Generators

[BC Mike]

His name is John Simes and he works at Mission Hill wines. My wife was the lab tech there for about 10 years. We are in Kelowna which is about 200 miles inland from Vancouver BC near a big lake. Being inland it can get cold -33c and hot +41c but the normal range is between -20 to +34. It is too dry for painted wood boats if left on the hard, they need to be in the water. The glassed over boats are okay. The largest sailboat in our puddle is a CS36. Typical Wednesday night race has about 33 boats out with an average size of about 26 feet. The fastest is an Olson 30 which rates a bit quicker than the Farr 11.6 of 1982 vintage.
Mission Hill makes Mikes Hard Lemonade. BC Mike C

[thefantasea]

725 gallons of water a day. Do you tow an auxiliary tanker to handle the weight of nearly 3 tons of water?

[Wahoo Sails]

Guess I have a smaller boat than many of you .. but ... 4 golf cart batteries (may add 2 more later) and a group 24 starting battery. Just ordered a Kyocera 125 watt solar panel ..6' X 2' ... will sit just aft and above the stern rail ... should keep me juiced nicely.

L S/V Eva Luna
Bob

[CSY Man]

Also have 4 golf cart batteries and a group 24 start battery.

2 Siemens 75 watt panels over the bimini top keeps the juices flowing...Can sit for about 5 days at anchor without starting the engine to charge and without going below 75% battery capacity....All that with fridge and freezer running, anchor lights and radioes, etc.

Go solar.......

[Wahoo Sails]

About the only things that run non-stop on my boat are a small Origo fridge (very, very effecient) and a stereo ... gotta have tunes and cold beer! Haven't had the opportunity to check things out yet, but hope to be able to stay on the hook indefinetly ... oh yeah, use a Davis MegaLite for anchor light ...also, very effecient. Can add 2 more golf cart batteries if needed for additional amp storage.

L S/V Eva Luna

Bob

[CSY Man]

About the only things that run non-stop on my boat are a small Origo fridge (very, very effecient)

How many amps does it draw in 24 hours..?

As for staying on the hook indefinetly, keep in mind that cloudy weather and rain happens now and then...Engine running every other day in that case.

I have also been thinking about adding 2 more golf cart batteries and another solar panel, but for now the system works great.
Also should wait 'till the 4 batteries I bought 4 years ago are dying.
' Cause if ya mix new and old batteries they will accept charge at a different rate and won't get fully charged then as the regulator will stop the charging when the new cells are topped off and the old ones are not.

[Wahoo Sails]

140 amps if running at maximum ... which, given my penchant for warm weather & cold beer will be nearly always. As for "indefinetly" hope to tie up every 4 or 5 days anyway ... however ... would like to be able to stay out longer if the right situation arises. Running the motor in my case doesn't work well, a 2 stroke outboard, only about 6 amps output ... and nobody, I mean NOBODY want's to listen to that thing!

L S/V Eva Luna

Bob

[Talbot]

About the only things that run non-stop on my boat are a small Origo fridge (very, very effecient)
How many amps does it draw in 24 hours..?
140 amps if running at maximum

That seems to be a very high number indeed. I can only imagine that this must be an air cooled system, or that you meant 140 watts. The keel cooled fridges use a lot less power than that. For example Large system which will cope with 400 litres of fridge or 120 litres of freezer. Actual consumption for this sytem will depend on quality and quantity of insulation (recommended 6") and even on full power will still only use abt 40-50 amp/hrs/day
The smaller version is much more efficient, at abt 20 amp/hr per day and is capable of running a 12 cu ft fridge

The secret is that water temperature is always cooler than the air in really hot places, and that the keel cooler does not use a massive pump to circulate the cool water

[CSY Man]

140 amps if running at maximum

Hmm, that is high.

I like cold beer and warm weather too and that cost me 40 amps a day....Which is exactly what the sun panels bring to the table.
Nature is cooling my beer and keeping wifeys ice cream frozen.

It was meant to be.

[Alan Wheeler]

My fridge freezer must be plain terrible then. Cause it uses 15A/hr =360A over 24hrs. It's one of those three way jobs, and we run it on AC when at shore, DC when under motor and Gas when moored/anchored.
So what are these fridge freezer thingys you guy's have? Like how do they work to be so efficient.

