Useful electrical items

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glynnffc

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Just spending a few hours trying to decide what to wire for.
Any suggestions as to the most useful electricals items for long term cruising, and possible the most uselees.

Not electronics, already done that, but items like hairdryer,breadmaker, little things.

Thanks
 
Guess u must have a generator onboard then?!

When we cruised Med we didnt have any such things, cooked bread in the oven, hair dried in the sun (even SWMBO was happy with that).

A washing mashine would have been the only nice thing (but that was a space issue, not an electrical issue...); but when u are away cruising the desire for things is easily overshadowed by the enjoyment of the experience :-)

Anthony
 
No generator, but thinking of fitting inverter, if only to charge laptop,phone, ipod.
Boat is 35ft gaffer, with two possibly three on board, and no my wife doesn't need a hairdryer, and I have her permission to say so.
 
The more sophisicated your boat the more time you will spend managing your boat and the less enjoying your freedom.

I would go down the route of having 12v sockets for your mentioned gadgets and a neighbour friendly means of keeping your batteries charged. A generator in an anchorage is a welcome as your mother at a orgy.
 
Useful non electrical items:
Breadmaker - me
Coffee machine - Popeye (although he could do with a built in timer)
Hairdryer - wind and sun. Have you noticed how many sailing ladies have low - maintenance hair.

Sometimes fantasise about dish washers and washing machines, but reckon we'll learn to live with less crockery and clothes.
 
I wouldnt even bother considering breadmakers, or hairdryers for most cruising setups if you will need to run them off an inverter. Invertors running items like hairdryers and breadmakers consume ALOT of battery power, so not only will you need a big battery bank, you will also need a way of putting all that power back in.

Get the 12v versions of any chargers you need for the likes of Ipods, phones etc, get a 12v power supply for your laptop (note laptops are also power hungry). If you still need mains for other chargers / small devices then the small invertors that you plug into cigar lighter socket can be usefull, but anything beyond that and you will seriously need to recalculate your overall electrical system to ensure it is in balance.

I think you will be better off to stop thinking of ways to spend electricity and concentrate on where its going to come from, becasue on the average cruising boat of that size there is never enough, or at the least it needs to be consumed sparingly.

I have cruised on a 34' boat, and am a marine electrician, so hope that experience is of some help :-)

Anthony
 
Am slightly confused, in your first post you said:

'items like hairdryer '

then in later post stated:

'no my wife doesn't need a hairdryer'

So I have to be honest and say that beyond the points I have already mentioned I am not really sure what else you are actually asking for help on.

Anthony
 
Sorry if I have been a little confusing, but the hairdryer was just an example.
I know we can't have, and probably don't want, any of the big stuff, but I just wondered what other little home comforts were missed by other forum users.

Thanks for all your comments up to now.

Glynn
 
[ QUOTE ]
Useful non electrical items:
Breadmaker - me (ME TOO!)
Coffee machine - Cafetierre

Hairdryer - wind and sun. Have you noticed how many sailing ladies have low - maintenance hair.

Sometimes fantasise about dish washers FOR TWO PEOPLE? NAH!!! and washing machines,THE MORE WE SAIL IN THE MED, THE MORE IT SEEMS TO MAKE SENSE - SMALL ZANNUSSI SEEMS TO BE THE BEST BUT IT NEEDS TO BE CONVERTED FROM COLD FILL TO HOT FILL TO MAKE USE OF ALL THAT STORED HOT WATER IN THE CALORIFIER AND NOT WANT TO USE PRECIOUS ELECTRICITY TO HEAT SOME MORE

[/ QUOTE ]
 
We have a big (2300/1800watt) inverter and use it to boil kettles and run the toaster (stale bread) when motoring (often, very often, in the Med) which saves gas. This is our major "can't do without" gadget.

Our wooden drying rack over the engine also gives us a good supply of washed and dried underwear and towels the following morning after discarding the previous evening.

The most important item though, is, of course,

THE FRIDGE!!! - for which the 110watts of solar panels are vital.

Sharp knives are also important to fillet any fish you come by.

Steve Cronin
 
Prob with cafetiere is that someone (not me) has to get up, fill kettle, heat water, fill said gadget, push down plunger thingy, wait a while, then serve first mug to other half who has been awake for a while but who is too comatose to move without cafeine (even too comatose to nudge popeye)

Dishwasher- OK I was only joking (except for the days when skip decides to cook, so crew goes on overtime for doing the dishes)
Washing machine - max 3 weeks cruising to date, and tho' minimal clothing can be kept reasonably hygienic w'out W/M,
bedlinen and towels become very iffy.Silk bedlinen works a treat - quick to wash, quick to dry, but have yet to find a solution for towels.

Only 2 electric gadgets I would consider on board - sewing machine (not a great power consumer); and iron, for the "fancy clothes" which don't sraighten out enough underneath a mattress.
 
We are on a 34 ft boat and live aboard in the Med throughout the summer. We tried a generator for a year but rarely used it, when we did it was very noisy and annoying and it occupied too much valuable stowage. So now we run on 12 v only, up to now have had 70 watts of solar panel but our new 125 W panels arrived yesterday.

