On Thu, Oct 20, 2011 at 08:31:16AM -0500, Michael Fleming wrote:
>
> There will be
> an absolute adaptation of my lifestyle to the abilities of the systems on board
> and not adapt the systems to═accommodate═my land-based perceived needs. If
> living on land had been so great there would be no consideration to liveaboard.
> Living without refrigeration, microwave, TV, daily paper delivery and the
> Schwan's man will be ok (Have a way to go with pizza delivery! ;-).
Hi, Michael, and welcome! I've been living aboard for the past 20 years
or so, and based on my experience, you may find that you do not need to
give up quite as many of those as you think. As far as refrigeration
goes, take a look at fridges like the SunDanzer and Engel. A friend of
mine runs a pair of Engel MT-45 fridge/freezers off the solar panels on
his boat; his measured draw is 2.6A @ 12V when used as a freezer
(maintains 0 degrees F!), 1.8A as a refrigerator. For a microwave -
still reasonable numbers, believe it or not:
(Reheating) 30 seconds @ 1500W, or about 1 amp-hour at 12V
(Cooking) 3 minutes @ 1500W, or about 6AH @ 12V
TV, still not a problem: my 17" LCD monitor, which can double as a TV or
DVD display, draws just a hair over 1A at 12V. It helps that I picked it
on the basis of its power input actually being 12V (it's not some special
"marine" version - many LCD monitors are just powered via an external
adapter, and many of those happen to be 12V. You just have to pick and
choose a little.)
As to the pizza man... my xgf and I used to joke about "Dolphin
Delivery" while anchored in Puerto Rico - and almost started a service
by that name, delivering to boats from the local restaurants. :) There
weren't quite enough boats in Boqueron to make it worthwhile, but it
might be a thought in a more crowded anchorage. So, there's an income
(i.e., stay afloat!) op as well as some e-boat ideas. How much better
can things get? :)
--
Ben Okopnik
-=-=-=-=-=-
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