Power management on a "smaller" boat

So we all know that almost all of the electronics on a boat are run off of the battery. The problem with this is that there is not a constant flow of electricity to recharge the battery like there is in a car. There are times when you may pull into a cove to go swimming and have the engine off for hours, draining your battery with all of your lights and stereo systems as well as anything else that you leave on such as navigation systems, depth sounders,  etc. 

When traveling on long off shore expeditions on a sail boat, most boats will install either wind generators or solar panels. These will help to counteract the loss of power from everything necessary to run the boat while the engine is off. When traveling on a power boat, you will almost always have the generator on, if the boat has one. For the premise of this explanation, lets assume you have an average, 25 foot bow rider that you are using on an inshore lake or near shore in a bay or gulf. This boat is not equipped with a generator but it has lots of things that draw power. This boat has navigation, a stand alone depth sounder, a stereo system, as well as all of the necessary safety equipment such as navigation lights, bilge pumps, and a blower.

Part of what draws the most power is leaving things on when they are not needed. If you are sitting still at anchor, there is no need to have on your depth sounder or your navigation systems. If it is day time, there is no need to have on navigation or courtesy lights. I only turn things on when I need them.

One thing you can do to start to conserve power is replacing your light bulbs. If you find yourself boating at night often, LED lights can serve a few purposes. First of all, sticking with the subject here, they draw much less power than a conventional bulb. This helps to conserve power when it is most important such as overnight camping trips or watching fireworks on the 4th of July. Secondly, they are brighter. As far as I am concerned, the brighter the light the better. The quicker I can see you, the more time I will have to react in order to avoid a collision. Lastly, and the best of all is that they rarely go out. There is no filament that breaks inside. The only reason they generally fail is due to corrosion in a harsh marine environment. In most cases, lights are sealed pretty well and this will never happen. 

Now, there is no need to go and change all of your bulbs now as LED bulbs are quite a bit more expensive. Just change them as they go out. Change to an LED bulb in the light itself, then just to be prepared, keep an old fashioned bulb in the package in case of an emergency. 

To keep track of you power usage, there is the Battery Bug. A voltage gauge is pretty much useless on a boat. All it tells you is that the battery is charging. Well, I can tell you that if the engine is off then the battery is not charging. The battery bug sticks to the battery and measures the voltage in the battery and gives an alarm when the battery drops to a low charge state. They are great for boats with single batteries or a single battery for the "fun things." Click here to see the battery bug from Amazon.