greetings fellow duck lovers.my wife and I have currently under construction a homebuilt wooden trawler at Bang Pra,Thailand.We have a home across the harbour at Koh Sichang,and this will be our home port.We are planning to cruise the eastern seaboard of the Gulf of Siam,island hopping and overnighting at the many beautifull islands in that region.No trans-oceanic epics for us,just a leisurely 60 to 80 miles per day,stopping whenever we wish,and staying as long as we wish,and supplies will allow.We need some help from experienced cruiser/builders to advise us on how to fit out our boat.One major issue is the electrical system;we don't want a generator on board,other than a 2000watt Honda portable for backup.We will not be installing A/C,and plan to use a wind generator and solar array to supplement our energy supply.Our largest electrical load will be a modest refrigerator/freezer.Can anyone offer suggestions on an inverter,battery specs and suppliers in our region? We will very much appriciate some input from experienced folk;we are new to this,and anxious to learn.Thank you in advance,Hartley and Chalinee Bushell.

I recommend Victron and bought some of their kit from Octopus Electrical in Phuket - Mike Kealy 081 396 0785. mick@octopusasia.com

Give some thought to using a 40,000 B Yanamar (or cheaper local clone) single cylinder diesel engine similar to those seen on local E-tan trucks. Dry exhaust, crank start, and no cooling issues. Connect to a really big alternator resulting in a DC generator. Use the inverter to run the boat off a decent sized 24V house bank.

Delete the Honda and wind generator, keeping the solar to keep the fridge alive when away from the boat for days.

A cheaper alternative than the Honda/wind combo and power to burn when you want it.

Spiceythaiduck
Great name for a boat. I can give you some advice and it will be free and worth every penny. If you want some professional advice with someone who has experience with DD, contact Arild Jensen at: elnav@telus.net
We have been on our 462 DD full time since mid 2007 and during that time, with Arild's help, have fine tuned our electrical system to where I'm pleased with it.
We have reduced our amperage usage at anchor to 100 amps per day at 24 volts. We do this by restricting usage to lights, Nova Cool refrigerator/freezer combination, and inverter only when we need Alternating Current. This is of course with us being onboard during that time. If we are off during the day it is reduced. This 100 amps is also used to watch TV or listen to the radio, to power freshwater and greywater pumps, toilet pumps, cooling fans, anchor lights, I leave the chart plotter on to monitor boat movement to make sure the anchor is not dragging, occasional washing of clothes, and I also leave the VHF on while at anchor.
As far as generation is concerned there are several sources you can consider. We have a 24v 600 amp house bank so we can go two days before running our gen-set. We never go below 50% or above 85% charge while at anchor. Below 50% would damage the batteries and when charging, the ingoing amperage starts to drop off once you get above 85%. We also have two 125 Kyocera solar panels but the fact is, unless you have lots of room for panels and lots of money for a system they account for a small amount of power. They do contribute though.
If you do not install a gen-set then add a big alternator as Robert suggest because your engine will become your generator. I have seen boats with Honda generators on their deck but have never talked to anyone using one. I know George Buehler likes them. I also see often on sailboats big wind generators which have a great advantage over solar because of the overhead sunlight limits of solar where wind can generate power 24 hours per day. But there again I have not talked to anyone who uses one.
Any marine electrical engineer like Arild will ask you some questions about how you are going to use your boat and what kind of electrical equipment you intend to install. Then they will simply add up the needed daily amps, probably add a percentage to that, calculate the generation needed, add a percentage to that, and make some suggestions. You can do the same thing. There are charts you can find that list the daily power requirements each electrical appliance would use and the average time the average live aboard uses them.
Without the aid of a professional you're left to figure it out by trial and error, which can be more expensive than hiring someone.
Good luck with your project.
Are you on the East side of the Malay Peninsula? We are in Penang at the moment but are planning to come up the East side this summer and maybe as far as Thailand. I would hate for all my memories of the Thai culture be that of Phuket.

Randal
www.mydoramac.com

I agree with Randal's recommendation of Arild Jensen. In addition to Arild's vast knowledge and experience in boat electrical systems, and well recognized for this at least across north america, he is also incredible in the before and after "customer support". The email address provided by Randal is no longer in service. Instead, contact Arild at 2elnav@netbistro.com .

Janice

To clarify, I was suggesting using a local diesel engine as a DC generator. As Randal says use a large alternator on your main engine (I have 2 at 140A) feeding a large house bank.

The combo of large alternators, and inverter(s) will give you power to burn when the main is running and sufficient storage capacity when not. Augment this storage capacity with your home made DC generator rather than a Honda on deck

Arild is great and highly recommended.