On Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:51:58 -0500, "Robert L Bass"
wrote:

salty wrote:

Not true. As I said, they have to perform to strict
legal standards - and they do. I did not replace
any fixtures for my nav lights. All done with drop
in LED arrays made to completely and legally
reproduce the same or better light...

OK, I believe you.

...I'm not speculating about this.

I was speculating. Clearly you know what you're talking about.

I know at all times how many amp hours I'm consuming,
and how many I'm generating from various sources. I
also have to compute how long at how many amps I have to
input power to replace used amp hours. It is not a 1:1 ratio.
Battery charging is not simply stuffing juice back in to
replace the amount used.

Now you've got my curiosity piqued. What do you use to generate power while
under way?

Most of the time the solar panels make up for whatever the sporadic
running of the engine doesn't take care of. I'm pretty frugal about
using electricity, and I pay attention to my electrical budget out of
long established habit. I have all the wiring hookeups needed for
connecting to shore power if I am at a dock that has it available, but
I've never used it. Just don't need it if you are used to not having
unlimited power all the time. I don't have refrigeration or air
conditioning, which would be huge consumers of electrical power. If I
had them, I would probably have to add a wind generator. Most people
with air conditioning can only use it at the dock on shore power,
except for very large yachts with dedicated gensets.

Going to all LED's was a very important part of how I manage power
usage. Just running the incandesent anchor light for 10 hours every
night when it drew 2 amps was a problem. That was 20 amp hours of
battery capacity just for that. Now it draws just under .2 amps. for
10 hours which consumes 2 amp hours. Big difference!

At home, I use CFL's everywhere practical, which is almost everywhere.
It dropped my electrical usage so much that it qualified me for
rebates on my electrical bill on top of the savings from the lower
usage itself. I figure my CFL's will mostly be near the end of their
service life about the time that LED replacements will be cost
effective.