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Electric or Diesel-Electric Hybrid propulsion conversion viability


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The future is clearly here for some people. The oar comparison was funny but unfair. Since I'm of the sailing variety of sailors and retired there's rarely a reason to rush somewhere under power. I'm looking forward to my next boat now. Any takers for this one? Special deal for crew forum members or their friends or their relatives or ... http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=1347514608

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Actually chatting to the dude who sells genuine fully electric systems and top end EU made ones, he reckons 'great for weekends, sh*t for cruising'. When asked why he said 'Sunday night you plug your boat into the mains, something you can't do at Minerva reef'.

 

Pure electric has one big problem they have yet to crack, re charging the batteries.

 

That's what I keep saying. Weekender is fine, because you can plug in. Cruising...forget it. It doesn't matter even if an electric system was cheap as chips. If you can't get the energy consumed back into the bank, you are wasting your time. Very simply, the amount consumed could never be replenished in a ideal time frame. One would need far to large an area of Solar panels. Wind does not produce enough power unless you are on a cyclone and a towed gen is no better and the drag is large.

The greatest amount of stored energy available to us in a small volume is Diesel fuel.

For the future, forget battery stored power.

An electric motor does indeed have some huge advantages. It is the storing of the energy and the replenishing of that energy that is the current issue. Storage is and will continue to improve and become cheaper, but the replenishing will always be the issue.

So for the future, we need to look toward Fuel Cells. A Fuel Cell is the ability to take a "fuel" and convert directly to electrical energy. It has the greatest efficiency and the plus of storing a high volume of energy in a very small space. At the moment, fuel cells are expensive to run because of the fuel used. Either Ethanol or Hydrogen. But someone will come up with something eventually I am sure. It's kind of like the poor cousin to Cold Fusion, where every Home has a "Mr Fusion" in the Garage providing the Homes energy needs.

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With regard to the relative thrust of same sized internal combustion vrs electric motors, the electric at say, 20hp will have a more consistant ability do deliver 20hp. A 20hp internal combustion motor requires correct propping ( as that 20hp only occurs at a narrow band of the rev range, wereas the electric will be over a wider range ) and to operate at 20hp its operating at full load - and probably will get heating issues if its really at its power output limit. The electric motor at 20hp is operating at its rated power output, and will do so until it runs out of joules to chew on. So whilst you may get away with a 20hp electric outboard, you may well not be able to get away with a 20hp electric. 

 

As has been mentioned several times, the electric options simply have such inferior range, or, they require such a huge amount of battery capacity AND charging that the technology is just not mature enough as of yet.

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Black panther you would have to be joking going electric with all the solar gear needed to power what one uses the boat would start looking like a space ship with panels every where

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I havent looked into it in depth coz my current engine is working just fine. If it died would i investigate electric? Yes. Would i accept a drop in range and performance for the advantages of electric? Yes. As long as i was putting a surplus into the system while at anchor it is worth a look. That means at a dock you are charging at anchor you are charging and under sail you are charging. Only questions to answer are maximum range (25hrs at 4 kn fine) and rate of recharge which i would express as ratio of time charging to time motoring. Answer will be different for anchored and under sail.

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apart from the propulsion thing there is living power , we find cruising Leave Marina 100/. Percent , 300 amps two 80 watt solar panels , day one ok , day three power settles at 80 percent and stays there , run engine each day helps , usually after a week the power in storage is average is 80 percent , radio , fridge , lights at night , vhf , and occasionally at night the DVD video , this power has to be put on top Of an electric motor and its battery's so it gets complicated. Many battery's. House ,engine , it goes on

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That sounds very interesting km. Ill have to get to the office to open the link and have a closer look. My engine is a nissan pathfinder. Can never remember if it 65 or 85 hp. Adequate. 7 kn in flat water and a clean bum. I can fit 450 watts of solar easy on the new bimini . Plan was to wait and see if thats enough before adding something. If i ever decide to go electric drive that would include a grunty water generator.

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Just thought I'd add these links to a two part series 'The Science of Hybrid Propulsion' by Nigel Calder comparing series and parallel hybrid propulsion options with diesel and the efficiency crossover points. With the continuing drop in LiFePO4 pricing, the potential is starting to look a little better as that should bring the crossover point up a bit again, especially if you're not chasing high cruising speeds.

 

https://www.passagemaker.com/technical/hybrid-science-part-1

 

https://www.passagemaker.com/technical/the-science-of-hybrid-propulsion-part-2

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600 wt is six 1200 x600 panels

 

five x 120. I've checked.

What sort of panels are you looking at?

Might have it wrong and they are probably not be suitable for onboard but LG do panels that are 300w, 1016mm x 1686mm. similar area to the 6 panels Myjame described.

 

 

Recently installed a PV array at home - if anyone is interested I can provide further info on the performance of the setup - 10 x 285w panels - similar size to the ones mentioned above.

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