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Lexington - 3/9/17 9°. 35 ' south. 105° west



So tonight is information on some of our systems. Our boat has an electrical system. It has 4 house batteries which run the "household". These are 12 volt AGM batteries which are 200 amp/hour each. You can generally only use the batteries from 85% charge down to about 60% charge. So the 4 batteries hold 800amphours but you can only effectively use about 30%. Filling batteries to 100% charge is not effective. The amount of energy going into a battery slows as it fills so it would take a long time to get the last 15% into the batteries. It is hard on batteries if you take them too low so to increase the life of the batteries you buy more amphours than you need and then use the easiest portion to take out and replace. We also have a start battery for the engine and for the generator.
To gain energy we have solar panels that help some. We also have a Watt and Sea towed generator. Imagine a little trolling motor on a fishing boat. This works in reverse. The prop turns as the water passes and generates electricity proportional to our speed. It is producing about 8 amps an hour 24 hours a day as we sail. We have an alternator on the engine which is a 200 amp alternator. We also have a generator which is diesel. It produces 240 volts at 26 amps. Most of the world is on a 240 volt system so our boat is wired for 240 to be able to plug into shore power any place in the world. If we are in a 120 volt system we just plug into two hot lines for 240 volts. We use the generator to charge the batteries when we need. We have two 100 amp chargers that run off the 240 volt ac produced by the generator. When we run the generator to charge the batteries we can also run the water maker to generate water.
Unfortunately we are an energy hog. The biggest drain is refrigeration. We have a refrigerator and a freezer in the tropics which runs on 12 volts. Next would be the autopilot and then lights and computers and chargers for devices. We could get by with a lot less but it is nice to have everything working well
May fair winds fill your minds with kind thoughts toward your fellow man! Bob

 


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