Electrical

The story of how John nearly wasted a bunch of time and money, but finally got a grip of himself. Lots of electrical system recommendations and a caution to make sure that the complexity we choose is right for us.

John’s in rant mode. This time it’s marine electronic and electrical technician training that has attracted his ire. But he’s not just throwing rocks, he makes suggestions for improvement too.

After voyaging and living aboard their Ovni 435 for 7 years, Colin gives us an update on what electrical kit has worked and what has died, as well as a look at newly available gear he and Louise have installed or are considering.

Which lead-acid battery type should you buy? Liquid filled, Gel, or AGM. Well, it depends. Find out how to choose in this chapter.

Matt, AAC Technical correspondent, takes a look at an intriguing new technology that holds a lot of promise for cruising boats. But before we all rush to wire our boats this way, there are some questions that the vendors need to answer.

Developments in alternative energy systems are coming thick and fast these days, so Colin visited the Southampton Boat Show and has filed this report on the latest in fuel cells, solar panels, and hydro-generators.

Let’s face it, there is never enough time to keep a boat that is actively out there voyaging in perfect condition: to do all the routine maintenance; to repair what’s broken; to replace what’s too old to be trusted. Or at least, there is never enough time if we actually want to see the places [...]

A year and a half after we installed a new housebank on Morgan’s Cloud, and embarked on a field test of AGM batteries and the care regime that Justin Godber at LifeLine Batteries helped us develop, we tested the batteries. Here are the results..short version, it works.

Question: Due to space considerations I want to use  two 105 amp hour and two 150 amp hour batteries as a house battery bank. Would this arrangement be detrimental to the smaller batteries? Answer: My gut reaction is that mixing two sizes of batteries would be a bad idea. Having said that, I really can’t [...]

Six months ago, we started a test of AGM batteries from LifeLine to see if, by implementing recommendations from that manufacturer, we could solve the problem of short life that we, and many other live aboard voyagers, have experienced with AGM, and in fact all, lead acid batteries. It’s still early days. But on the [...]

Combined inverters and chargers have become pretty much standard on cruising sailboats but, in fact, that’s a really bad idea. In this chapter we will share why and what to do about it.

Readers of my previous post on the subject will be aware that we try to generate as much power as possible via renewable resources – wind and solar. This is driven by a desire to keep the boat as simple as possible, and to avoid the need to run our engine at rest for charging [...]

Before spending the winter in Arctic Norway, knowing we would be spending a lot of time below on the boat during the winter darktime, we replaced our old dim, inefficient overhead lights with Alpenglow fluorescents. What a difference! They give off a warm natural light and are beautifully designed and built. Not cheap but worth [...]