On Sun, 06 Sep 2015 12:37:53 -0500, Califbill billnews wrote:

"Mr. Luddite" wrote:
On 9/6/2015 10:36 AM, Justan Olphart wrote:
On 9/6/2015 11:05 AM, John H. wrote:
On Sun, 06 Sep 2015 10:53:02 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Sun, 06 Sep 2015 07:36:11 -0400, John H.
wrote:

On Sat, 05 Sep 2015 15:22:02 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Sat, 05 Sep 2015 13:06:28 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 05 Sep 2015 12:02:18 -0400, John H.
wrote:

On Sat, 05 Sep 2015 11:38:29 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 05 Sep 2015 10:01:50 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Sat, 05 Sep 2015 09:35:34 -0400, John H.
wrote:

On Sat, 05 Sep 2015 08:39:31 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Sat, 05 Sep 2015 08:02:45 -0400, John H.

wrote:

On Fri, 04 Sep 2015 23:20:10 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Fri, 04 Sep 2015 11:29:18 -0400, wrote:

On Fri, 04 Sep 2015 08:36:24 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

It also looks like it would be a good short cut on
the way north to Newfoundland and Labrador.


Sounds "cold" ;-)

===

Yah but...

...what I'd really like to do is cross to Europe by way of
Greenland,
Iceland and Scotland. Crazy? Of course, and it will
probably never
happen. A few weeks in Labrador might cure me with any
luck, and I've
always wanted to cruise Nova Scotia. When you grow up in
the lake
effect snow belt of upstate NY the ice never totally leaves
your blood
stream.

:-)

I read a while back about a group crossing made by owners of
some brand of boat that
I can't remember right now (Nordic Tug?). Perhaps there are
brand or club group
crossings that you could latch onto?

===

You're probably thinking about the Nordhavn Trans Atlantic
Rally in
2004.

http://www.nordhavn.com/rally/voyage/welcome.htm

I followed that event closely and have corresponded with
several of
the participants. We met one of them last summer up in the
Chesapeake
and had dinner with them at Solomons. They say it will
probably never
happen again, and if it does, it will start without them.
That rally
took the southern route: Lauderdale to Bermuda, Bermuda to
the Azores,
and Azores to Gibralter. They encountered some really nasty
head seas
on the last leg to Gibralter and there were a number of boats
that
developed mechanical problems.

Nordhavn's are quite a different boat than ours. They have a
very
long fuel range, long enough to cross oceans without
refueling. We do
not. On the other hand we have twin engines, more speed, and
a lot of
other redundancy so there are offsetting factors to an extent.

The northern route that I'm thinking about has much shorter
legs, the
longest being about 3 or 4 days, and well within our fuel
range. The
advantage there is that you can get fairly reliable weather
information over 3 or 4 days. The disadvantage is that the
water is
cold, there are ice hazzards, fog, and frequent weather changes.

Yup, that's the one I was thinking of. Didn't know what route
they took.

If I were in your shoes, I'd sure be looking for some company
along the way. It
sounds like it would be a great adventure. Actually, the year
beating around Europe
is what I found really appealing.

You mentioned shipping the boat back. Could you ship it to
Rotterdam? Or would it be
more cost effective to rent a boat in Europe to do some cruising?

Sounds like a great idea.

===

It's entirely possible to ship the boat both ways and a fair
number of
people do that. One of our local boats from this area has been
in the
Med all summer, mostly in southern Spain and offshore islands.
They
have professional crew and a large operating budget however.
It costs
about $40K each way but saves a lot of fuel plus wear and tear
on the
boat. There's something about making the crossing via Labrador,
Greenland and Iceland that appeals to my sense of adventure
however.

Cruising around the Med sounds like fun. Just be careful on the
South
and East sides.
If you cruised around all winter, you could hit the window on
the way
back ... as long as the trip over was fun.

I'd want to fit in a trip to Rotterdam and then down the Rhein
for a ways...maybe to
Basel.

Yup Europe by boat does sound like a very interesting trip. Sort of a
Viking cruise where you get to decide where you go and how long you
stay.

