Re: The Perfect Commuter Bike For The Masses?

On Jan 27, 8:52 am, Peter Cole <peter_c...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
DanK...@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
On Jan 26, 11:10 pm, Peter Cole <peter_c...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
DanK...@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
Solar as a whole is still more complicated and expensive than it needs
to be. I'm currently looking into a solar charge system for a
sailboat I'm restoring. My options seem to be spend way more than I
consider reasonable (and even then options are quite limited), or
patch together an equally efficient and far more cost effective but
more bulky and cumbersome system on my own. One would think complete,
reasonably priced solar systems would be more common than they are.
Lighting a bike with it? No thanks, Ive got my hands full trying to
light my boat where weight is no concern.
Windmills are much more popular on sailboats (for what I'd think would
be obvious reasons).

It's a smaller boat (25'), and I'm not sure there's anywhere I could
put a windmill it wouldn't be in the way. It'd also probably be more
expensive and complicated than solar. It's food for thought though,
I'll have to look into it.

Most of them are mounted on a mast at the very stern. Visit a marina and
you'll likely see several examples. Solar would be simpler for low power
requirements, like trickle/float charging a battery. It's a good
solution for a once a week sailor, a windmill is better for a several
days in a row sailor.

I grew up a marina rat, spend every summer on boats and even spent a
year living aboard in Boston Harbor. You'd think I'd have noticed
this at some point, but I haven't. The boat I'm restoring is a 25'
trailerable gem that will be having the mast stepped to get under a
specific bridge on a very regular basis. That's part of the reason
I'm not sure how well a windmill would work out for my application,
but it is worth looking into.

All I really need is a trickle charge of the battery. I plan to
outfit her with LED lights to save power, and the VHF will be hand-
held since I already have one. The primary draw will be bilge pump
and stereo system when in use. I'll be using 2 batteries with an A/B
switch so that if I do run down one battery listening to the radio or
running cabin or deck & masthead lights at anchor, I'll still have a
charged battery for lighting and the bilge pump(s).


200W wind or solar will both run you about $1,000. Wind power (around
here) will likely give you much higher power factor. If sailboats
aren't a perfect application for wind generators, I don't know what is.

That's about what I've seen, unless I throw together my own solar
system. For that price it will likely have to wait for next season -
this season I'll be spending plenty on rigging, recovering of
cushions, lines, lights, and other odds and ends. Since she's
trailerable it won't be a big deal to charge in the driveway,
especially with a couple of decent sized batteries on board. I'd like
her to be self-sufficient to leave on my dad’s isolated floating docks
near my work for a week at a time from time to time, but if I were to
leave it there for any length of time I’d likely be staying there most
nights and would have access to the generator on his boat to charge
up. I won’t really need to be able to provide my own power until I
get to leaving her on a mooring, which is at least a season out.
.

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