[Wahoo Sails]

OK ... so my face is red for having called this amp sucker "effecient":-) Ya gotta realize, I bought it 2 years ago, brand new for for $50. In the past 2 years, at the dock, it has done a true yeoman's service, always delivering a frosty beer! Guess I never really looked into it's effeciency. When I heard the claims of only 40 amps per day ... to be honest ... I didn't believe it. Did a little home work, and yepper, this thing will have to go! Two steps forward, one step back ... one more item to replace before I start cruising. Now ... not only do I have to find a replacement (that I can afford) .. it has to fit the opening already cut .......

L S/V Eva Luna
Bob

[CSY Man]

Cause it uses 15A/hr =360A over 24hrs.

He-he, ya are kidding right?

15 amps per hour for 24 hours?

Ya running the galley on a cruise ship?
Or feeding the Norwegian Navy with cold beer?

I got a fairly modern Cool Blue cold plate system with tons of insulation in the fridge and the freezer boxes.

With no active use (Sitting at the dock) it runs 5 hours per day in the hot summer..100 degrees F inside the boat.
5 aps per hour

When cruisng and using the boxes many times a day, including adding 8 warm beers daily, it runs 7 to 8 hours per day, at 5.5 amps per hour..About 4o to 50 amps per day.

I know them numbers pretty well as I have an electric hour-meter hooked up to the compressor and I run a daily log on usage.

Took a long time to optimize the system with extra fans, extra this and that and the other, but after that is said, very happy....
And the sun runs it all.

OK ... so my face is red for having called this amp sucker "effecient":-) Ya gotta realize, I bought it 2 years ago, brand new for for $50. In the past 2 years, at the

Well, I paid a bit more than $50.00 for the system.

More like $2K after all is said and done, but worth every dime every day in the Bahamas when the sun is shining and the anchor is down.

Had it about 4 years now and the hour meter reads about 5000 hours.
The manufactor says to turn it on and never turn it off.
Guess the sealed compressors are pretty long lived.
Or so I hope,

[Alan Wheeler]

Well refrigeration is something I have little experiance with. But it is certainly 15A@12V. It is one of those Electrolux ones that have an element and the element is continually heated. Either by 230V, 12V or a gas flame. The refrigerant cycles around by the "heat rising" method and goes through a heap of pipe work. I was told this system was good for a boat as there was no compressor motor to worry about. But I have later read articles that say these models don't work if heeled over sailing. And then I read that you can get compressor motors that are DC and will run happily on a angle. So it is one of those situations where, the guy in the shop pulled the wool over the eyes of an unsuspecting customer. Well the customer has learn't something now. And to add to the info he has learn't, I now see that the DC current is very heavey compared to what else seems to be available. Oh well.

[CSY Man]

Well, Mr. Allan.

If ya are going to do any extended cruising I recomend ya get a really efficient system.

DC or any power is premium on a sailboat unless ya want to run a diesel generator 24 hours a day like them mega-yachts do.

I had sailboats for 5 years with only ice boxes and that gave me 5 years to study up on the subject, talk to people and plan ahead.

Settled pretty early on the Technautics Cool BLue system

http://www.technauticsinc.com/Default.htm

becuase of the promise of low amp consumption.

Then found a brand new unit in the box for half price some 3 or 4 years ago.
Used 2 weeks installing it and re-isolating the boxes and even more time fine tuning it.
Very happy with the results and can highly recommend the unit.

A couple of details on my installation:

Both fridge and freezer box has 4 and 3/4 " insulation.
Upgraded coldplate to the 2 and 1/2" size instead of the standard 1"....A $140.00 upgrade.
Installed two computer case fans to ventilate the compressor compartment and assist with airflow over the condenser.
Insulated the pipes even when the manufactor said it ws not necessary...Every little bit helps.
Installed a solenoid for the fans and the electric hour meter so as not to overload the compressor controller.
Been experiementing with seals for the lids, now on the 3rd version and getting close to optimum performance.

Again, less than 50 amps per day draw with heavy use in the tropics....The cold beer tastes really good after all that work.

[Alan Wheeler]

Well I guess I tried to break that law of the universe. You know that, "ya can't get something fo nothing" one. The big problem here in NZ is that stuff cost so darn much. Even this fridge/freezer cost me $2200.00 on Sale. And they just go up from there. The motor driven unit was around NZ$4K at the time. And you know cruisers and budgets are like light years apart.
I do have two well insulated freezer boxes on board though. Just no plates installed yet and no compressor, so they are just dry storage for food at the mo. I didn't want to go down that route because of time, complexity of installation and also I only knew of motor driven compressors at the time. I didn't want to have to start the engine once a day, just to cool the freezer down. Especially when we were connected to shore power and we often maybe away from the boat for a few weeks at a time. So the current unit will get us by for now and when it comes to extended cruising, I will look at a new system then.