[TG] autopilot power budget

[Tom - Raymarine - Moderator]

Hello OceanGuy,

The average power consumption is essentially a factor of the load on the drive (how hard the motor needs to work in order to move it), how far (how long) it needs to drive in order to achieve course corrections and how frequently it needs to drive (how well balanced the sail trim is, the sea-state, the pilot's Response level setting, the keel length, point of sail, steering vane efficiency and response and so on and so on.) Think of the fuel-consumption variables in driving the same car start-stop versus steadily on a motorway, on the flat or on steep hills, towing a boat trailer or not and the like.

If you want to you can estimate these values and do some back-of-an-envelope calculations yourself (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watt is a fair place to start), but the short answer is that for similar work, the power consumption will also be very similar to the old pilot.

Regards,
Tom