Fact or fiction: running with the chartplotter off to save electricity

[MicHughV]

Ah well, different strokes for different folks.

Unlikely to find a consensus here, which is where it should be, as no two boats are likely to be similarity equipped, etc, and most skippers will have their " own" preferred ways of doing things..

[Kettlewell]

It depends on where you are in the world, but your phone can be a handy way to quickly review your position at night without having to fire up the chartplotter.

[SailingHarmonie]

As usual, people seem to only know what THEY do and seem to argue that that is what everybody else should do as well.

The answer to this question is HUGELY dependent on your boat and your sailing style.

The argument that nobody "needs" a chart plotter because Columbus didn't have one makes a valid point. Kind of the same point someone would make saying you don't NEED a car to take yourself from New York to Los Angles: You can walk. You can, and it is a fine choice, just not mine.

When I am offshore, the chart plotter is truly a minor bit of power draw, it's not quite a rounding error, but pretty close to it.

When I am offshore, I want my AIS display to always be on, and my radar. Since both of those are presented on my chartplotter it does stay on. On a boat where power storage and generation was severely limited, that might not be practical.

But as a general rule that on a sailboat you "should" turn your chartplotter off to save power, No, that makes no sense.

[Mike OReilly]

Whether you need your displays to be on is really dependent on you and your boat and your situation. As I said, I think there's a good reason NOT have everything run through one plotter screen. It's better for redundancy to have separate controls. It also means you don't have to have the big screen always on.

However, the biggest draw outside of active radar and autohelm, is going to be the screen itself. So if you're concerned about amps, just turn the screen down or off.

That said, even the screen shouldn't be a big draw. Back in the CRT screen days, the draws were huge. Now, with LCD-type screens, the draws are a lot smaller.

I really think that if this is going to make or break your electrical budget, that you're already too close to the line. The better answer is to add more amp-hrs, or get more charging capacity.

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by Kettlewell

You don't need the chartplotter on during offshore passages!

I take it then you don't want AIS information, or is there another way you get AIS information.

Originally Posted by Ryban

In any case, I'd turn off my other systems before turning off the chart plotter if I was in conservation mode. Essentials would be lights, VHF, autopilot, chart plotter. Everything else could be powered down.

That's about 10A for us.

[thinwater]

Obviously, you can sail with no, zero electronics. My first two boats had none, and it was before GPS or autohelm. Chart, watch, dead reconning, and binoculars. Gives you something to do on the long, boring parts. Common sense is to log the position, speed, and course every few hours; then you'll have something to run a DR plot from.


Also obviously, you should practice both sailing with no electronics and being able to jury rig a pilot. Electrical failures do happen. Sure, you can probably fix it, but maybe not and it shouldn't worry you or ruin your trip. I lost a plotter and sounder once (leak in a junction box). It hardly mattered.


If you are that tied to electronics ... fly. It's faster, safer, and cheaper... and you don't need to know any navigation. (Navigation with a chart plotter is just barely navigation--heck, small children understand Waze).

[dlj]

It's your choice. I've found the biggest energy savings on passages is to put on a wind vane and use that instead of an autopilot. My chart plotter uses very little power so left it on while doing crossings. Design your energy system with how you wish to sail.

dj

[Bowdrie]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

Agree almost verbatim with the above.

Me too.
Wind instruments?
"You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows".
Bob Dylan.

[Kelkara]

My plotter uses about 1 amp, my radar about 1 amp my autopilot between 1 and 3 amps, and everything else about 1 amp. So, by turning off my plotter (and hence the radar too since it needs the plotter screen) I can save about 40% of my power consumption underway.

Even on a sunny day my solar struggles to keep up with everything and bank enough for an overnight too ... on an overcast day there's no hope. I have 2x80Ah batteries, so even if they start at 100% (and they rarely do) drawing 5A for 24h is heavy use.

I will happily turn off any electric gizmos that aren't actually in use, every amp counts ... I built an arduino based AIS display that only consumes about 250mA so that once a couple of hours from shore I can put the plotter in standby without losing AIS ... of course once I need the radar it all gets turned on again.

[Jammer]

Thank you for the insights. A few comments to help guide the discussion.

For clarity, I am perfectly capable of navigating the boat without electronics, and I carry paper charts. This thread isn't about that.

