I have big energy saver. My Dell netbook with solid state harddrive draws just 10 watts. This compares to 80 for a full size notebook. And, HEY, the screen fits bifocals! Lee Haefele ----- Original Message ----- From: Flying Pig To: liveaboard@liveaboardonline.com Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 2010 9:39 AM Subject: Re: [Liveaboard] Running the engine to charge dual housebatterybanks
Hi, Norm, and list, While I am sure Skip's electrical arrangement suits him, on board Bandersnatch we have a different experience. I don't understand his statement "your solar and wind will have to be balanced to the size of the battery bank". The job of the PV controller is to prevent overcharging of the battery bank. When the batteries are charged and one has available even more electrical power it could be diverted to a watermaker. My concerns are not an excess, but a sufficiency. Shortly after our refit, we did a thorough energy budget (the results may have even appeared here in the prior iteration), starting by noting the draw from each and every device, moving on to the expected time of use, in at-anchor, under way, day and night modes, and then calculated how much it would take to support that load. I would say that when it comes to energy gathering the bigger the better. Our 1,300 watts of PV keeps up with our electrical requirements when we have sunny days while the solar charge controller prevents the batteries from being overcharged. On cloudy days we let loose our two KISS wind generators and if there is significant wind they help keep the batteries from sagging too much. If we can't get enough wind or sun there is always the 8KW diesel genset. Easy for you to say :{)) 8KW goes a very long way, but still has the bulk/maintain/float charge issues for how long it may run. But you make my point for me. I agree that bigger is better, and it was that to which I directed my balance comment. If you can't reasonably charge your batteries with the available green sources, you're forced into some dinosaur remains-driven sources. We only have one KISS (I'd initially thought we'd need two, but John at Hotwire talked me out of it), and, aside from my not thinking outside the box causing me to miss out on more watts than I have now, there wasn't anyplace else to put more than our current 370W of solar. Even if I'd been thinking outside the box, likely we couldn't put up more than 500 on our current platform. With an 880AH bank, we could run the KISS all the time even when charged, without a great deal of concern, as, unless it's blowing over 20, we'd only see about 15A max, under 2%. I'm a bit foggy on my battery wizardry, but I THINK I recall that a bank can take that much pretty much ad infinitum. My solar controller would cut that part off, unless I was trying to do the soft equalizing mentioned before. That said, in the ECarib, likely our current (pardon the expression) setup would suffice, as the sun shines pretty reliably, and the wind blows even more so. It was to that environment it was designed. None the less, one of our chief major projects we want to accomplish is a hard bimini, with the chief objective being the ability to install massively more solar. At that, I don't know that we'd approach the 1300 you have available to you. The other major project is to address the POS arch I have (Thanks, Sanchez Brothers, Ruskin FL), either a major mod or entire replacement. We might well go to a second KISS, or perhaps one of the more current models with higher outup/maybe quieter (but I certainly have no complaints after diligent balancing of our setup) at the same time. If we had 2,000 watts of PV perhaps we could air condition at least part of the boat like a sailboat we met in Norfolk on the northbound does. Having too much PV is like having too much sex or too much money. I just don't understand the concept! Ditto that :{)) However, on all three counts, I can say from experience that not having nearly enough to suit your preferences/usage patterns really sux... The Honda allows relief from one of them :{)) Norm S/V Bandersnatch Lying Gloucester MA L8R Skip, currently off Settlement Harbour, Great Guana, Abacos Morgan 461 #2 SV Flying Pig KI4MPC See our galleries at www.justpickone.org/skip/gallery ! Follow us at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheFlyingPigLog and/or http://groups.google.com/group/flyingpiglog "Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." - Mark Twain ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list Liveaboard@liveaboardonline.com To adjust your membership settings over the web http://liveaboardonline.com/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to liveaboard-j...@liveaboardonline.com To unsubscribe send an email to liveaboard-le...@liveaboardonline.com The archives are at http://www.liveaboardonline.com/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/liveabo...@liveaboardnow.org The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 8.5.441 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/3062 - Release Date: 08/10/10 06:35:00
_______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list Liveaboard@liveaboardonline.com To adjust your membership settings over the web http://liveaboardonline.com/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to liveaboard-j...@liveaboardonline.com To unsubscribe send an email to liveaboard-le...@liveaboardonline.com The archives are at http://www.liveaboardonline.com/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/liveabo...@liveaboardnow.org The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html