Last week we had Bob Williams of SALT Technology come and give our boat an analysis of our energy usage, needs, generation and storage, and make recommendations of suggested improvements.
Bob is the guru of boat energy systems, including solar, wind, batteries, generators, monitors, and related stuff. He teaches seminars on these topics for various boat shows (e.g. Miami, this weekend) and Seven Seas Cruising University webinars. Since SALT is right here in Marathon, let's get 'er done now.
From his recommendations, we are having his firm add a lot of insulation to our refrigerator/freezer - this is expected to save us at least 1/3 of its energy consumption, and it is our biggest energy eater aboard. We also will have an energy monitoring system installed, so we can monitor our batteries, see exactly how much energy we are getting from our engine's alternator, find out how long we need to run the motor to keep our batteries charged (and not overcharged), and have another electronic toy to play with.
His other suggestions - larger alternator, solar panels, replacement batteries - can wait until we find out how the insulation and monitor work out and tell us things.
These items are supposed to be installed tomorrow = Monday (so we can possibly leave and head back north on Tuesday).
Expensive, but - hey - it's a boat. And if I were to do it myself, who knows when it would get done.
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