It does beg the question, how would the electrical shore tie work at
220v 50HZ.
You might need to buy a big assed transformer. I imagine most of the
motors would tolerate the 50 hz but you need to read the nameplate
rating.
That "transformer" might need to be a VFD. (lighter but more
expensive)

===

All of my battery chargers are rated for 50/60 so that is not a
problem. What is an issue is 220 V non-center tapped. For that you
need an isolation transformer rated at 12 KVA/50 Hz. You can pick
them up on EBAY for a half reasonable price but you need to build a
weather proof enclosure and install some Euro style inlet connectors.
The isolation transformer also solves the GFI tripping issue which is
common on some Euro docks.

Could you not get by with a small generator?

===

Sure but most marinas will not allow you to run a generator for any
length of time if shore power is available. We have two, a 20KW and a
15KW, both diesels of course. The problem is adapting Euro style
shore power so that you don't need to run the generators. European
power is typically 220 volt, 50 Hz, with no neutral connection. Most
US boats are set up just like your house with two 120 volt legs that
are 180 degrees out of phase with each other so that they add up to
220 volts for larger appliances. Most of our stuff will run on 50 HZ
power but you need an center tapped isolation transformer to create
the two 120 volt legs from a single 220.

Maybe Luddite would loan you his small Honda. Quiet and will power a
refrigerator and
dozens of LED's.
--

Ban idiots, not guns!

LEDs are great. I saved a bundle by converting my house lighting to LED.
My camper is all DC LED too.

Been slowly doing the same thing in our house. As the incandescent or
CFL bulbs go out I've been replacing them with LED. Still have a bunch to go though.

Problem I ran into on the family room fans. LED do not draw enough current
to work the remote light control. Just do not turn on unless I add at
least one incandescent bulb.

Same problem with these damn automatic Casablanca fans. They were here when I bought
the place, but I'd never put them in another house.
--

Ban idiots, not guns!

On 9/6/2015 1:09 PM, wrote:
On Sun, 6 Sep 2015 12:53:42 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

Why is that? I have a storage locker full of regular bulbs and many
CFL's that I am not going to use. I go get an appropriate LED instead.
In some places I like using the dimmable "Daylight" color temperature.
Great in the garages, etc. They are harder to find though. Most are the
cooler "soft white".

The problem with dimming LEDs and even CFL is they do not change color
and the color shift is the biggest part of the ambience of dimming
them.
My wife is having that problem at work too. They have about 50 PAR38s
in the dining room ant at dinner time they want bright white. After
dinner they want that orange glow of a dimmed incandescent for
dancing..


We don't do much dancing in the house, garage or shed. :-)

On 9/6/2015 1:20 PM, Wayne.B wrote:
On Sun, 6 Sep 2015 10:44:21 -0400, Justan Olphart
wrote:

300A? That's probably bigger than your house has.

===

Where did you come up with 300 amps? Most shore power legs in the US
are 50 amps on each side of neutral. In euro marinas you typically
get a single or double 220 leg rated at 30 to 50 amps.


Your generators

===

You can only use one generator at a time since they are wired into an
A/B selector switch, and we run them very conservatively, no where
near full power. The real issue is not running them in a marina
however. You become unpopular with the neighbors very quickly. We've
had to do it a few times for various reasons and unless power to the
whole marina has failed, we usually get a visit from the dockmaster
asking us to cease and desist. It's unneighborly.



Same with camping. Even the Honda EU-2000, as quiet as it is, sounds
loud at night when all is quiet in the campgrounds. Running generators
is frowned upon there also.

The only time I ran the generator on the boat while at the dock was when
there was a power outage. Came in handy then. While underway in the
hot, dog days of summer I had it running all the time, mostly for the
A/C units.

John H. wrote:
On Sun, 06 Sep 2015 12:37:53 -0500, Califbill billnews wrote:

"Mr. Luddite" wrote:
On 9/6/2015 10:36 AM, Justan Olphart wrote:
On 9/6/2015 11:05 AM, John H. wrote:
On Sun, 06 Sep 2015 10:53:02 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Sun, 06 Sep 2015 07:36:11 -0400, John H.
wrote:

On Sat, 05 Sep 2015 15:22:02 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Sat, 05 Sep 2015 13:06:28 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 05 Sep 2015 12:02:18 -0400, John H.
wrote:

On Sat, 05 Sep 2015 11:38:29 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 05 Sep 2015 10:01:50 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Sat, 05 Sep 2015 09:35:34 -0400, John H.
wrote:

On Sat, 05 Sep 2015 08:39:31 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Sat, 05 Sep 2015 08:02:45 -0400, John H.

wrote:

On Fri, 04 Sep 2015 23:20:10 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Fri, 04 Sep 2015 11:29:18 -0400, wrote:

On Fri, 04 Sep 2015 08:36:24 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

It also looks like it would be a good short cut on
the way north to Newfoundland and Labrador.


