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

[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.