Sunday, September 9, 2007

Fuel system and electrical outlets

Normally it's not good to mix fuel and electricity, but when we're talking design it's ok. The fuel system is pretty well finalized as we're up to rev 1.5 of the design. Darius found a stacked valve that will let us switch both bypass lines with a single lever to simplify the operation of bypassing the day tank (which I hope we'll never need to do).

I made a first pass at the location of all the AC and DC outlets. It's mostly a matter of convenience as I don't expect too many things to be plugged in at once, but it wouldn't be good to be running too many extension cords! Of course convenience has it's cost with more wires running around the boat so I tried to strike a proper balance between convenience and thrift.

We still haven't found a home for the "rechargeables" locker, though we did disqualify two potential locations (I think that's progress). This is where the ever increasing population of rechargeable gadgets can rest and be renewed from their electrical source of choice (110vac or 12vdc). Cell phones, iPods, cameras, spotlight, handheld VHFs and probably half a dozen things that I don't yet know I'll be owning in the future. They need a home.