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

[Bowdrie]

Perhaps a small/short digression allowed?
Completely apart from pros/cons of Windvane vs Autopilot.
A windvane offers a bit of a visceral feeling, you can see the monkey motion and observe how all the parts of the contraption work together.
The autopilot? who knows what goes on in the black boxes? you only see a ram push a tiller.
Kinda maybe like a diesel-electric locomotive vs a steam locomotive?
The diesel-electric burdens you with its soulless operation, the other offers a glimpse of visible transmitted power.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Bowdrie

Perhaps a small/short digression allowed?
Completely apart from pros/cons of Windvane vs Autopilot.
A windvane offers a bit of a visceral feeling, you can see the monkey motion and observe how all the parts of the contraption work together.
The autopilot? who knows what goes on in the black boxes? you only see a ram push a tiller.
Kinda maybe like a diesel-electric locomotive vs a steam locomotive?
The diesel-electric burdens you with its soulless operation, the other offers a glimpse of visible transmitted power.

I see exactly what is going on inside the black box. With my eyes closed, because I wrote similar routines myself

Some are visually oriented, some mechanically and others digitally

[Ambler]

These days my chart plotter (B&G Vulcan) remains on as the radar (Simrad) is connected and operated by the plotter. It is usually in standby conserving energy but is almost instant on when required.
The plotter isn't connected to a depth transducer, I purposely have a fishfinder (Lowrance) for depth only which I turn off when not in soundings which saves battery power and I am sure is dolphin and whale friendly that way.
The plotter also keeps tally of my logged distance run, as well as wind speed direction overlay on the screen which runs C-maps for charting.
My back ups are numerous (old school) since I began cruising in the 1980's

[hjohnson]

For me, we built our electrical system so that we simply no longer care about electrical power onboard. That said, we’re also not doing long haul offshore passages, as the boat is too small, but for nearshore gunkholling, even out in the wilderness, we simply no longer care.

460Ahr of LiFePO4, a good 85A alternator, and about 320W of solar power keeps our system happy. Heck, we arely turn off our inverter/charger, since having the 120v outlets live all the time is so convenient.

About the only thing we do for energy conservation is breaker off the hot water tank, since a tank of hot water costs us 25% of our battery.

[dlj]

Originally Posted by hjohnson

For me, we built our electrical system so that we simply no longer care about electrical power onboard. That said, we’re also not doing long haul offshore passages, as the boat is too small, but for nearshore gunkholling, even out in the wilderness, we simply no longer care.

460Ahr of LiFePO4, a good 85A alternator, and about 320W of solar power keeps our system happy. Heck, we arely turn off our inverter/charger, since having the 120v outlets live all the time is so convenient.

About the only thing we do for energy conservation is breaker off the hot water tank, since a tank of hot water costs us 25% of our battery.

I have a fairly similar set-up to you. 400 Ahr bats, 375W solar - twin 120 A althernators, that's a bit different.... I also have a wind generator that is supposed to give 400W at peak output - that is a total dissappointment and essentially does nothing. Long story there...

When not doing long off-shore passages, I'm in the same ball park as you. When just coastal living, I don't really worry much about power usage. But on long off-shore legs running a full bridge of equipment, having that wind vane steering gives me a week to two weeks, depending upon sunlight, freedom from worry, but running my autopilot it's down to 2 to 3 days.

dj