Turn up the power

Amaris sails the planet

Feb  22, 2014

St Martin, Caribbean

Turn up the power

Power management is always a concern when yachting.  Although we have a generator, I dislike running it daily to keep the operations of the boat with power.  Not only is it noisy, but it burns diesel, which i would rather not do.  Many cruisers need to run their engine once or even twice a day to recharge their batteries.  It seems an abomination to me to sit in a beautiful anchorage, mother nature's beauty all around, perhaps a few other souls drifting by in kayaks and needing to run a generator.  UGH!  

When we took delivery of our boat, I doubled the solar panels to help with our energy generation.  To put things into perspective for you - my dear reader...  I will simply things by saying we use an average of 400 amps/day (when we are on board using all the gadgets-opening the fridge all the time, turning on lights, etc...).  Our solar panels make between 250-300 amps/day.  Recall that it is winter right now...  so this number should improve in the summer.  This configuration left us needing to run an engine or the generator daily for just under an hour - or (perhaps the better solution) going out to eat so we didn't use the water pump, lights, radio, etc.  

We were about 100 amps short of being energy independent.  Introduce wind generator!  Although let it be said, i think "wind generator" is a misnomer.  It doesn't generate wind...  it generates power from wind.  Shouldn't they be called "power from wind generators?"  After literally days of research - I chose a wind generator made by silent winds.  For my cruising friends, this generator was chosen with priorities to 1-power generation, 2-weight (6.8kg as opposed to the second highest producing generator the d400 which weighs in at 17kg), 3-integration with current systems, 4-sound production, and 5-cost.  The silent winds is a top energy producer, one of the lightest models, and true to it's name - is quiet thanks to its carbon fiber ultra rigid/strong/light blades.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the help of my friend Maas (actually he did most of the work), we were able to get the new generator up in a couple of days.  I believe if we were to re-do the instillation now we could do it in 5-6 hours.  And of similar importance, should something go wrong with the unit, I could swap it out in about an hour (even without my friend Maas).  But i suppose 1/2 the fun of an instillation such as this one is the engineering and design.

Fortunately, here in the Caribbean we are exposed to the trade winds - which have kept that generator humming!  I believe we are making better than the 100 amps that we needed to bridge the gap to energy independence.  We will need to run the generator for hot water-cause someone in this household (boathold?) needs to have hot showers once in a while!  That said, once summer comes, I think we will have enough power to run a load of laundry or run the water maker for an hour each day!  How cool will that be!  And - at that point we will want COLD showers!