Power

rrees

rrees

Well-Known Member
Joined
27 Aug 2002
Messages
283
Location
Sardinia and moving East
www.cruisinglogs.org.uk
We need to look at adding additional Power Capacity to the boat as we are moving further east to Greece / Turkey next year and shore powered will get harder to get.
At present we have 2 Solar Panels 75Watt each which are mounted to our back transom and have a tilt facility.
Alternator has an external regulator.
Our Domestic battery bank is 3 Delphi Marine 105A batteries with a separate 85A starting battery.
We also carry a small 1Kw Petrol Gen for emergencies.
Thoughts were
1. Mount a rear Wind Generator
2. Look at the new Plastimo Methanol unit
3. There is a new Gas unit coming out which is similar to the Methanol unit which sounds like a very good option.
4. Standard Diesel Generator

Any Thoughts

Fridge seems to draw quite a bit at the moment as it is air cooled even though I have added additional Computer fans and converted it to use a digital programmable thermostat.
I am looking to convert this to a Keel cooler version.
Lights are LED and Boat computer is a custom unit which runs on 12V only drawing about 1A
 
i would have said your battery bank may be a bit small ,it might be worth adding more capacity to it then using solar panels,possibly with a manual overide on the rgulater.
there is more sun than wind i've found so far so i'm not sure the wind generater is the better route,maybe better to use the money instead on a more efficent fridge which is probabally causing the biggest power drain,
not sure on the methanol units etc but its all down to what goes out has to be put back
 
If you are really worried fit a dedicated marine deisel genny. Thats what I did, plus a 320w solar array!


But I think with the addition of one more solar panel, a regulator if you dont have one and add one more battery to your domestic battery bank, you'll be fine.

I have an air cooled fridge and it has worked fine and fairly efficiently in the meddy for a few years. You will find most of the cruising people in the med have air cooled fridges. The addition of a couple of computer fans tie wrapped to the cooling fins, to switch on when the fridge switches on are a help.

As I'm sure you've found, you do a fair amount of motoring in the meddy, so your engine alternator, will take a lot of the strain, of battery charging.
 
Fridge

There is no substitute for 6 inches of insulation on the sides and top. You can get away with 4 inches on the bottom.

The air cooled unit will not be as efficient as the keel cooled, however, provided the air for the air cooled system can be sucked from as deep in the bilge as possible, and there is no impediment to good air throughput, you can get fairly close.

You might consider checking whether the system needs re-gassing.

Solar Power.

One cruiser I know has 4 x 125 watt panels and a wind generator.
 
Thanks
Had the Fridge regassed this summer and run an additional fan which is connected to the other.
Have noticed that now it goes down to the 3 degree setting fine but when we were out last in August it did not really go below 7 degrees
Seems to be those extra few degrees ambient temp make all the difference and as it will be hotter further East this is where my concerns are coming from.
 
Amazing how much difference it can make!

I would still investigate exactly where the system is drawing the air from that is being used for cooling. really needs to be from the bilge and as low down as possible.
 
very shallow bilge will reduce the cooling effect on the air at the bottom of the bilge, thus a keel cooler (as low as possible) may be the best answer.
 
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