Electrics

[PrudenceCP23]

As I was getting prepared to update the wiring and add some electrical gizmos to my CP 23, I began to wonder what others see as essential and/or nice to have.  I am planning on adding a small chartplotter, a VHF with AIS (we have a lot of traffic near Port Townsend), shore power, an additional fan (to best support the composting in my composting head), and possibly replacing my single battery with a pair of AGMs.  What do you have on your boat or are thinking of adding?  What would you list as essential or as a priority for your area?

[frank]

12 volt lighter socket.(s) Multi use!!

I charge my IPad, phone, bose speaker and mini keyboard while under engine power.
A small Engel fridge/cooler is plugged in aft

If your at it....go LED bulbs. You won't regret it while anchored out.

[PrudenceCP23]

Thanks Frank!  Changing to LEDs makes sense.  I've got an 8 hp Honda outboard and I don't think it is rated to do much charging.  What engine do you have that you are able to charge from?

[HeaveToo]

I have a beefy electrical system.  Why???  Because I run the autopilot a lot and other devices.

Scrap the AGMs and go with two 6V GC2 batteries (I have Duracell Golf Cart Batteries in my system).  They are wired in parallel to give me 12V at 230 amp hours.  It is the cheapest bang for the buck with batteries and they also are designed as true deep cells.

Here is my list of electronics:
Chart Plotting GPS
VHF (New this year with AIS and DSC)
Autopilot
Stereo
12V Camafro fan (I highly recommend them as they are very low draw but move a lot of air)  Expensive but well worth it
LED Anchor Light
4 12V outlets for different things.
I sometimes run a small 12V outlet power inverter to charge the laptop
LED cabin lights
Misc other electronics.

What is the beauty of the system is my charging method.  I am running a semi-flexible 100 watt solar panel to a Genasun charge controller.  It keeps my system well charged since I go out for longer trips and stay at anchor.  I rarely take a slip (I haven't taken a slip yet during a trip).  The solar panel is tied onto the Bimini so it isn't in the way.

I think that there are some posts with pictures of my system if you are interested.

I also re-wired the boat this past year.  Mine is a 1989 and none of the wire was pretinned.  I ran with marine grade wire and crimp and shrink connectors.  I will have to run Coax in the mast this year for the VHF antenna and I pan to rewire the mast so that I can wire tie the wires running up the mast to keep from having that annoying mast slap.

[Bob23]

Dear Prudence:
   Going LED is the way to go. Last years projects included changing all nav lights and the anchor light to LED as well as both interior lights. While I do not have an autopilot, I do run most of what the others here are running on their 23. My solar panel is a small fixed one attached to the forward hatch which keeps my battery charged but I think if I were out for longer periods of time, it might not be adequate.

   Tell us more about your composting head. I've toyed with one of these but I don't know that much and you seem happy with yours.
Bob23

[frank]

I have a diesel so charging under engine power is fine. My 27 also has solar and I would agree totally with Heave Too's set up.

One thing I would ad is that I am no where near a "geek"....typical old technophobe! That said, a fellow sailor showed his IPad set up and I was sold. My IPad mini now does everything. You have to get the "cellular" model....in the PNW I have a cheap Telus data plan so I can check emails, do "boat porn",my banking, Skype, Facetime friends. (both free) take pictures (much better quality than expected), has over 1200 songs of my favorite music AND...Isailor is a free app! The entire chart system for the PNW was about $25 (as is E coast Florida-Bahamas combo). The program is super for route planning as you can pre set multiple routes on it and it has a compass and gives GPS speed over ground as well. Another friend put me onto the "tides and currents" app which is wonderful out here as you have to time tight passages with tidal rapids. That app was only $12.  It charges from my lighter plug...no inverter needed. Next bonus is that although it is bigger than a typical cell phone...it still fits inside my jacket pocket. Always there for a picture or to check emails etc at a coffee shop. I am really happy with it! On any small boat space, multu use and simplicity are important.....OK...I'll quit my commercial now  :-)

Does your Honda have an altinater? If so...they typically charge about 4amps in real world cruising RPM's

[HeaveToo]

The outboard alternators say that they are 6amp alternators.  That being said, that is 6 amps wide open.  I figure that I am lucky if I get 3 amps out of it, probably more like 2 amp hours.  The solar is the best charging method for the outboard boats.

If I ever added some sort of refrigeration system I would probably do a second panel.  I doubt that I will do that because, where I am, getting ice is easy and makes sense.  I need to get fuel every few days and dump the porta potty.  Eventually I will have a MSD porta potty and just pump it out since they are available everywhere I sail.

