wrote in message
...
Especially on a sailboat, power draw is a big consideration. Fast
processors draw a TON more electricity, as do unecessarily large
displays. What Cavelamb is claiming he HAS to have will be a bigger
power drain than a decent refrigerator. How is he going to provide
that much power on a small sailboat?
What kind of refrigerator do you run, and for how long? Most Danfoss
compressors I know about pull about 6 amps at full speed.
My high powered rig (with 15w, soon to be 2.5w HD) pulls about 2.5. Lydia's
Laptop pulls (through the brick, of course) close to 5. I ditched my
SeaTech laptop cuz it drew over 10.
My screen, for which I will be aggressively seeking an LED 12V replacment
when I have to be ashore again for a wedding, pulls about 2.5 in active
mode.
So, yes, my full rig might be about the same as the refrigeration, both
running full load. Fortunately, neither run full time. My computer
(all-in), fortunately, doesn't use nearly as much as my refrigeration (yes,
I'm spoiled there, too), even in tropical waters and heat, because my
computer's on for a few hours, not 24/7. If we were in northern waters, I'm
sure they might be about equal (currently, that is, before my HD - now in
the Bahamas but not yet in my hands - savings, and before my LED screen
savings, as yet unrealized, of course). As to how we supply all that, we
have an 880AH 4xL16HC bank fed by 370W of solar and a KISS wind generator,
making 10 amps as I type (solar nothing, as it's night here, but typically
15-25A during the day), cuz the breeze is light; if it ever gets to the
forecasted 20-25, it will be more like 20-25A, 24/7. Both do very well in
the tropics.
Far afield from even the migrations of this thread, we have a keel cooler, a
smart speed controller (makes it run slower, thus less amps, as needed/not
needed), and digital thermostats in both reefer and freezer; very efficient.
Freezer kept at 8, reefer at 32 (nominal; a bit warmer on the far side top,
with the veggies, cold right next to the separation, where we keep our
drinking stuff - the recycled gatorade gallon jug full of water nearly
always has ice in it from being right in front of the spillover fan; it
makes our lemonade and, when we get some more, our Gatorade mix - always icy
cold, as is the coke and beer we occasionally treat ourselves to, which sits
below it)...
L8R
Skip, enjoying being able to see stuff large, and watch our movies in
wide-screen. No, I don't have a cedar bucket, either, and took out the
lectra-sans which came with the boat, mostly on a power issue basis, but I
DO have flush toilets :{))
--
Morgan 461 #2
SV Flying Pig KI4MPC
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