Note from JD: I’ve now (May, 2017) moved onto another motorhome and have installed 1.7Kw (1,700 watts) of solar panels on it – details here. I documented the installation of 650 watts of solar (Morningstar TriStar MPPT 45 charge controller and two SunPower E20 327 watts panels) on my last motorhome here. When I traded… [Read More]
Energy Audit – Watt For?
Note from JD: Some related posts are solar system for Missy, solar install, solar install take 2, and Trimetric battery monitor install. Like nearly everything else in life, it seems there are an infinite number of ways to approach the use of solar electric for a boat or motorhome. In my case, my motorhome has a… [Read More]
LED Lighting to Save Money
LED (Light Emitting Diode) lights are far more efficient than incandescent lights and halogen lights. I think most everyone is aware of this already. The trick, it seems, is replacing your existing lights with LED’s without spending all of your potential savings on the initial purchase. The goal after all is to save money, not… [Read More]
Homemade Money
Money – there is never enough of it. A few weeks ago, I turned my hot tub down to it’s lowest setting (80 degrees) to save some electricity as I was traveling out of town. I’ve actually left it at that setting for nearly a month. I received my electric bill the other day and was… [Read More]
Electronic Flight Bag
There is at least one thing that all aviators agree on – folding sectionals (charts) in an aircraft while airborne is a pain! Throw in some turbulence, busy airspace, etc… and it can become REALLY fun. Now that I have a good Android Tablet computer (Samsung Galaxy Tab 2), I decided to try an EFB… [Read More]
LED Results
I attempted to take some photos of the LED lights in my boat. Not sure if you’ve ever tried to do this but it is kinda hard to take photos of lighting – at least for me. I am most certainly NOT a cinematographer… Nonetheless, I present what I took below – please ignore the… [Read More]
Laptop Power
I have been attempting to determine the power requirements of living on my boat. Most of it is fairly easy. The difficulty comes from my need to earn a living which I do using a laptop computer (software developer). I have been unable to determine exactly how much power is required for a laptop over… [Read More]
Electrical System 101
There are a lot of electrical system questions on the various forums and messages boards. I certainly do not have any new information but I thought perhaps stating what I know might help some folks. I’ve certainly listened to two people say the same thing and only understood one them. Let’s limit our discussion to… [Read More]
LED Lights #4
I’ve been playing with inexpensive LED lights for the sailboat for a while now. Specifically, the Festoon style bulbs. For the history; view post #1, post #2, post #3, and post #4. I think I have made progress this time. The current batch of LED lights are 18 SMD LED’s and are very bright. I took this… [Read More]
Power Inverter Planning
At first glance, selecting an inverter to convert 12 Volt electricity in your battery bank to 110-115 volt “house” electricity is easy, right? Well, as with most things, nothing is easy. There are a lot of options and a lot of things to consider in your decision making/product selection. I certainly do not have all… [Read More]
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