddisplay.htm

 

Richard

Edited February 1, 2016 by RLWP

[Murflynn]

32" TV is a bit OTT.

[RLWP]

32" TV is a bit OTT.

 

Not if you can sit about ten foot from it...

 

Richard

[Dawncraft geezer]

I am sorry but there is no short cut for this and if you try to use one it is all likely to end in tears.

 

Again, I am sorry, but when I see 1500 watt inverter, 32" TV, Playstation, and I assume the usual pumps, lights and possibly a fridge followed by "and have no power issues" I immediately think "not a chance" and cut you expectations according to your cloth. This may seem harsh but if you do not then you are heading for very frequent battery replacement because you will ruin them by never charging them and over discharging them.

 

You could use car batteries and I am sure a lot of people do but they are no the optimum choice for long, slow discharges, however as at present you will probably destroy them in weeks they may be the cheapest option.

 

Solar is far from the answer for livaboard battery charging, especially at this time of year. One of our more technical members has reported getting less than 0.5 amp from (I think) 300 watts of panels this winter so say about 3 Amp hours per day at the moment. If you are lucky and angle your panels to the sun you will get more but I doubt it will cover your needs but might do in high summer.

 

You need a shoreline or generator and a decent battery charger for use in the winter.

 

You also need to do a power audit and then the charging calculations to see how large a battery bank (how many Ah) you need and then how much charging capacity and the time it needs to run so you fully charge your batteries again. You could probably get away with recharging to 80% each day during the week and then fully recharge at weekends. Only you can do the power audit because only you know what electrical equipment you use and for how long.

hi, thankyou for the advice, i found it very helpful

[Dawncraft geezer]

so realistically i want a generator...
Then i can charge up batteries to full while i run all the power off the genny, £2.70 for 6-8 hours use sounds good to me

what are the cheapest options for batteries ? i was just thinking around 8 car batteries onboard...

[Tony Brooks]

dave, they don't educate you on how to power a boat at school so as you may guess i am learning and looking for advice lol

 

Lets take the figures Richard dug out for us.

 

AS the TV and PlayStation run from the mains divide their wattage by 10 to get the amps AND allow for inverter inefficiency so the TV and PlayStation will demand a bit under 2 amps. Run them for 5 hours and that is 10 Ah. (ignoring lights and any water pump).

 

You should only assume your battery will run between 50% and 80% of fully charged so that 10 Ah is about 1/3 of the battery capacity so you need at LEAST a 30Ah battery. A sub £100 110Ah leisure battery would do the job well.

 

Now you need to address the recharging. It is not simply a question of putting 10Ah back in because batteries never use all the charge to alter the chemicals inside . Some is lost in heat and some is used to make gas in the cells. Expect to put back between 10% and 40% more than you took out so your 10Ah will require a charge of around 13Ah or so. This does not seem a lot until you realise that this is about four times more than the members solar cells are producing.

 

You need an external charging source. If the boat has an outboard that also charges the batteries the maximum output will be low and the cost of petrol will be high for what you are doing. If you have an inboard engine then its alternator will probably be sufficient for the use stated. I doubt the boat is large enough to carry sufficient solar for the winter months so the only thing left is a generator and decent battery cahrger.

[bizzard]

There's a wealth of other games to play, like Ludo, Snakes and Ladders, Snap, Postmans knock, Snooker, whilst waiting for batteries to charge up.

Snooker on a Dawncraft!! your probably thinking this bloke bizzards balmy. A table top snooker table can be made from an old tea tray, preferably a wooden one by sawing out the six pocket holes in the sides and by using either large appropriately painted marbles, gob stoppers or aniseed balls as the balls with chop sticks for cues.

Edited February 1, 2016 by bizzard

[Tony Brooks]

PS - none of this battery stuff has fixed rules because the age, temperature and design of a battery all affects how well it charges etc. so anything you are told on the discharge/charging front is guidance only, NOT FACT.

[sueb]

Generators should not be run before 8am or after 8pm. There are advantages of living on land.

[John V]

so realistically i want a generator...

Then i can charge up batteries to full while i run all the power off the genny, £2.70 for 6-8 hours use sounds good to me

what are the cheapest options for batteries ? i was just thinking around 8 car batteries onboard...

SueB beat me ....must learn to type faster

 

 

and get things right first time !!!

Edited February 1, 2016 by John V

[Guest]

so realistically i want a generator...