Our electrical items are pretty simple
1. Refrigerator. essential if you are not going to be tied to shopping every day.
2. Sound system. We like lots of music, heard through a good system both below and in the cockpit.
3. DVD player, with sound connected to audio system. We don't use it a lot but it's nice from time to time.
4. Charging of phones, cameras, electric drill, torches, etc. Mostly these are 12 V but some are 230 V, so we have a small inverter.
5. We bought a 12V hairdryer and have yet to use it, after 2 years aboard.
6. Small fan (automotive shop) for moving air around the galley in the heat of the Med summer.
7. Laptop. Used for e-mails, log, photo storage, etc. Consumes 2 Amps so not on frequently.
8. Bathing platform shower. We keep this totally separate from domestic supplies so that we can monitor water consumption.
9. Anchor light. We bought one of the Triton marine LED ones last season, it is excellent, clearly visible at 2 miles. Although garden lights have their place, it's comforting to know that the boat is clearly visible to fishing boats.
10. LVM dinghy inflator. These come with clips enabling connection directly to the battery posts. This is a very disruptive process on our boat, so I have put in a dedicated supply to a socket in the cockpit. The compressor is a high consumer, 25 Amps or so, and an appropriate fuse needs to be included.
11. Travel clothes iron. Bought in a moment of madness and still in its unopened box. I rarely wear any clothes other than swimming shorts and occasionally a T-shirt, so not really sure why it was bought.
12. Printer. We thought we might need to print off crew lists and similar documents but this has not been the case. Not really worth having.

Other than instrumentation, almost all of this runs via sockets. We have a mixture of Dri-plugs and cigar lighter sockets, and an adaptor that lets us change between them. They are strategically placed around the boat.
 
There is a device in our office kitchen which has only been used a couple of times and I'm considering re-deploying it to the boat.

It is an induction "hotplate". It needs iron or steel pans though but it was supplied with an emamelled outside/non-stick inside saucepan. Anything else just stays cold. It would be ideal for single pan meals and at 900watts not much of a drain on the inverter.

Steve Cronin
 
Hi Steve,
I thought you would have changed your SALUTATION by now??
[ QUOTE ]

So long as the human race breeds out of control and we all continue to buy cheap goods made in hideously polluting Chinese factories which, because of their appalling quality will need early disposal of as waste and thereby, replacement with yet more Chinese tat, none of us should complain about Global Warming. It's the truth but sadly, some are just too comfortable in our 21st century consumer existence to face up to it.

However, since I've now come to the conclusion that we, here in this country can do nothing to reverse this, I have decided to "Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Bomb"

[/ QUOTE ]
Regards,
Paul. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif
 
Vyv
We are about to make the decision re solar panels before leaving for the Med in Spring, and from the sound of it our electrical needs will be very similar to yours. We have an 11m Nauticat, crew of two, and looking to anchor for most of the time. Can I ask which panels you chose, where you are mounting them, and what size are they?

Cheers
Ian Houston
 
[ QUOTE ]
A generator in an anchorage is a welcome as your mother at a orgy.

[/ QUOTE ]


I think a generator is essential - especially with lots of "home comforts" in the electrial department - but they don't have to be noisy. We have a 42' centre cockpit Legend and we cannot hear the genny running when we are up in the cockpit - down below it is like the pump running.

Ours is a 4KVA 12 volt genny charging at up to 280 amps which I have fitted under the bed with 4" of extra sound insulation. Feeds 1050 Ah house batteries with a 2.5KVA inverter.

AC Items we find invaluable - all with two uses:

1. Small Ryobi wet/dry vacuum cleaner that blow as well as sucks. Great for blowing out water and fuel lines.
2. George Forman grill that toasts as well as grills
3. Printer that is also a photocopier.
4. Electric Pressure cooker that frys too and is a stanby when the gas fails.
5. Microwave - also good standby when gas fails.
 
Re: Useful electrical items but no generators

I know exactly what you mean but the problem is not the noise to you but to others. Air cooled generators are placed on the poop or foredeck --- as far as possible away from the occupants who obviously don't like the noise and smell either.

The water cooled ones rattle away at the waterline, spashing water in the process. The noise rarely reaches the minds of those in the cockpit but bounces across the water to anyone on that side. In a very crowded anchorage one gets the smell as well.

I have a twelve volt vacuum cleaner that works fine. My second hand Canon twelve volt printer cost me a fiver on Ebay. I only have an ordinary pressure cooker and no mircowave but don't need one.

A boat managed to anchor for lunch between myself and another. They switched their engine off and their generator on, the outlet about 20 metres away. My request for consideration was rejected as it was needed for the air-conditioning.

Biscuit taken.
 
Hi Ian,

Up to now we have had a semi-flexible 38 watt panel on deck beneath the boom and a flexible 32 Watt one that we move about according to conditions. The former is excellent for winter battery charging but obviously suffers from shadow in the summer when the boat is in use. These two just about run our power requirements in June but progressively become less able as the months go by.

Talking to owners in Greece, many seem to have bought the cheapest rigid ones they could find and mounted them on a simple arch at the stern. This is what we are doing. The panels are from these people where we have bought Kyocera units, an 85 W for £359 and a 40 W for £184. This seems to be excellent value. These two panels are the same width so will sit together nicely.

I have bought all the 1" stainless tube from a company on Ebay and all the fittings on a recent visit to USA. My existing regulator will just cope with the current, without the flexible panel. I will have a few simple fittings welded locally to attach the panels to the arch. The panels will pivot fore-and-aft to give us at least some flexibility for maximum sun exposure.

Hope this is sufficient to give you some ideas. PM me if you need more.

Vyv
 
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