I'm working on sizing a battery bank, and part of the job is determining the
current draws of the various loads.  Some are 12V direct (Glacier Bay
refrigeration), others are 110V (microwave oven, etc.).

I'm wondering if anyone has already gone through this exercise and has a
table or chart of some of these standard items.  Even data on individual
items on your boat would help (just look on the data plate for appliances,
or in the manual, if you have one).  That would save a great deal of
individual research.

I intend to assemble a spreadsheet for my own use, so how about this:  send
me any information you have and I'll assemble it and then make the resulting
spreadsheet available to the list.

We can't obviously incorporate every brand and model of equipment, but what
I'll try to do is to categorize similar items in a way that makes sense.
(For example, "Large Domestic Refrigerator" or "Small RV Refrigerator")
Obviously, the result will not have scientific accuracy, but it should still
be useful as a guide.

The idea would be to create a simple Excel spreadsheet that you can load,
then fill in the blanks by estimating quantity and minutes of use daily for
each item.  The spreadsheet would then give you a total daily amp/hour load
for your boat.

To save clutter on the list, email me directly.  When I have the spreadsheet
finished, I'll post a notice.

Let's see what happens...

Mike Fairbairn
mikef@ciaccess.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Capt.John@blueseas.com Capt.John@blueseas.com
To: trawler-world-list@samurai.com trawler-world-list@samurai.com
Date: October 28, 1998 11:48 PM
Subject: Re: Batteries

Al wrote:

When you shop remember marine cranking amps is about half of
cold cranking amps.
Buy the max CCA for best results

John writes:

Thanks for the definition of "cranking amps", a very worthwhile
piece of info.
Txs-John

Hi All,

While pondering this perplexing issue of food storage for an extended cruise, my
dark, damp and moldy memory kept trying to dredge up something about special
food storage bags used by the produce industry.  Something I had read about in
an old Cruising World or Ocean Navigator.  Well, except for my affinity for all
things relaxing, I might have even lost some sleep over it so I braved the far
reaches of my garage and found an old envelope stuffed with "Veg-U-Pak"
freshness bags for fruits and vegetables.  These were sent to me (postmarked
April '96) as samples by the Fresh Pak Corp. of Boston.  Unfortunately, like
most of the projects around here, I never tested the bags.  But, I promise to
commence testing with the old bags as soon as I can obtain some fresh fruit
and/or vegetables.  I'll also try to order some fresh bags for testing, but as I
recall, Mr. Fresh Pak wasn't very anxious to add cruisers to his list of
customers.  He preferred to sell to the large commercial growing operations who
use the bags to get produce to market.

Has anyone ever heard of or used these bags?  They are supposed to be
impregnated with some sort of "absorb the make rot gasses" compound.  (This
highly technical statement from someone who almost passed organic chemistry -
shocking example of public education dollars at work!)  If anyone has a library
of old C.W. or O.N. magazines and felt like looking, the story was in the "new
products" section of an issue published in early 1996.  I would appreciate
knowing the contents of that article.

I will, of course, publish findings of my tests patterned after those reports of
CaptnWil's (absent his technical know-how and writing skill, of course)

Thanks for the help!

Ed and Rebecca
41' Hatteras SF  "NEUROSEAS"
rebeccad@usit.net

Hi listees,

As you may recall, about two weeks ago I commenced a test to determine the
usefulness of treated food storage bags that had I had lost in my garage for over
two years.  Intermediate results are as follows:

Test group (TG):  1 Banana (green), 1/2 apple (Granny Smith) and 1/2 potato (Red,
sometimes referred to as "new" for reasons that are not easily recalled or
pertinent) placed inside a Fresh Pak TM food storage bag.

Control group (CG):  1 Banana (matched in ripeness to the test group), the other
half of the apple and potato placed inside a Hefty TM zipper lock bag.

Observations:  Without opening the bags, observations were taken to determine "Rot
Rate" (R') each time I made coffee (as the test area is located next to the coffee
pot).  There appears to have been no significant difference in TGR' and CGR' for the
first two weeks of testing.  Levels of rot (R) approached "significant" after nine
days of testing in both groups.  "Significant" in this context being enough evidence
of rot that I would normally choose something else for lunch but would still eat
this if we were, say, out fishing in the dingy several hours from the mother ship at
about 1400 after skipping breakfast.  After 14 days of testing, R has reached
"Considerable", meaning that if the dingy breaks down or the Yellow Tail are just
starting to bite I could pare off the bad portions and still have a snack.
Observations will continue.

Preliminary conclusions:

1. Fresh Pak TM bags may work well but have a shelf life less than two years.

2. Fresh Pak TM bags may not work any better than zip-locks.

3. Given a sample size of 1, the statistician may draw any curve that Marketing
   requests.

Research continues.

Ed
41' Hatteras SF  "NEUROSEAS"
rebeccad@usit.net