Sounds "cold" ;-)

===

Yah but...

...what I'd really like to do is cross to Europe by way of
Greenland,
Iceland and Scotland. Crazy? Of course, and it will
probably never
happen. A few weeks in Labrador might cure me with any
luck, and I've
always wanted to cruise Nova Scotia. When you grow up in
the lake
effect snow belt of upstate NY the ice never totally leaves
your blood
stream.

:-)

I read a while back about a group crossing made by owners of
some brand of boat that
I can't remember right now (Nordic Tug?). Perhaps there are
brand or club group
crossings that you could latch onto?

===

You're probably thinking about the Nordhavn Trans Atlantic
Rally in
2004.

http://www.nordhavn.com/rally/voyage/welcome.htm

I followed that event closely and have corresponded with
several of
the participants. We met one of them last summer up in the
Chesapeake
and had dinner with them at Solomons. They say it will
probably never
happen again, and if it does, it will start without them.
That rally
took the southern route: Lauderdale to Bermuda, Bermuda to
the Azores,
and Azores to Gibralter. They encountered some really nasty
head seas
on the last leg to Gibralter and there were a number of boats
that
developed mechanical problems.

Nordhavn's are quite a different boat than ours. They have a
very
long fuel range, long enough to cross oceans without
refueling. We do
not. On the other hand we have twin engines, more speed, and
a lot of
other redundancy so there are offsetting factors to an extent.

The northern route that I'm thinking about has much shorter
legs, the
longest being about 3 or 4 days, and well within our fuel
range. The
advantage there is that you can get fairly reliable weather
information over 3 or 4 days. The disadvantage is that the
water is
cold, there are ice hazzards, fog, and frequent weather changes.

Yup, that's the one I was thinking of. Didn't know what route
they took.

If I were in your shoes, I'd sure be looking for some company
along the way. It
sounds like it would be a great adventure. Actually, the year
beating around Europe
is what I found really appealing.

You mentioned shipping the boat back. Could you ship it to
Rotterdam? Or would it be
more cost effective to rent a boat in Europe to do some cruising?

Sounds like a great idea.

===

It's entirely possible to ship the boat both ways and a fair
number of
people do that. One of our local boats from this area has been
in the
Med all summer, mostly in southern Spain and offshore islands.
They
have professional crew and a large operating budget however.
It costs
about $40K each way but saves a lot of fuel plus wear and tear
on the
boat. There's something about making the crossing via Labrador,
Greenland and Iceland that appeals to my sense of adventure
however.

Cruising around the Med sounds like fun. Just be careful on the
South
and East sides.
If you cruised around all winter, you could hit the window on
the way
back ... as long as the trip over was fun.

I'd want to fit in a trip to Rotterdam and then down the Rhein
for a ways...maybe to
Basel.

Yup Europe by boat does sound like a very interesting trip. Sort of a
Viking cruise where you get to decide where you go and how long you
stay.

It does beg the question, how would the electrical shore tie work at
220v 50HZ.
You might need to buy a big assed transformer. I imagine most of the
motors would tolerate the 50 hz but you need to read the nameplate
rating.
That "transformer" might need to be a VFD. (lighter but more
expensive)

===

All of my battery chargers are rated for 50/60 so that is not a
problem. What is an issue is 220 V non-center tapped. For that you
need an isolation transformer rated at 12 KVA/50 Hz. You can pick
them up on EBAY for a half reasonable price but you need to build a
weather proof enclosure and install some Euro style inlet connectors.
The isolation transformer also solves the GFI tripping issue which is
common on some Euro docks.

Could you not get by with a small generator?

===

Sure but most marinas will not allow you to run a generator for any
length of time if shore power is available. We have two, a 20KW and a
15KW, both diesels of course. The problem is adapting Euro style
shore power so that you don't need to run the generators. European
power is typically 220 volt, 50 Hz, with no neutral connection. Most
US boats are set up just like your house with two 120 volt legs that
are 180 degrees out of phase with each other so that they add up to
220 volts for larger appliances. Most of our stuff will run on 50 HZ
power but you need an center tapped isolation transformer to create
the two 120 volt legs from a single 220.

