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ErikFinn · 16-04-2015, 18:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by skipmac

Hi Erik,

My opinions on these questions.

Thank you skipmac!

Captn morgan · 17-04-2015, 10:08

It's unrelated to your question but a close friend has a 384 of the same vintage. We've made several trips to the Abacos. My reason for the response is since you're in Tarpon Springs did you know that you don't have to go all the way to the Keys? Depending on your mast height you can take the Caloosahatchee River in Ft Myers all the way across the state. Fixed bridges are a minimum of 55 ft. What you have to check is the Port Myakka bridge on the east side of Lake Okeechobee. It's a lifting bridge with a clearance of 48 feet. But there is an outfit at Indiantown Marina that can heel you over. They use plastic 55 gal drums. You might give them a call as it can save you time.

Captn Morgan
S/V Chase The Clouds

Captndave1 · 19-04-2015, 10:49

Did you want to change to an inverter?, if you have a 5k genset, you have all the power you need with the proper sine wave. You could add a 1k inverter to run things like computer or to make coffee, but why complicate a good system?

skyrise · 21-04-2015, 02:07

My 2 cents..
An inverter can range from £50 to many hundreds of pounds... But what about a UPS. It wouldn't have to be a large back breaking one.. An APC one (good ish make) can be under £100.. like this one..
http://www.apc.com/products/family/index.cfm?id=29

They have built in stepped sign wave converter.. Slightly different from a pure sign wave converter, but I'm guessing most of the inverters will only have stepped. The discussion of is stepped worse than pure is a long one.. But this will also give you a few extra hours (depending on what you are running) of power after the Gen has been turned off.. Also has the added bonus of being able to take many plugs...

Capt.Tom · 21-04-2015, 08:07

I have been a marine electrician for 30 years and believe me when I say..... If i read you frig's tag correctly, it will eat your battery's alive with 188 watts inverted from 12 volts . That's 15.6 amps drawn off I hope you have lots of batterys with wind generator and solar pannels. Inverters are nice for quick use but not for every day. Your frig runs 24 / 7. You are much better off with a smaller unit that has its own designed inverter than a big monster that consumes energy just being turned on.
yes, more choices with AC frig but get cold plates for a seperate frezer that are driven by your Gen or engine and a small DC frig for the everyday stuff.
A home frig doesn't care if you open it and all the cold spills out. There is an unlimited supply of power. Cruisers need to conserve power. Small is the key and reach down into the way to go. I Have an ice box with a dc driven compresser plus a small frig ... DC driven. Only on long trips do I use the freezer and it runs a litter and shuts off because we rarely open it. The frig runs more often and it is only 2.3 cubic feet And I have a 40 footer. Food in that frig will feed 2 for a week.
Less is More !

haurakiinc · 22-04-2015, 00:27

We run all 12v tv led lights led ect I have fired two 75w 240v transforms with 15am recterfire 2 cange from ac 2 dc for my shore power supply so when I plug in ever thing still runs the same I don't run a lap top but have a bult in home computer just taken out the 240 v trans that was bullt in it runs 12 v most things drop the volts in side the appliance even the vac is 12v hover

Jimmyhenry · 22-04-2015, 03:06

We have an American built boat so it came with 110 volts (3kwattts inverter) and 12 volts. We kept that system and added another 240 volt (3kwatt) inverter as we are ignorant Kiwis. Both are pure sine wave. We supply input from 300 watts solar and up to 35 amps wind. Plus of course the engine alternator. We ditched the 8kwatt auxiliary diesel generator that came with the boat. So we run everything, tools,recharging everything, kitchen stuff like toaster, Nespressor, whizz, plus a 12 volt fridge/freezer dual system which tops up the engine fridge/freezer compressor and 12 volt water maker , no wurries as the Aussies say. Effectively what I am saying is over equip a bit and relax. If the proverbial hits the fan we carry a back up portable generator 3kilowats which fed through the inverter will pump about 85amps into the batteries .

avalar · 22-04-2015, 10:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by leftbrainstuff

We hardly use our 2000 freedom inverter. We run nearly everything from 12V. We've been living aboard for 18 months and we're slowing increasing our move to pure solar recharge.

We also run a startup on board. All our IT kit runs from 12V including NAS, wifi extender, hardened router and hardware firewall.

All our power tools are cordless.

There is a parasitic loss from the inverter and converting from 12V to 110V and then back to 12V or 5V USB through most device transformers makes little sense. Forget square wave inverters. You cant run most appliances from them. Motors get hot, the voltage spikes confuse the cheap electronics and they lack the robustness needed in a marine environment.

