Power Saving Tips

[muddywaters]

Some of these are trivial but they all add up. Some are so obvious they shouldn't need mentioning but some people really don't know.

 

Charge mobile phones, laptops, iPods etc, only when the engine/genny is running or when on shorepower.

 

Make sure inverters go into idle/sleep mode when not being used. Better still, actually switch them off when not using them.

 

12 volt fridges, whilst more expensive than 230 volt fridges use about 30% less power all other things being equal.

 

Fill the ice box of the fridge with ice packs, turn the thermostat up full and only power it up when on shorepower or the engine/genny is running. They seem to stay cool for about 48 hours without using any battery power. Note: You must turn the thermostat up full.

 

Keep the fridge as full as possible and open the door as little as possible.

 

Never leave electrical equipment on standby. Actually switch it off completely.

 

Use LED or flourescent lighting instead of incandescent.

 

Use 12/24 volt instead of 230 volt wherever possible.

 

Whilst cruising, take turns at the tiller and have showers whilst actually moving. This saves electrical power and hot water. In fact, do as much as possible whilst the engine is actually running.

 

There are your starters.

 

Gibbo

But make sure your not approaching a flight of locks first lol

[jelunga]

I think the other reason for the carrot myth was to disguise the fact that radar was enabling night fighters to shoot down more german fighters. "Cats Eyes Cunningham" was one of our most sucessful night fighters through radar and he helped to spread the story theough radio and newspaper interviews

 

Your probably right about the propaganda put out.

I once had a next door neighbor Mr Lucas who was a submariner during ww2 and he told me that the officers that went up top as soon as the boat surfaced were given extra portions of carrots for that purpose.

And my mum always tried to make us eat more of them and she new nothing whatsoever of what went on in any of the forces.And you can't argue with mum when your a kid. bizzard.

[bizzard]

I think the other reason for the carrot myth was to disguise the fact that radar was enabling night fighters to shoot down more german fighters. "Cats Eyes Cunningham" was one of our most sucessful night fighters through radar and he helped to spread the story theough radio and newspaper interviews

Donkey's have good night sight too. bizzard

[pquinn]

After cutting a hole in the floor, I fitted a small 12v computer fan over it to suck cold air up from the bilge and blow it up the back of the fridge. The fan takes virtually no current (compared with the fridge motor) and definitely reduces the percentage of time the fridge runs. The fridge (it's a Shoreline) has a connectio0n on the back which only powers up the fan when the motor is running, and I've also fitted an old room thermostat so that the fan doesn't start up until the temperature behind the fridge starts to rise.

 

 

we have a shoreline fridge and i was just wondering how you rigged up the fan/fridge arrangement.it sounds like a good idea.

[tree]

Using solar products can work really well, I have a solar shower kit which I bought for £4.99 and I chuck it on top of the boat and use the water that has heated up for washing the pots and small items of clothing. I also bought a couple of battery operated camping lanterns and use these at a night, and they are bright enough to read or watch a dvd on my lappy. I love my pressure cooker and after bringing up 4 children on land it is one of my essential pieces of kit, as it has saved me so much money. As you can cook a hearty meal in a matter of minutes.I will be a liveaboard next summer and intend to invest in some solar panels, I do not have an inverter or water heater on my boat, but I have bought a genny for emergencies. Just have to say a big thank you to everyone who contributes to this site, as a newbie, I have found such a lot of advice and information which is invaluable to me Cheers folks keep up the good work.

 

tree

[mickspangle]

Yeah, but....please tell me it's true that spinach made Popeye super strong

 

The story I heard about spinach was that during WWII the USA were working out the calorific and nutritional value of various foods and when they measured the iron levels in spinach someone got the decimal point in the wrong place which meant a value of 10 or 100 times the true value. It was a while before anyone noticed, by which time Popeye had been created to promote spinach. I heard this years ago...it could be an urban myth

 

Oh hang on...Wikipedia says that's bollocks.

[WotEver]

Oh hang on...Wikipedia says that's bollocks.