Then i can charge up batteries to full while i run all the power off the genny, £2.70 for 6-8 hours use sounds good to me

what are the cheapest options for batteries ? i was just thinking around 8 car batteries onboard...

 

Can I suggest you let people know where you intend to moor pls. - so they can avoid having to listen to a genny for that length of time just so you can zap a few aliens....

 

What you are allowed with your genny and what you do to be considerate to others are two completely different things.

[Dawncraft geezer]

ahha i can see the boat community is going to love me and my friends (: x

[Guest]

ahha i can see the boat community is going to love me and my friends (: x

 

You needn't worry about my opinion - I no longer own a boat...

But I wouldn't run a genny that long near to my fellow caravanners either...

[peterboat]

ahha i can see the boat community is going to love me and my friends (: x

no crt is going to love you, it depends where you moor some marinas dont allow running generators full stop. i think you need to take a step back and look at this new life what is going to heat the boat up this winter whilst you are playing games

[Paul C]

The process is basically as follows:

 

1. Forget about solar, if you want all-year-round use. Yes its great in the summer, useless in certain days of winter time.

2. Do a power audit. The more accurate you do it, the more money you can save by either not having to buy items twice (if you underestimated, etc) or overspecifying items.

3. Work out how you're going to recharge the batteries (the power you used in 2). As well as what equipment, you'll need to take into account "when" too - for example if you work 8am-6pm weekdays, that leaves 2 hours 6pm-8pm which basically isn't enough time to allow batteries to properly charge (you can't just bang in the power). You'd need to accept you could only part-charge through the week then fully charge at the weekends - and you'd be tied to the boat with an engine or genny running..... Shoreline is a better option. Revisiting the power audit to try reduce consumption would be another option. Or having a friend/partner who can stay with the boat during the day, another.

4. Once you know when you're charging and discharging, you'll know the energy drawn in between these. So you can use this to work out the battery bank capacity needed. An often-quoted guide is to not let batteries discharge further than 50%, and bear in mind if you're not able to recharge to 100% due to time constraints, you might only achieve eg 85% or 90% SoC.

 

There's plenty of threads on electrical issues with boating, take some time and read around the site a bit. Of course, there's a variety of opinions and a lot to wade through......but the more you know, the more successful you're likely to be.

[X Alan W]

so realistically i want a generator...

Then i can charge up batteries to full while i run all the power off the genny, £2.70 for 6-8 hours use sounds good to me

what are the cheapest options for batteries ? i was just thinking around 8 car batteries onboard...

I think if I had to live on a "Dandy" at this time of the year I would be more concerned about keeping warm & condensation free before Gaming etc. if you have that covered Ill put up & shut up.

[Dawncraft geezer]

some of these posts are really helpful guys but.. i'm getting the impression that due to my lack of knowledge on this subject i should'nt be here ? i just want to learn and the people helping me do that i thank you muchly (: x

[Guest]

some of these posts are really helpful guys but.. i'm getting the impression that due to my lack of knowledge on this subject i should'nt be here ? i just want to learn and the people helping me do that i thank you muchly (: x

No quite the opposite. The whole point of posting the responses is to make you aware of some of the things you may indeed not be aware of.

 

There are rules about when you can run your genny (within earshot of somebody else) and it's a fact that some find the constant noise of a running genny (or boat engine) in their vicinity extremely annoying, especially if it is not a particularly quiet generator or boat engine

 

However of course given the rules you would be quite within your rights to point out that doing so between 8 and 8 is something you are perfectly entitled to do if you wish. It all depends on how considerate you want to be to your fellow boaters/nearby householders or if this doesn't bother you then that is your prerogative.

Edited February 1, 2016 by MJG

[Phil Ambrose]

Also the answer to lack of power is not to simply add more batteries as per your comment of "about 8 car batteries". A rule of thumb is that whatever you take out you need to put it back in plus maybe 50% to get your batteries back to near fully charged, using a genny and charger will take a long time because as the battery fills up the amount of current you are able to force in reduces so dont expect to run a 50amp charger for an hour and get 50amps back in the battery.

Heavens this battery management thing is a very dark art indeed, so do proceed with caution or you will be replacing your batteries at very short intervals and lead is expensive.

Good luck, oh and welcome

Phil

Edit for fat finger

Edited February 1, 2016 by Phil Ambrose