Consumption of Raymarine Lineal Hydraulic unit solenoid valve

[TONICK]

Hello Friends! I have a Tipe 2 Linear Hydraulic autopilot that have a high power consumption. I think that i read time ago in this forum that the solenoid valve have a consumption of 5 Amps, I have find this product 91011 - Energy saving device - Lecomble & Schmitt
this offer a consumption of less than 1 Amp. Questions is that if someone can confirm that 5 Amp is the original consumption of this Raymarine solenoid, because I have also been told that the consumption is only 1 Amp and in that case doesnt worth the save. Anyone have experience with this?

Thank you very much in advance!

 

[andsarkit]

The device you gave a link to claims it reduces energy use from 30Ah to 5 Ah per day. 30Ah per day is an average of 1.25A over the 24 hours. I expect the 5A figure is only when the valve is operating and it spends most of the time not activated so I think you were told correctly about the 1A average consumption. This will obviously depend on how well the boat is balanced and the sea state.
The only way to know for sure is to measure the consumption on your boat. There are lots of 12v energy meters on Ebay that you put in line with the electrical supply and they will total up the time and current to give an Ah total.

I can see that the device you found could indeed reduced the current as it claims but if you have sufficient generating capacity it is probably not worth the extra cost and complication.

 

[garymalmgren]

Could someone explain the wiring diagram on the piece of equipment that TONIK referenced.

 

[andsarkit]

The circuit has a solid state device ( transistor or similar) that controls the current going to the motor. The device is rapidly switched off and on with a varying mark space ratio (the wiggly line in the box) and so effectively reduces the voltage to the motor and reduces the current. The oscillator is probably controlled by a small microprocessor that detects when the motor has started and the voltage can be reduced. The diagram is very simplifiedand does not show any real circuit details.

Many years ago I worked for a company that manufactured a mains version of this that soft started mains motors and then reduced the running current by chopping up the current with thyristors. Unless the unit is well filtered it can produce a lot of interference on the supply that may well affect other devices.

 

[TONICK]

thank you for the info, the key is to know how many amps consume the original Raymarine one, to see if it is worth to change it