Downsizing...

The scorecard on after T-Day shopping, what some folks were up to, and yep, enormously troubling pretty much sums this up...

The other day I overheard some advice from one guy to another that to be happy on a boat you need at least a 6KW genset and a 3KW inverter...

One of my current projects is ripping out a few no longer needed or used AC outlets and it got me thinking just how the electrical side of things on "So It Goes" has evolved.

For instance, we used to have a big 2000-watt inverter/charger which was heavy, expensive, and didn't work very well. Down the line when we realized we never ever ran anything anywhere near 2000 watts (the couple times we did I nearly fainted when I saw the numbers on our amp-meter) we replaced it with a better working, cheaper, and lighter 600-watt inverter and a separate charger which seemed to make a lot more sense.

We realized that it had been over a year since we even used the inverter. Other than tools which run off the generator, we seem to have evolved out of AC power use on the boat.

This does not mean we're camping and not using electronics or computers and suchlike, just that we've finally been able to get the various systems to work on 12-volts which is a much more boat-friendly voltage and gets away from the power loss of having to bump voltage up or down to make things work.

Of course, evolution is an ongoing affair. I'd like to add a couple of 50-watt solar panels (which would bring the grand total up to 350 watts of solar) which, with our frugal usage of power would make us 100% free of ever having to run the generator for shipboard and lifestyle systems.

That said, I'm still working on a cunning plan for the whole tool thang.

Listening to Susan Tedeschi

So it goes...