The questions this informs are those like:
- Do I want a wired autopilot controller that is separate from the chartplotter, or is the combination of the key fob and the chartplotter sufficient
- Do I utilize the sonar capability of the chartplotter as the sole source of depth data, or do I also need a separate depth sensor that operates independently of the plotter (DST800 or similar)?
- Do I need a separate instruments for wind, boat speed, and depth and if so how many?
- How feasible is it to route engine sensors and tank sensors to NMEA2000 and the chartplotter rather than maintaining the expensive, old engine instrument panel?


Thanks...

[Benz]

"- Do I want a wired autopilot controller that is separate from the chartplotter, or is the combination of the key fob and the chartplotter sufficient"

I think it's wise to keep the autopilot separate, or at least separable. Last voyage the French-designed integrated system we had would lose everything if one thing went down. Kind of a hassle to lose the auto because one display screen (of three) choked....
AIS can be seen of VHF units so equipped, so you could turn off the plotter, and boot it up whenever the VHF found a target of concern.
You can also plot the AIS target onto your paper chart from the VHF readout and figure out CPA.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Jammer

Thank you for the insights. A few comments to help guide the discussion.

For clarity, I am perfectly capable of navigating the boat without electronics, and I carry paper charts. This thread isn't about that.

The questions this informs are those like:
- Do I want a wired autopilot controller that is separate from the chartplotter, or is the combination of the key fob and the chartplotter sufficient
- Do I utilize the sonar capability of the chartplotter as the sole source of depth data, or do I also need a separate depth sensor that operates independently of the plotter (DST800 or similar)?
- Do I need a separate instruments for wind, boat speed, and depth and if so how many?
- How feasible is it to route engine sensors and tank sensors to NMEA2000 and the chartplotter rather than maintaining the expensive, old engine instrument panel?

Thanks...

- wired AP controller depend on what you have. Hopefully a B&G that doesn’t need a wired controller as it will work with a Triton keypad, any plotter, a wireless remote and even the iSailor app on iOS!

- I don’t even have a sonar anymore because after years of fooling around with them, including forward looking units that cost many thousands and multiple holes in the hull, I did away with all of it because it’s just notgood enough to be useful.
I now have an Airmar Smart triducer that works with a Bluetooth app and is connected to nmea2000 so available to all instruments.

- you need the following sensors on your nmea2000 network:

wind direction and speed: my B&G was ripped off by an Osprey. I am considering an ultrasonic from either LCJ Capteurs or Calypso.

depth, speed through water, water temperature: the Airmar Smart triducer is a winner as it doesn’t need other equipment to manage it.

Heading, rate of turn, both stabilized with 3D accelerometers like in the autopilot rated sensors or satellite compasses (I have a Maretron, an Airmar and a B&G heading sensor: one in use, one unplugged but ready to take over and one as spare new in box)

Gnss: I have a Garmin GPX-19 but it needs a Garmin chart plotter to manage (did it on a friends boat) but I can’t recommend it. Instead, I now recommend the Veratron Go unit, the model with Bluetooth and NMEA2000.
I also have a backup unit in my B&G Vulcan plotter

Rudder angle: I have the B&G RF25N (note the N) which is the NMEA2000 model so that you have rudder angle indication even with the autopilot switched off (important when having steering problems). It costs the same as the units that connect to the AP directly.

Engine instruments: yes, this is on my project list as I have an old school Yanmar so need the gadget to convert to NMEA.

With all these sensors available you can see them on any modern instrument display like B&G Triton, Raymarine IS70 etc. Also, you see them on any wifi or Ethernet gateway.

[pressuredrop]

Fact. The bigger and brighter your screen is the more juice it is going to take to power it. In my early days with only 1 130w solar panel, no inboard engine, but yes refrigerator, I would shut everything down offshore for days at a time except for my standard horizon matrix VHF/GPS/AIS all in one. Use GPS numbers to plot on paper... Life was good...

[sinnerman]

After reading the responses, I went back to one of my favorite Christian Williams sailing (YouTube) videos to see if his chart plotter is on while at sea.

His (old) chartplotter is OFF. He plots by paper charts, then periodically checks his position against a GPS reading.

He keeps his AIS , however ON....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oz8wpl9YG1o

My two cents.

Cheers.

[OS2Dude]

Our primary solar arrays are deployed 24/7. The little bit of draw from the chart-plotter running at night (if it is) is easily replenished in a short time once the sun comes up. If you have a decent bank and recharge capabilities, I would think the chart-plotter draw would be one of the least of your concerns.

If you are going blue water, always take paper and instruments that don't need electricity. You can never tell when a lightning strike or water intrusion may wreak havoc with your 12v systems.