Jump to content

2 weeks boating in my electric boat


peterboat

Featured Posts

Nicely done.You're boating needs seem to be well catered for with the electric set up.We may all have a similar drive in time.

Lack of boats? I don't know,but around here W.Yorks. they seem to come in waves.Some days no boats moving,and others,loads.Perhaps there is a jungle telegraph that doesn't include us,and the message goes out, (let's all go for a cruise,) and everyone says "yeah,good idea"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Naughty Cal said:

You didn't exactly go far in two weeks though.

 

That would be a couple of days cruising for most!

 

1 hour ago, frangar said:

Two days at most!  

If the locks were open which from the saturday to Wednesday they wernt  I would have gone further, but when they are in the red you venture at your peril!! As I said I dont want to boat in torrential rain, even if I do have a wheelhouse, wet big locks and climbing down ladders onto wet boats isnt safe

Edited by peterboat
  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Peterboat, may I ask a question?

I understand you have replaced a diesel engine, with an electric motor, and extra batteries.

How has this worked space wise, could the volume taken up by a diesel engine and fuel tanks, be enough for an electric motor and batteries?

I understand that the whole roof will have to be taken up with solar panels.

 

Bod

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wish I had an electric motor

 

Simple stuff but: I’m doing an oil change. 

Replacing the fan belt. 

Doing the tappets. 

Cleaning oil out the bilges. 

 

And generally doing stuff that reminds me there’s other stuff I’d rather do. 

 

Forgetting batteries, what is there to service on an electric engine?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, Goliath said:

Wish I had an electric motor

 

Simple stuff but: I’m doing an oil change. 

Replacing the fan belt. 

Doing the tappets. 

Cleaning oil out the bilges. 

 

And generally doing stuff that reminds me there’s other stuff I’d rather do. 

 

Forgetting batteries, what is there to service on an electric engine?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

See I enjoy that sort of stuff!! I’m happiest when up to my armpits in grease! I went on a steam engine driving day...I was the only one who volunteered to go into the pit to oil the engine up....was as good as driving it! 

  • Greenie 2
  • Happy 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, canalhippy said:

But but but electric propulsion boats don’t work.... You haven’t got sufficient range to go out for two weeks.... 

Yep I know boring, give it a while and all the naysayers will be jumping on this lol.

 

:rolleyes: Oh dear, a tree hugger. He didnt go anywhere. Ask him to do the same journey in january ( Its august at present ) and he will go even less of a distance. You are so right, all electric propulsion without an internal combustion engine to charge the batteries simply doesnt work. I would be lovely if it did and thousands of boats would now have it fitted..................But they dont............cos it doesnt work.....................thirty or forty years from now maybe a different picture??

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Mad Harold said:

With all the flak Peterboat is taking about electric boating I don't think he can be blamed if he trots off to Thunderboat,where he can get higher class criticism.

Peter is fine, he can take the flak. I think its great he finds an electric boat suits his purpose. However for every one person that electric only boats suit there are 99 that like  myself they would be useless for. I would love to be all electric but the technology is simply many many years away yet to make it viable for myself and the majority.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, Bod said:

Peterboat, may I ask a question?

I understand you have replaced a diesel engine, with an electric motor, and extra batteries.

How has this worked space wise, could the volume taken up by a diesel engine and fuel tanks, be enough for an electric motor and batteries?

I understand that the whole roof will have to be taken up with solar panels.

 

Bod

They are small in comparison to a diesel engine, the whole thing including batteries fits in the  well where the engine sat 

2 hours ago, Goliath said:

Wish I had an electric motor

 

Simple stuff but: I’m doing an oil change. 

Replacing the fan belt. 

Doing the tappets. 

Cleaning oil out the bilges. 

 

And generally doing stuff that reminds me there’s other stuff I’d rather do. 

 

Forgetting batteries, what is there to service on an electric engine?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nothing 

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, StephenA said:

So you didn't move on Saturday, did about 4 miles on Sunday and that took your batteries to 55%?

 

 

That's because I wanted them at 55% I have been using the drive solar to heat the immersion heater. Lithium batteries last a lot longer if you store them at 50-60%, I have no idea what they were when I set off on Sunday as it didn't matter 

2 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

:rolleyes: Oh dear, a tree hugger. He didnt go anywhere. Ask him to do the same journey in january ( Its august at present ) and he will go even less of a distance. You are so right, all electric propulsion without an internal combustion engine to charge the batteries simply doesnt work. I would be lovely if it did and thousands of boats would now have it fitted..................But they dont............cos it doesnt work.....................thirty or forty years from now maybe a different picture??

Given the weather we are having I would have done better in January! But Tim you are missing the point I don't want to cruise in January, and seeing the numbers on the canals at the moment not many want to cruise now.

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Setting aside the shallow temptation to snipe at Peter's limited cruising range and only in good weather, what is most likely to happen is once ICE engines are banned in boats, the whole deal changes. Those like mrsmelly who want to cruise 28 hours a day, 400 days a year will see that boating isn't for them and sell up and buy a gypsy vardo, and those who are still interested will tailor their cruising plans to fit the capabilities of the boats of the day. 