It's probably true then

[mickspangle]

It's probably true then

 

But it must be bollocks...it says so on the Internet

 

edited because it's still early

Edited September 15, 2011 by mickspangle

[Pentargon]

But it must be bollocks...it says so on the Internet

 

edited because it's still early

And since this forum is on t'internet .. this thread must be bollox .. I just spend about an hour going through the whole seven pages and I have learned almost nothing about how to shave a few bob off my annual. But I've had a couple of laughs, seen a few points of view, kinda made a few new cyber-friends and read a massive amount of said bollox. Good on ya mickspangle you have my vote. lol (And of course I'm aware my own post is bollox too!)

Edited November 23, 2011 by Pentargon

[notebook]

I never go to the pub without my phone charger.

Always ask permission first - never been refused.

From dead my phone takes four pints, a beef stroganoff, apple pie with custard and a filter coffee to be fully charged

What a brilliant idea.

[Arthur Brown]

For the price of four pints, dinner desert and coffee I could buy a new phone with charged battery!

 

Useful supplier of 12v CFL and LED lights

 

http://www.onsolar.co.uk/products.shtml

 

--

 

CPC have recently been advertising some CFL compatible "nightfighter" like outdoor floodlights that would easily take a 12v CFL or two

[Taslim]

For the price of four pints, dinner desert and coffee I could buy a new phone with charged battery!

 

Useful supplier of 12v CFL and LED lights

 

http://www.onsolar.c.../products.shtml

 

--

 

CPC have recently been advertising some CFL compatible "nightfighter" like outdoor floodlights that would easily take a 12v CFL or two

 

Ta for the link. It may provide an elegant solution.

 

Your right, 'phones have never been cheaper but just like the meal the battery would be cr*p in a day or two & I'm not sure 'notebook' realizes how much pies & pints have gone up since JonL posted in Sept 2009.

Edited January 6, 2012 by TASLIM

[OldPeculier]

Been a while since I lived on a boat but when I did.

 

I had quick release battery terminals on the car and two batteries which I charged alternatly on the drive to and from work. The one not in the car provided boat power for the evening.

 

I got free fire wood from a joiners on the same industrial estate where I worked.

 

I showered every day after work at work.

 

I didnt have a fridge but I had a cool box and a load of freezer packs that I froze in the fridge/freezer in the canteen at work.

 

I made a solar slow cooker from foil covered card, a black painted aluminium pot and a 'cook in' oven bag. 8 hours on the roof in sun will cook a nice stew or chilli.

 

I used a clock-work torch alot of the time ie for reading in bed.

 

Cooked and boiled water on the stove.

 

This was all in a 20' Waterbug with no shore power no charge from the outboard and before solar was an available to the masses. I had 3 very happy years. Only gave it up for the love of a good woman.

[Dave_P]

It certainly saves us a lot of power on the boat, in the same way that stealing waste wood from skips saves us money on heating.

 

I regularly take my laptop into uni to charge it up there. and i take my mobile charger just about everywhere with me and you'd be amazed at the places you can charge it. Sitting in the pub, having a pint - charge up the phone!

[steelaway]

I regularly take my laptop into uni to charge it up there. and i take my mobile charger just about everywhere with me and you'd be amazed at the places you can charge it. Sitting in the pub, having a pint - charge up the phone!

 

Oh come on - charging phones and laptops at the pub - must be saving 100% of sod all.

Now if you was using an hair dryer or boiling a kettle that would be a good saving.

 

 

And as far as using having showers whilst moving - first any electric power you are using is stealing it from the charge to the battery and the hot water you have reheated will still go cold overnight.

 

Alex

[Dave_P]

Oh come on - charging phones and laptops at the pub - must be saving 100% of sod all.

Now if you was using an hair dryer or boiling a kettle that would be a good saving.

 

 

And as far as using having showers whilst moving - first any electric power you are using is stealing it from the charge to the battery and the hot water you have reheated will still go cold overnight.

 

Alex

 

 

To properly charge my phone I need to leave it charging for a good few hours. If I have to leave my inverter running that long, it will use quite a lot of power. incidentally I also have a 12v charger which i also use to save power - but it will still use some (not 100% of sod all). The reality is, if you don't have mains electric and you're not moving around much EVERY single little thing you can do to be more efficient with your power consumption counts. And you get to feel good about reducing your carbon footprint at the same time.

