Sitting here after being more or less snowed in for the last 2 days has got me thinking about long term cruising goals (in warm climates), and the technical challenges that need to be overcome.
The thought of hot water came to mind, and solar hot water was the obvious answer for energy conservation. I know many houses use permanent solar hot water heater systems on their roofs, and with the vacuum insulated ones they can even provide hot water in the winter.
What about mounting something like one of these panels (link below) on the cabin top. That area is always a logical, but poor mounting place for solar panels because of the shading from the boom at mid day, however with a hot water system partial shading won't be as detrimental (primarily because it's not a series wired electrical system), and you probably don't need the water to be that hot anyway at mid-day. Adding a solar heater panel there (I already do this on my boat for overnight trips with a solar shower bag as I don't have a hot water system on this boat) would take advantage of the space, and be much easier for plumbing into the cabin than a bimini or davit mounted location.
http://www.amazon.com/SW-37-Solar-Water-Heater-Panels/dp/B0041VM58E/ref=pd_sim_sbs_misc_2
properly plumbed into the inlet side of a small hot water heater with some way to circulate the water through the system, you wouldn't need to heat the water much, if any with electric power or engine coolant, but you would still have the traditional heater there for those cold / overcast / night time hot water needs.
The trick would be a low or no power draw thermostat solution that allows the solar heater to naturally circulate water through the system whenever it is warmer than the water in the hot water heater, and be automatically shutoff / disconnected when the hot water heater is being powered to heat the water hotter than the solar side.
The thought of hot water came to mind, and solar hot water was the obvious answer for energy conservation. I know many houses use permanent solar hot water heater systems on their roofs, and with the vacuum insulated ones they can even provide hot water in the winter.
What about mounting something like one of these panels (link below) on the cabin top. That area is always a logical, but poor mounting place for solar panels because of the shading from the boom at mid day, however with a hot water system partial shading won't be as detrimental (primarily because it's not a series wired electrical system), and you probably don't need the water to be that hot anyway at mid-day. Adding a solar heater panel there (I already do this on my boat for overnight trips with a solar shower bag as I don't have a hot water system on this boat) would take advantage of the space, and be much easier for plumbing into the cabin than a bimini or davit mounted location.
http://www.amazon.com/SW-37-Solar-Water-Heater-Panels/dp/B0041VM58E/ref=pd_sim_sbs_misc_2
properly plumbed into the inlet side of a small hot water heater with some way to circulate the water through the system, you wouldn't need to heat the water much, if any with electric power or engine coolant, but you would still have the traditional heater there for those cold / overcast / night time hot water needs.
The trick would be a low or no power draw thermostat solution that allows the solar heater to naturally circulate water through the system whenever it is warmer than the water in the hot water heater, and be automatically shutoff / disconnected when the hot water heater is being powered to heat the water hotter than the solar side.
