Kai on Power

Questions about electricity on the boat

How do you get electricity on board Kamaya?

At sea, we get electricity from batteries and when we are at a marina we can get electricity from the shore.

How do you charge your batteries?

We can charge our batteries from a generator, solar panels, alternator and when we are dock, from shore power

.

Solar panels

Alternator

Shore power

Can you flick on the lights all the

time or do you have to conserve energy?

No you can’t. We have to be really careful with our use of energy. We are getting ready to put LED lights on our boat.

What are LED lights?

They are lights that use less power.

How do you know how much power you are using?

We have a device that tells you how much power you are using.(ammeter and voltmeter)

How many batteries do you have?

We have 4 batteries.

What happens when you go on shore power?

We can use all the power we want.

What are the big users of power on the boat?

Some things use lots of power, like microwave oven, electric winches, and anchor windlass, but we only use them for short bursts so they don’t run our batteries down that much. Other things use a medium amount of power, like refrigerator, lights, and watermaker but they run for a long time so they tend to put the biggest users of power. When we’re at sea, the autopilot is a big user of power as well.