[Ex- Member]

To properly charge my phone I need to leave it charging for a good few hours. If I have to leave my inverter running that long, it will use quite a lot of power. incidentally I also have a 12v charger which i also use to save power - but it will still use some (not 100% of sod all). The reality is, if you don't have mains electric and you're not moving around much EVERY single little thing you can do to be more efficient with your power consumption counts. And you get to feel good about reducing your carbon footprint at the same time.

 

And you get to feel good about reducing your carbon footprint at the same time.

 

Well you're not, you're still using the power but from a different source.

 

Lynn bought a small solar panel about 12 inches X 6, it's surprising how well the'll charge a mobile phone on a bright day even at a porthole window.

[lewisericeric]

And then what about the unnecessary cost of sitting in a pub and buying a pint (and then some, if your phone takes a few hours to charge!) and a packet of crisps just to sit there and have your phone on charge!?!?!

 

That must add up if you're doing that a couple of times a week.

[nb Innisfree]

Can't see the problem, we lived aboard full time for 5 years, that involved watching tv during the day and night with inverter on 24/7, computer, broadband router and phones plugged in lights on as and when we needed them, fridge on 24/7, we ran engine for a couple of hours daily with an occasional long absorption/equalisation, no problem. A boater came aboard for a cuppa once and was surprised at us having a couple of lights on (it was a murky day) If you have to worry to that degree then things need reassessing.

Edited July 9, 2012 by nb Innisfree

[Dave_P]

 

Well you're not, you're still using the power but from a different source.

 

Lynn bought a small solar panel about 12 inches X 6, it's surprising how well the'll charge a mobile phone on a bright day even at a porthole window.

 

Possibly the latest reply ever,but I hadn't been on this thread in a while and I must protest! What I said was - "The reality is, if you don't have mains electric and you're not moving around much EVERY single little thing you can do to be more efficient with your power consumption counts. And you get to feel good about reducing your carbon footprint at the same time."

 

I was talking there about trying to be as efficient and frugal as possible with power in a general sense. Of course using power from a different source is still likely to involve burning fossil fuels but there's a lot more you can do to reduce the energy demands on a boat than just that! Having said that, I'd be pretty confident that charging a laptop from the mains produces less CO2 than running an engine to charge batteries, then converting the 12v to 240v via an inverter to power a laptop on a boat!

Edited October 19, 2012 by Dave_P

[crosswind]

This bit has me completely baffled. Let me get this right.........

 

Instead of getting up in the freezing cold at 6.30 AM to go to work you get up in the freezing cold at 5.00 AM (what's the difference?) then go back to bed and have to get up again later?

 

In one method you get up in the freezing cold once.

 

In the other method you get up in the freezing cold once, but still have to get up again later?

 

Gibbo

 

 

 

...gas fridge makes a huge difference to electricity gas consumption.

 

 

Gibbo

[crosswind]

Our 3 way fridge/freezer ( 8.0 cu. ft. )uses 8 kg. of gas over 11 weeks during mid summer. Running on 12 vdc it draws 16A.

The huge gas user is the gas fired water heater.

 

Incidentally, I am impressed by the scope of professional knowledge displayed throughout these fora.

 

Regards Crosswind

[madcat]

best power saving tip,leave the gadgets at home.This doesn't work for liveaboards!

[tafelberg]

For me I have a few tips.

 

1. Make sure your batteries are topped up and well maintained.

2. Add solar panels, especially in the summer or if you have things like Fridges or pumps that have to run 24 hours.

3. Get Computer equipment with long battery life. I have a Macbook Pro and iPad 3 for my day to day computer "stuff" and both have really good battery life. I charge them during the day when I'm out, if I've not taken them with me by using the Solar Panels.

4. I don't have a fridge but buy what I need daily (because I'm on my own, well apart from the cat).

 

So avoid anything that runs all the time unless you can power it with something.

[eco-boat]

Couldn't agree more. We've been using a slow cooker for years on board. Brilliant piece of kit and as you say, they hardly use any power.

 

Gibbo

 

I've also been using slow cookers a lot, and I think they're great. One thing I have noticed over the years is that they do release heat into their environment (they are not very well insulated). I have found that if you cover them with a towel to help keep more heat in, you'll actually cook your food quicker and hence use less power.

 

Mark