[PUP] PPM Electrical Generation and storage

[2elnav at netbistro.com]

>Bob Austin wrote: What is an ADM battery?  For the majority of
passagemakers the weight of batteries is inconsiquential.

REPLY
Hi bob, that remark by me was addressed to power cats where weight becomes
more of a factor. I admit  that a full displacement hull is not going to
be especially sensitive, unless of course the placement is not convenient
in terms of proximity to generation equipment or inverters. Long cables
for low voltage DC is simply an invitation to excessive losses.



Bob wrote:
The weight can be distributed down low-- <snip>--and acted as ballast.

REPLY
I guess its relative. Where do you place your 2000 pounds of house bank on
your power cat? < VBG>  Ballast on a power cat? How much is used and where
placed?

Bob wrote:
> However, it seems like many modern passagemakers need the luxury of air
conditioning. Although there are air conditioning units which can run on
 DC power, and perhaps more efficient units using chilled water, it
still remains a problem to provide adequate air conditioning.
> Bob Austin

REPLY
Now you hit the nail on the head! This is indeed one of the biggest
stumbling blocks to providing adequate electrical power on board. People
like Steve Dashew have posted a number of articles on how they avoid the
need for constant A/C. However we do not see too many designs that
incorporate his excellent ideas.  From various discussions I  get the
feeling that in most cases it is the wife that insist on A/C throughout th
eboat. I have also been told that the Dashew boat was considered somewhat
minimalist and that the person's wife would not put up with such a setup. 
This sounds more like a speculative opinion rather than one based on past
experience.

In most cases, the energy budget for a design reveals the A/C is more than
half and sometimes more than 3/4 of the total energy requirement.
Eliminate that and you can reduce the total cost of the electrical system
by  huge
factor.

Arild