Maybe Luddite would loan you his small Honda. Quiet and will power a
refrigerator and
dozens of LED's.
--

Ban idiots, not guns!

LEDs are great. I saved a bundle by converting my house lighting to LED.
My camper is all DC LED too.

Been slowly doing the same thing in our house. As the incandescent or
CFL bulbs go out I've been replacing them with LED. Still have a bunch to go though.

Problem I ran into on the family room fans. LED do not draw enough current
to work the remote light control. Just do not turn on unless I add at
least one incandescent bulb.

Same problem with these damn automatic Casablanca fans. They were here when I bought
the place, but I'd never put them in another house.
--

Ban idiots, not guns!

Just old. I have fans with LED's and CFL from the manufacturer.

On Sun, 06 Sep 2015 13:28:12 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Sun, 06 Sep 2015 12:07:19 -0400, wrote:

Sure but most marinas will not allow you to run a generator for any
length of time if shore power is available. We have two, a 20KW and a
15KW, both diesels of course. The problem is adapting Euro style
shore power so that you don't need to run the generators. European
power is typically 220 volt, 50 Hz, with no neutral connection. Most
US boats are set up just like your house with two 120 volt legs that
are 180 degrees out of phase with each other so that they add up to
220 volts for larger appliances. Most of our stuff will run on 50 HZ
power but you need an center tapped isolation transformer to create
the two 120 volt legs from a single 220.

I think the dry 12 KVA transformer might be the way to go.
You should be able to find a spot for it inside somewhere out of the
weather.

===

To mount it inside would require rewiring the internal shore power
circuits. Too big a hassel. Outside, you just run it inline with
your shore power cables and make a few inlet adapters for the various
kinds of euro connectors.

You can get them in a NEMA 3R (weather tight) enclosure. Just stow it
inside when you are not using it. It will still be a steel can.

On Sun, 6 Sep 2015 15:59:40 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 9/6/2015 1:09 PM, wrote:
On Sun, 6 Sep 2015 12:53:42 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

Why is that? I have a storage locker full of regular bulbs and many
CFL's that I am not going to use. I go get an appropriate LED instead.
In some places I like using the dimmable "Daylight" color temperature.
Great in the garages, etc. They are harder to find though. Most are the
cooler "soft white".

The problem with dimming LEDs and even CFL is they do not change color
and the color shift is the biggest part of the ambience of dimming
them.
My wife is having that problem at work too. They have about 50 PAR38s
in the dining room ant at dinner time they want bright white. After
dinner they want that orange glow of a dimmed incandescent for
dancing..


We don't do much dancing in the house, garage or shed. :-)


I have CFLs or T-8 Fluorescent in the garage and the sheds but the
lights around the pool are incandescent (15w sign bulbs) and we dim
them most of the time. We dance there ;-)
Most of the lights in and around the house are on motion detectors so
lighting is pretty much lost in the noise on our electric bill.

On Sun, 06 Sep 2015 16:07:17 -0500, Califbill billnews wrote:

John H. wrote:
On Sun, 06 Sep 2015 12:37:53 -0500, Califbill billnews wrote:

"Mr. Luddite" wrote:
On 9/6/2015 10:36 AM, Justan Olphart wrote:
On 9/6/2015 11:05 AM, John H. wrote:
On Sun, 06 Sep 2015 10:53:02 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Sun, 06 Sep 2015 07:36:11 -0400, John H.
wrote:

On Sat, 05 Sep 2015 15:22:02 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Sat, 05 Sep 2015 13:06:28 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 05 Sep 2015 12:02:18 -0400, John H.
wrote:

On Sat, 05 Sep 2015 11:38:29 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 05 Sep 2015 10:01:50 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Sat, 05 Sep 2015 09:35:34 -0400, John H.
wrote:

On Sat, 05 Sep 2015 08:39:31 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Sat, 05 Sep 2015 08:02:45 -0400, John H.

wrote:

On Fri, 04 Sep 2015 23:20:10 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Fri, 04 Sep 2015 11:29:18 -0400, wrote:

On Fri, 04 Sep 2015 08:36:24 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

It also looks like it would be a good short cut on
the way north to Newfoundland and Labrador.


Sounds "cold" ;-)

===

Yah but...