There are a lot of places to find power consumption spread sheets that break down amp hours used.  I found it hard to figure out how many amp hours I was using and I haven't put a battery monitor on my boat yet.  That is why I put a big panel on it because I figured that it would replace about what I use.  I have been holed up in an anchorage this year for 4 days and I ran a bunch of stuff and I was very confident that I was never under 95% on my amp hours. 

As Bob23 and others point out, LED is the way to go.  I don't use my running lights much because sailing at night around here is tough with all of the crab pots but if I did use them a lot then I would turn them into LED.  My anchor light is a Davis Industries LED light that is very bright and has a day/night sensor that shuts off in the morning and turns on at night.  The previous owner did a good job in selecting that light and it is awesome!  He also did LED bulbs in the main cabin light.

[frank]

If you are shopping interior LED's.....I have these on both my boats. They cost about the same as just getting replacement bulbs!

http://www.westmarine.com/buy/west-marine--economy-led-dome-light--9268590

Advantage is they have white OR night time red switchs. Its amazing how the red doesn't screw up your night vision.
Great for crawling outta your bunk after dark for any reason.

Only draw .04amps!!

[HeaveToo]

I have also been told that Red light doesn't draw mosquitoes.  That is also a nice use of them!

[frank]

Mine will be 4yrs old on the 23 next month. Spent over 5mths aboard...no troubles, same bulbs.
Hard not to recommend them.....

[PrudenceCP23]

Wow, thanks for all of the advice and ideas!  I've already put a Davis LED anchor light on top of the mast but have to finish connecting it to power. 

Heave Too, tell me more about the golf cart batteries as compared to the AGMs, do they last as long and keep their "juice" over time? What kind of space do they take up? I like your setup with the solar panel, that seems to keep you pretty self-sufficient.  I do have a small solar panel attached but it is just too small.  I won't be putting up a bimini but am contemplating a dodger, perhaps that would be large enough acerage to mount a solar panel that would keep my batteries topped up...

Frank, your iPad set up sounds intriguing, what generation iPad is it?  ...and I'll be checking out those LED replacements from West Marine.

Bob, I haven't had the chance to really use the composting head a ton yet, but so far I'm happy.  The big issue with a composting head and the CP 23 is height.  Both the AirHead and Nature's Head are too tall to fit where the porta potty usually fits. I solved that however by installing a C-Head.  It is shorter and quite a bit less expensive.  Perhaps I should start a new thread about it and show some photos of its installation...

[HeaveToo]

Wow...You asked for it:

I did a ton of research before going to the GC2 batteries.  In the end, they are the most economical and the best bang for the buck.  They last longer, etc...

Check out this information (it will make your head spin):  http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/deep_cycle_battery

I have both batteries in my starboard cockpit locker near the bulkhead.  It works well.  I put them in battery boxes.

[frank]

Grog to ya!!!

Great link!!!

Best battery article I've read !

[HeaveToo]

Save his site.  Mainesail is awesome!  He writes the best articles and he is not biased.  He has the kind of a boat where you would feel like the engine and bilge is clean enough to eat out of.

So I have two GC2 batteries in a battery boxes.  They are strapped on a plywood plate that I screwed onto the old battery box.  I sat them close to the bulkhead in that cockpit locker and my charge controller for the Genasun sits right by them. 

The batteries are wired in parallel to get 12V.  The positive runs from the battery to the cabin and to a battery switch.  It goes back from the battery switch to a positive bus bar.  It then distributes to the fuse panel in the cabin (I added an extra panel) 

The negative runs from the battery to a big bus bar.  From that bar it is wired to the large negative bus bar where everything is grounded to.  This bus bar has every 12V electronic grounded to it (except for the small forward negative bus bar).  There are no splices in my boat.  I wired all multiple circuits to a bus bar.

Sorry, but I don't have a picture of the batteries in their compartment.  If you do this you may want to add some weight forward because she seems to be a little stern heavy (despite my 22lb lewmar claw with 30' of 1/4" chain and my 13 gallon water tank in the bow). 

[Bob23]

I never liked the original location of the panel so when I rewired my 1985 23, I moved everything to a central location on the starboard side. Behind the box is a negative buss bar. Barely visable to the right is the PVC pipe which acts as a wire chase to the battery compartment.   Sometime after this photo, I added a 12volt outlet for charging purposes.   The second photo shows the pull out chart table I built to replace the uselessly small sink. It pulls out another foot or so. Also in this photo, Duckie the Navigator looks on approvingly.