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Energy Audit

An Energy Audit is basically just working out how much electricity you might use, and what size batteries, solar panels or wind turbines to get. If you're going to be spending money on any of these then it's worth spending a few minutes on your Energy Audit.

If you have any helpful Energy Audit sheets please post them here!

Your Energy Audit

How much electricity do I need to generate? Or rather, how much electricity do I (want to) use?

The first stage of working this out is to make a list of all your electrical appliances, write down how many watts or amps they use, and how long they run for each day. You may find that you run things in different ways according to the time of year - for example you'll use your lights more when you're on board in winter.

You'll then need to work out how many amp hours you use each day - that's just the amps multiplied by the hours. (On a 12v system one amp is 12watts, on a 24v system, it's 24v, and on 240v - yes, it's 240w).

So now you know how many amp-hours you use every day.

to be continued - can you help?

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Energy Audit - Power Estimator

There is an alternative power estimator form available from here: www.solar-wind.co.uk/solar-wind-power-system-sizing.html

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Electricity

If you have low voltage fluorescent lights, or (no!) incandescent ones, check out the newest Superbright LED's. They are cheap(ish) to buy, last for ever, and use a small fraction of the electricity for the same light output. they also come in a fairly warm colour, and don't flicker. Good stuff.

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