Electric
In Zero Fossil fuel sailing and other posts we have written about a long term goal to replace the diesel inboard engine in Vida with an electric motor. That with a battery bank charged from renewable energy (regen from the propeller when sailing plus solar and wind electric generation). However,
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I'm not writing about IT or programming here (although there can be similar problems). By this I'm thinking of Single Point of Failures (SPOF) and taking that a bit further. By SPOF I mean the danger of one item failing and causing a cascade of failures.
Electric
So I've started building the new battery box at home. So far just a dry assembly. All the timber will be sanded and epoxy coated before using epoxy to glue as well as screws. Apart from the plywood base (left over from settee bases) the rest of the
Electric
We only made it to Vida in time for our evening meal yesterday. Fortunately, a free Saturday means we are still able to make some progress. First, I had assembled my new table saw at home. So I was able to cut up a full sheet of 12mm plywood and
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Sailing SV Delos is one of the big, successful YouTube channels. We have just been watching a series on their electric setup after they switched to Lithium batteries and induction cooking a year ago. They have been sailing around the world for more than 10 years in a much larger
Electric
A quiet and gentle start today after a busy week. First job has been to fit our 2nd Radiant wall panel heater. This is 320 Watts and is in the main cabin (no printed image at the moment). Again using a radio thermostat and timer that controls the 13 amp
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We have made a few key decisions and ordered a few parts. Worktop, sinks and plumbing Worktop First up was to decide what to build the new worktop from. We were attracted by the Solid Surface worktops. However, we realised that we were going to be talking well over £500
Electric
So I've been shopping. Hunting for cheapest options did mean several suppliers as I didn't want to buy unbranded, low quality components in safety critical areas (such as 600A switches). We now have most of the supplies for all the glassfibre work. Plus the majority of
Electric
We were very fortunate to have a lot of help at the weekend from our son who is halfway through an HND in electrical engineering. So we now have a wiring diagram and all the technical details worked out for the solar charging, batteries, through to the inverters and to
Electric
In my previous "The Electric Plan" I haven't mentioned "Shore Power" (ie plugging your boat into a mains power supply when in a marina). The reason is simple. We don't plan to have a shore power connection. There are several, fairly obvious
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Goal The goal for the environmental element of Sustainable Sailing has to be a zero use of any fossil fuel, at least for energy when using the boat. I don't think we will be there in terms of all inputs for a long time yet (zero fossil fuel
Electric
So in my last post on Introduction to generation I outlined the options and challenges for renewable energy generation and concluded that we were going to start with solar. This video from Desiree and Jordan, Project Atticus, has been helpful. Like us they have a ketch (although smaller) which means
