12v system for everything?

[Sabbatical II]

My 10 month old semi-custom boat was designed as a 12 volt boat and wired according to Nigel Calder's advice in his Boat Mechanical and Electrical systems book. It was one of the best things we did. The only thing we don't have is a microwave, but neither did my grandma. We have 660 ah of battery capacity charged by solar. We do have AC wired in so that we can hook up for an hour to heat the hot water if necessary, and oh sometimes 1st mate needs to use a hair straightener or I might need to recharge cordless power tools. If we're prepared to wait until the engine heats the water and put up with curly hair, then my cordless tools will hold charge for about 6 weeks if not used. To me the advantages of not relying on AC power outweigh the disadvantages. Some people need to take every household gadget with them and can't survive without AC, microwave,huge TV with fox, breadmakers, coffeemakers, 3 fridges. Others, like me, went boating to leave all that behind and if that's you, 12 volt will be just fine.

[nwdiver]

Originally Posted by Steve Bean

My DeWalt 12 v charger for 14.4 v tools will charge my boss' DeWalt 18v batteries; the label says so and it does. Also, I took apart an old 14.4 v battery pack and wired 12 volts from my boat's batteries to it to run my 14.4v drill.

Yes the propose built one will, like the one for a cars lighter plug...

[inthejungle]

I know this is a bit dated post, but I just wanted to say that I went through this thought some time ago. I decided in the end to go 12v and nothing else. I am so glad that I did that, what I did to reduce wire runs and such was create a power shelf, I found cigarette adapter for everything and bought the female side and wired them into the shelf. Most charging today can be done via USB, well I found a company that make panel mount 12v dc usb plugs, wired all of this to a blue sea fuse box with a common ground and hot works great. My lights are made by thin lite LED 12-30vdc so no problem when charging up the batteries. Laptop was a bit of a challenge but eventually found a company that makes a charger that charges in the car. I was surprised how much you can get with a cigarette adapter, my dewalt drill has one, and even my portable DVD player! It was great for me, I wanted a radio, grabbed one from an old truck, wanted a security system grabbed one from a wrecked truck. Just my thoughts ITJ

[captain58sailin]

I would like very much to know more about the 12 volt USB ports, I have just been using the cigarette lighter plug with the USB outlet in it.

[inthejungle]

I had a bit of a hard time finding them, I ended up buying them here Blue Sea Systems Dual USB Charger Plug They work great and same me lots of additional charging cables ITJ