...what I'd really like to do is cross to Europe by way of
Greenland,
Iceland and Scotland. Crazy? Of course, and it will
probably never
happen. A few weeks in Labrador might cure me with any
luck, and I've
always wanted to cruise Nova Scotia. When you grow up in
the lake
effect snow belt of upstate NY the ice never totally leaves
your blood
stream.

:-)

I read a while back about a group crossing made by owners of
some brand of boat that
I can't remember right now (Nordic Tug?). Perhaps there are
brand or club group
crossings that you could latch onto?

===

You're probably thinking about the Nordhavn Trans Atlantic
Rally in
2004.

http://www.nordhavn.com/rally/voyage/welcome.htm

I followed that event closely and have corresponded with
several of
the participants. We met one of them last summer up in the
Chesapeake
and had dinner with them at Solomons. They say it will
probably never
happen again, and if it does, it will start without them.
That rally
took the southern route: Lauderdale to Bermuda, Bermuda to
the Azores,
and Azores to Gibralter. They encountered some really nasty
head seas
on the last leg to Gibralter and there were a number of boats
that
developed mechanical problems.

Nordhavn's are quite a different boat than ours. They have a
very
long fuel range, long enough to cross oceans without
refueling. We do
not. On the other hand we have twin engines, more speed, and
a lot of
other redundancy so there are offsetting factors to an extent.

The northern route that I'm thinking about has much shorter
legs, the
longest being about 3 or 4 days, and well within our fuel
range. The
advantage there is that you can get fairly reliable weather
information over 3 or 4 days. The disadvantage is that the
water is
cold, there are ice hazzards, fog, and frequent weather changes.

Yup, that's the one I was thinking of. Didn't know what route
they took.

If I were in your shoes, I'd sure be looking for some company
along the way. It
sounds like it would be a great adventure. Actually, the year
beating around Europe
is what I found really appealing.

You mentioned shipping the boat back. Could you ship it to
Rotterdam? Or would it be
more cost effective to rent a boat in Europe to do some cruising?

Sounds like a great idea.

===

It's entirely possible to ship the boat both ways and a fair
number of
people do that. One of our local boats from this area has been
in the
Med all summer, mostly in southern Spain and offshore islands.
They
have professional crew and a large operating budget however.
It costs
about $40K each way but saves a lot of fuel plus wear and tear
on the
boat. There's something about making the crossing via Labrador,
Greenland and Iceland that appeals to my sense of adventure
however.

Cruising around the Med sounds like fun. Just be careful on the
South
and East sides.
If you cruised around all winter, you could hit the window on
the way
back ... as long as the trip over was fun.

I'd want to fit in a trip to Rotterdam and then down the Rhein
for a ways...maybe to
Basel.

Yup Europe by boat does sound like a very interesting trip. Sort of a
Viking cruise where you get to decide where you go and how long you
stay.

It does beg the question, how would the electrical shore tie work at
220v 50HZ.
You might need to buy a big assed transformer. I imagine most of the
motors would tolerate the 50 hz but you need to read the nameplate
rating.
That "transformer" might need to be a VFD. (lighter but more
expensive)

===

All of my battery chargers are rated for 50/60 so that is not a
problem. What is an issue is 220 V non-center tapped. For that you
need an isolation transformer rated at 12 KVA/50 Hz. You can pick
them up on EBAY for a half reasonable price but you need to build a
weather proof enclosure and install some Euro style inlet connectors.
The isolation transformer also solves the GFI tripping issue which is
common on some Euro docks.

Could you not get by with a small generator?

===

Sure but most marinas will not allow you to run a generator for any
length of time if shore power is available. We have two, a 20KW and a
15KW, both diesels of course. The problem is adapting Euro style
shore power so that you don't need to run the generators. European
power is typically 220 volt, 50 Hz, with no neutral connection. Most
US boats are set up just like your house with two 120 volt legs that
are 180 degrees out of phase with each other so that they add up to
220 volts for larger appliances. Most of our stuff will run on 50 HZ
power but you need an center tapped isolation transformer to create
the two 120 volt legs from a single 220.

Maybe Luddite would loan you his small Honda. Quiet and will power a
refrigerator and
dozens of LED's.
--

Ban idiots, not guns!

LEDs are great. I saved a bundle by converting my house lighting to LED.
My camper is all DC LED too.

Been slowly doing the same thing in our house. As the incandescent or
CFL bulbs go out I've been replacing them with LED. Still have a bunch to go though.

