We have lattes and toast most mornings with breakfast, but when we went to stay on our boat for a week or two we had to do with white tea from the LPG stove.
Until we bought the cheap Lavazza Moda Mio capsule machine and a battery milk frother.
The boat is off-grid, no shore power. It has a generator, and solar panels feeding a 550 AH house battery bank of AGM batteries, and a 2000 W pure sinewave watt inverter. As breakfast is about 8 am, I don't want to fire up the generator and wake up the neighbours.
Also, that time of morning, the sun is yet to hit the solar panels, and the batteries will have been running the fridge, diesel heater, TV, lights, electric blanket etc since the previous evening. And during the actual morning, probably the diesel heater except summer.
Here's the arithmetic. The Lavazza is 1200 Watts. It'll draw about 100 amps while the thermoblock heats up. Luckily, very luckily, that's only for about 30 seconds. During that time, first thing in the morning, the battery voltage shows about 12.6 volts give or take 0.1 V. I look critically at the battery voltmeter go down, down, down, to 12 volts, sometimes (in winter especially) to the high 11's. While the batteries don't mind a quick dip like that, there's always the danger the inverter will sense low voltage and shut down, leaving us with no 240V AC.
A 100 amp draw is substantial. Add 3 amps for the inverter, another 2 for the diesel heater (10 on startup when the glow plug is on), and another 6 if the fridge happens to cycles on, and things add up.
I sigh with relief when the Lavazza light stops flashing and steadies, indicating it's ready to brew. The battery bank voltage then recovers back to the 12.6 V very quickly. The vibe pump uses barely any power, so away we go, brewing our (awful) pod espresso bases for the lattes.
In the meantime, the milk is being heated on the LPG stove. That's frothed with the battery frother, which I must say does a good , quick job. A 240V one is out of the question, because they are slow and a power drain.
A quick-heating thermoblock is manageable. A regular element boiler machine would take about 10 minutes of full-time heating at 1200 Watts to come up to speed, and then cycle for another 20 minutes or so before the group head is hot enough to brew. So no go.
During the day, when the sun is charging the 300 watts of solar panels, absolutely no problem for the Lavazza. Or, if the generator, or engine is on, no problem with a voltage dip. It could even run something like a Grimac Mia.
A bigger house bank would also be nice, but there's no more room for batteries, and is it worth it for the 30 seconds every morning?
Oh, by the way, all cables, to and from the inverter, and connecting each battery in parallel, are substantial, and short, so voltage loss is inconsequential.
So, I hope this is useful info for anyone considering an off-grid situation for a coffee machine.
Until we bought the cheap Lavazza Moda Mio capsule machine and a battery milk frother.
The boat is off-grid, no shore power. It has a generator, and solar panels feeding a 550 AH house battery bank of AGM batteries, and a 2000 W pure sinewave watt inverter. As breakfast is about 8 am, I don't want to fire up the generator and wake up the neighbours.
Also, that time of morning, the sun is yet to hit the solar panels, and the batteries will have been running the fridge, diesel heater, TV, lights, electric blanket etc since the previous evening. And during the actual morning, probably the diesel heater except summer.
Here's the arithmetic. The Lavazza is 1200 Watts. It'll draw about 100 amps while the thermoblock heats up. Luckily, very luckily, that's only for about 30 seconds. During that time, first thing in the morning, the battery voltage shows about 12.6 volts give or take 0.1 V. I look critically at the battery voltmeter go down, down, down, to 12 volts, sometimes (in winter especially) to the high 11's. While the batteries don't mind a quick dip like that, there's always the danger the inverter will sense low voltage and shut down, leaving us with no 240V AC.
A 100 amp draw is substantial. Add 3 amps for the inverter, another 2 for the diesel heater (10 on startup when the glow plug is on), and another 6 if the fridge happens to cycles on, and things add up.
I sigh with relief when the Lavazza light stops flashing and steadies, indicating it's ready to brew. The battery bank voltage then recovers back to the 12.6 V very quickly. The vibe pump uses barely any power, so away we go, brewing our (awful) pod espresso bases for the lattes.
In the meantime, the milk is being heated on the LPG stove. That's frothed with the battery frother, which I must say does a good , quick job. A 240V one is out of the question, because they are slow and a power drain.
A quick-heating thermoblock is manageable. A regular element boiler machine would take about 10 minutes of full-time heating at 1200 Watts to come up to speed, and then cycle for another 20 minutes or so before the group head is hot enough to brew. So no go.
During the day, when the sun is charging the 300 watts of solar panels, absolutely no problem for the Lavazza. Or, if the generator, or engine is on, no problem with a voltage dip. It could even run something like a Grimac Mia.
A bigger house bank would also be nice, but there's no more room for batteries, and is it worth it for the 30 seconds every morning?
Oh, by the way, all cables, to and from the inverter, and connecting each battery in parallel, are substantial, and short, so voltage loss is inconsequential.
So, I hope this is useful info for anyone considering an off-grid situation for a coffee machine.


but well you know
. I think that with 3 grinders, a Behmor roaster, a Grimac Mia and a 2-group Grimac in the home arsenal a cheap and nasty, convenient pod machine for very infrequent --and latte--use is allowable. With all the covid restrictions I think we've been boating twice in the last year.
Comment