We have replaced some of our 12V cigarette lighters with blue sea double USB sockets.

More than 50% of the power consumed in the average house is now from transformers converting back to a low DC voltage. These transformers are cheap rubbish and use most of their power wasted in heat. It was the heat that initially led us to removing them.

The benefit is probably best portrayed as a quasi formula.

Solar->12V house batteries->Appliance

versus

Solar->12V house batteries->Inverter->Connector->Transformer->Appliance

We have also ditched the microwave. We only use the inverter for the juicer, iron or bar mix. We often use small fan driven 300W inverters for our laptops and tv when we are off shore power. Soon we'll be able to charge the new breed of laptops via USB C.

We do currently use shore power to heat our hot water. We'll be embedding a solar collector for hot water as part of our hard dodger upgrade.

We see lots of surprise from fellow liveaboards who have transposed a condo to their boat. We live in luxury. We certainly aren't camping.

We are slowing ditching anything onboard that is 110V. Good riddance to a lot of junk.

Sent from my SM-N900T using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

^ Agree with this.

What a nuisance a generator is. I can't imagine carting around the weight of one onboard. We have everything running on 12v. We don't microwave and use French press for coffee. We have 12v chargers for all our computing needs and lots of 12v outlets. Two solar panels and the occasional use of the engine keep the batteries charged. I had an inverter once, it broke so I got it fixed. It broke again, and so I threw it in the dumpster and never looked back. It was heavy too - another 40 lbs. saved I think.

ErikFinn · 22-04-2015, 22:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Capt.Tom

I have been a marine electrician for 30 years and believe me when I say..... If i read you frig's tag correctly, it will eat your battery's alive with 188 watts inverted from 12 volts . That's 15.6 amps drawn off I hope you have lots of batterys with wind generator and solar pannels. Inverters are nice for quick use but not for every day. Your frig runs 24 / 7. You are much better off with a smaller unit that has its own designed inverter than a big monster that consumes energy just being turned on.
yes, more choices with AC frig but get cold plates for a seperate frezer that are driven by your Gen or engine and a small DC frig for the everyday stuff.
A home frig doesn't care if you open it and all the cold spills out. There is an unlimited supply of power. Cruisers need to conserve power. Small is the key and reach down into the way to go. I Have an ice box with a dc driven compresser plus a small frig ... DC driven. Only on long trips do I use the freezer and it runs a litter and shuts off because we rarely open it. The frig runs more often and it is only 2.3 cubic feet And I have a 40 footer. Food in that frig will feed 2 for a week.
Less is More !

Thanks for your post and welcome to the forum Captain Tom

I have 680W solar and 400W wind genny, nominal, but anyways.

We have a long term engineer member here on the forum who has an AC domestic fridge aboard her boat, and she seems pretty happy with it. In Florida latitude (if I recall right) it doesn't run all the time, maybe 15 minutes in an hour, I can't remember exactly without checking. But she has shared positive comments about it in the past here on this forum.

Why am I interested in an AC fridge? Well yes, the price. A 180 liter fridge with a freezer compartment would cost about 180 USD. Yes should add the price of inverter also.

I recently ordered a new compressor and evaporator from Australia, as my old machinery is kaput. The shipping was supposed to be 160$. After two weeks the shipping company asked for data sheets of the compressor and said the shipping just increased to 320$. Ok.. well, never mind... Two weeks later they said they have to fly in a specialist from the other coast to inspect the compressor and do the paperwork, and that costs 900$. At that point I cancelled the order. So, my new machinery for the DC fridge would have cost me about 2000 USD. not including the box. Just the compressor and evaporator (and shipping). Adding to the equation my original icebox should be totally redone, as it is, well original, and they are crap ( Kollmann Marine )

So, I have been comparing the price of a 180 Liter DC fridge (180 USD plus inverter) to the said 2000 USD plus huge project to redo the old box) So do you now see where I'm coming from?

I know the AC fridges are not so efficient and when you open the door the cold air escapes to the floor. I know at sea you'd be hard pressed to open the door cos your food stuff might all jump out. It's not ideal. And it's not easy to find a spot for a square fridge in a non square boat, especially in a not so big monohull. But for a temporary solution you can't beat it in my honest opinion. Yes, maybe when I find more motivation and money I will redo the DC fridge side. But even then I just might still keep the DC fridge as well.