Problem I ran into on the family room fans. LED do not draw enough current
to work the remote light control. Just do not turn on unless I add at
least one incandescent bulb.

Same problem with these damn automatic Casablanca fans. They were here when I bought
the place, but I'd never put them in another house.
--

Ban idiots, not guns!

Just old. I have fans with LED's and CFL from the manufacturer.

We bought in '95. They were here then. Yup, they're old.
--

Ban idiots, not guns!

On Sun, 6 Sep 2015 16:04:41 -0400, "Mr. Luddite" wrote:

On 9/6/2015 1:20 PM, Wayne.B wrote:
On Sun, 6 Sep 2015 10:44:21 -0400, Justan Olphart
wrote:

300A? That's probably bigger than your house has.

===

Where did you come up with 300 amps? Most shore power legs in the US
are 50 amps on each side of neutral. In euro marinas you typically
get a single or double 220 leg rated at 30 to 50 amps.


Your generators

===

You can only use one generator at a time since they are wired into an
A/B selector switch, and we run them very conservatively, no where
near full power. The real issue is not running them in a marina
however. You become unpopular with the neighbors very quickly. We've
had to do it a few times for various reasons and unless power to the
whole marina has failed, we usually get a visit from the dockmaster
asking us to cease and desist. It's unneighborly.



Same with camping. Even the Honda EU-2000, as quiet as it is, sounds
loud at night when all is quiet in the campgrounds. Running generators
is frowned upon there also.

The only time I ran the generator on the boat while at the dock was when
there was a power outage. Came in handy then. While underway in the
hot, dog days of summer I had it running all the time, mostly for the
A/C units.

My experience also. Even when no electricity is available, the campgrounds usually
want generators off by 10 or 11 pm.
--

Ban idiots, not guns!

On 9/6/2015 5:43 PM, wrote:
On Sun, 6 Sep 2015 15:59:40 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 9/6/2015 1:09 PM, wrote:
On Sun, 6 Sep 2015 12:53:42 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

Why is that? I have a storage locker full of regular bulbs and many
CFL's that I am not going to use. I go get an appropriate LED instead.
In some places I like using the dimmable "Daylight" color temperature.
Great in the garages, etc. They are harder to find though. Most are the
cooler "soft white".

The problem with dimming LEDs and even CFL is they do not change color
and the color shift is the biggest part of the ambience of dimming
them.
My wife is having that problem at work too. They have about 50 PAR38s
in the dining room ant at dinner time they want bright white. After
dinner they want that orange glow of a dimmed incandescent for
dancing..


We don't do much dancing in the house, garage or shed. :-)


I have CFLs or T-8 Fluorescent in the garage and the sheds but the
lights around the pool are incandescent (15w sign bulbs) and we dim
them most of the time. We dance there ;-)
Most of the lights in and around the house are on motion detectors so
lighting is pretty much lost in the noise on our electric bill.


I put LED flood lights in the backyard area. We have a lot of
landscaping stuff (plants and bushes) out there with a bricked circle
and stone "sitting wall". Used to have a concrete table on it but I
moved that out (wasn't easy ... damn thing weighed about 400lbs) and
put a fire pit in it's place. The LED floods light up the circular area
and the two granite stairs that lead up to it. Looks nice at night.

The floods are 120vac powered, have a DC power supply internal to them
that powers six LEDs (in series). A timer in the cabana controls them.
Also use one of the LED floods to illuminate the flag on our flagpole
at night.

They work great and I am surprised at how bright they are. I have
another but one of the LED's blew out, so none would work. I saved it
for the five remaining LED's in it that I can use to replace any that
burn out in the working floods. Here's a pic taken at night:

http://i802.photobucket.com/albums/yy303/Eisboch/backyard.jpg

On Sun, 06 Sep 2015 17:36:17 -0400, wrote:

I think the dry 12 KVA transformer might be the way to go.
You should be able to find a spot for it inside somewhere out of the
weather.

===

To mount it inside would require rewiring the internal shore power
circuits. Too big a hassel. Outside, you just run it inline with
your shore power cables and make a few inlet adapters for the various
kinds of euro connectors.

You can get them in a NEMA 3R (weather tight) enclosure. Just stow it
inside when you are not using it. It will still be a steel can.

===

I could probably make a weather proof box out of starboard that would
be cheaper, more attractive and more durable. Starboard is great
stuff and you can work it with ordinary tools.