User:Vincecate/Budget
My First Choice
Putting down some of the cost estimates for a single family seastead big enough and nice enough for my family (so this is not the minimal cost design). Maybe a larger version of my my floating villa design. I expect to have an early seastead and have plenty of backups and redundancy so that when things break we will be fine, even if we have a few months to go till the next port.
| Item | Units | Price/unit | Total cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thrusters | 3 | $20,000 | $60,000 |
| Motor Controllers | 3 | $1,600 | $4,800 |
| Solar Panels | 16,000 watts | $3/watt | $48,000 |
| Batteries | 100 kw-hours | $145/1-kw-hour | $14,500 |
| Inverters | 6 | $1,200 | $7,200 |
| Backup Generator | 1 | $5,400 | $5,400 |
| 300 Gal Diesel Tank | 1 | $2,000 | $2,000 |
| Diesel Fuel | 300 | $3.50/gal | $1,050 |
| Kite | 2 | $2,000 | $4,000 |
| Total | $149,500 |
| Item | Units | Price/unit | Total cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| WaterMakers | 2 | $4,300 | $8,600 |
| Year Supply of Food | 6 | $2,500 | $15,000 |
| Liferaft | 1 | $5,000 | $5,000 |
| Total | $28,600 |
Alternatives for Power/Propulsion
| Item | Units | Price/unit | Total cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thrusters | 3 | $20,000 | $60,000 |
| Motor Controllers | 3 | $1,600 | $4,800 |
| Backup Generators | 2 | $5,400 | $10,800 |
| 1000 Gal Diesel Tank | 1 | $2,000 | $4,000 |
| Diesel Fuel | 1000 | $3.50/gal | $3,500 |
| Total | $83,100 |
| Item | Units | Price/unit | Total cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 300 Gal Diesel Tank | 1 | $2,000 | $2,000 |
| Diesel Fuel | 300 | $3.50/gal | $1,050 |
| Outboard | 1 | $5,000 | $5,000 |
| Kite | 2 | $2,000 | $4,000 |
| Total | $12,050 |
Open Issues
- Cost of living area and structure are not in here yet.
- I like the "free fall life boats" but have yet to find any prices for them.
Tradeoffs
The main tradeoff I am making is to have solar power and electric thrusters so that I don't need to buy diesel every month, listen to the noise of a generator, or smell any exhaust. I really think kites will work out, so maybe diesel near port and kites in open ocean is the way to go, but I am not sure I want to count on kites yet. The other thing is that solar panels are very reliable. Batteries can be done so that single failures don't kill you, and they tend to degrade gradually over a couple years. Diesel engines can stop suddenly. I would want 2 or 3 generators if that was my main source of power. The solar/electric route is more costly up front.
