Transition of platforms in british education 3206

Indirectly, I use one half the year.

It is in our sailboat, which can have onboard 12V power generated in a number of ways. We have two, actually; sailboats are notorious for lots of small nooks and crannies where you can put things.

The boat has a 770Ah battery bank, divided between 4 strings of batteries. 1 is reserved for engine, 1 is for instruments, and the remaining is for utilities; although they can be swapped in a jam.

It can be charged with solar (5A peak), a tow generator (8A peak), engine alternator (120A peak) or shore power (60A peak). I have considered adding a wind generator, (25A peak). The biggest problem with solar panels on boats is finding places to put them.

On a boat you economise radically. We have gone through a lot of work in isolating and making energy-efficient fridges; and we can run at an average consumption of 0.6A if the lid is kept on. Ditto for everything onboard. We can run one of them as a freezer; we then need around 3A to run it all.

Fresh water generation is one thing that eats power, but the upside is that you do get uncontaminated water all the time. (We haven't installed watermakers).

Long distance sailing boats can stay away from commercial power for half a year or more. They need to get to a depot for fresh food, diesel, equipment service and gas for cooking.

As with all marine installations, shore power is intermittent. A local business paper, "Kapital", once observed that the really good mechanics get to be engineers or plane mechanics; the good ones get to be auto mechanics, and the rest tend to hang around marinas.

When on a boat for a prolonged time, energy is comfort.

When we are on shore the solar can just barely feed the fridge and the anti-theft electronics during the summer. We therefore have independence from shore power; which is a very good thing.

What people won't go through to have a cold beer just after we have moored at some desolated, quiet spot near the ocean.

-- mrr