 

Learning the new technical limits of boats and stretching them will become part-and-parcel of modern boating and those willing to get to grips with it will populate the canal system in the future, and hopefully be less miserable and negative bar stewards than the current bunch!

 

:giggles:

 

The other idea of course, is to get a horse. 

 

 

  • Greenie 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, peterboat said:
 
At no point you will notice did we have a problem with range 

 

I'm not surprised, you only ate takeaways and had a BBQ.

4 hours ago, mrsmelly said:

  I would be lovely if it did and 

We all think you're lovely even though 

  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, peterboat said:

Given the weather we are having I would have done better in January!

 

I'm not so sure about that, because in January the batteries would not only have to propel the boat, but heat it as well once burning diesel/kerosine/coal/wood etc is banned from boats. 

 

Heating will kick seven bells out of your batteries especially in January when the solar charging is down to 5% of its summer performance. Even tougher on the batts if you then decide to cook a Sunday lunch in the electric oven.

 

Are we there yet with electric boats?

 

Verdict: Yes in summer, no in winter.

 

 

 

Edited by Mike the Boilerman
Add a bit
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

Setting aside the shallow temptation to snipe at Peter's limited cruising range and only in good weather, what is most likely to happen is once ICE engines are banned in boats, the whole deal changes. Those like mrsmelly who want to cruise 28 hours a day, 400 days a year will see that boating isn't for them and sell up and buy a gypsy vardo, and those who are still interested will tailor their cruising plans to fit the capabilities of the boats of the day. 

 

Learning the new technical limits of boats and stretching them will become part-and-parcel of modern boating and those willing to get to grips with it will populate the canal system in the future, and hopefully be less miserable and negative bar stewards than the current bunch!

 

:giggles:

 

The other idea of course, is to get a horse. 

 

 

I think you and a few others have got it, the reality is up here we have had a miserable two weeks, yesterday was sunny all day a first for a long time. If I was a continues cruiser I would have no issues complying with the law and moving every few days, distance wise in 14 days it would be 20-30 miles with ease, In winter it wouldnt be an issue either as we get sunny days then more than enough to move every 5 days a few miles on. This suits many people but not Timm who seems to be on his mooring a lot at the moment!!? so for him it might be toooooo far

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 hours ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

The other idea of course, is to get a horse. 

There is sail and human bow hauling too. Lots of historical precedent on the S&SY, Navigation where @peterboat was cruising. Hey kids, we're going on a canal boat holiday. What fun you'll have. Take hold of this tow rope...

 

Jen


 

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

There is sail and human bow hauling too. Lots of historical precedent on the S&SY, Navigation where @peterboat was cruising. Hey kids, we're going on a canal boat holiday. What fun you'll have. Take hold of this tow rope...

 

Jen


 

And maybe it should be bow hauling with fully loaded Sheffield keels to make it more interesting?

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well done Peterboat. Do keep us posted on how it continues to work out and never mind the nay sayers. What a great system - on the days it's actually nice enough to enjoy a cruise - that's when you have the most power available! And twice as enjoyable no doubt thanks to near silence, no stink and no need to service at the end!

 

I think heating is really another issue - it's going to affect land dwellers just as much as boaters if fossil fuels can't be used, so whatever they use on land (prolly hydrogen?) for heating, we can too. I'm a massive fan of electric for propulsion, but it is not suitable for heating.

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Johny London said:

Well done Peterboat. Do keep us posted on how it continues to work out and never mind the nay sayers. What a great system - on the days it's actually nice enough to enjoy a cruise - that's when you have the most power available! And twice as enjoyable no doubt thanks to near silence, no stink and no need to service at the end!

 

I think heating is really another issue - it's going to affect land dwellers just as much as boaters if fossil fuels can't be used, so whatever they use on land (prolly hydrogen?) for heating, we can too. I'm a massive fan of electric for propulsion, but it is not suitable for heating.

 

Houses will use electric boilers with their existing wet central heating systems. However the houses will need a lot more insulation to get the rating of the boiler within the existing capacity of the cabling from the local transformer to the house.

 

40 years ago I saw some houses in Sweden, which were heated by a 2 kW blown air heater. However the were pretty much air tight and brought the air from outside into the house via a pipe buried deeper than the frost level, so the incoming air was always at about 10°C, summer or winter.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

29 minutes ago, cuthound said:

 

Houses will use electric boilers with their existing wet central heating systems. However the houses will need a lot more insulation to get the rating of the boiler within the existing capacity of the cabling from the local transformer to the house.

 

40 years ago I saw some houses in Sweden, which were heated by a 2 kW blown air heater. However the were pretty much air tight and brought the air from outside into the house via a pipe buried deeper than the frost level, so the incoming air was always at about 10°C, summer or winter.

I would have thought air/ground/water heating was the way forward, my friend Dave has it in his garage office works well and is very dry, prior to that it was always a damp office and not pleasant to work in. Its also supposed to be much more economical than direct electric

Link to comment
Share on other sites

32 minutes ago, peterboat said:

I would have thought air/ground/water heating was the way forward, my friend Dave has it in his garage office works well and is very dry, prior to that it was always a damp office and not pleasant to work in. Its also supposed to be much more economical than direct electric

 

Problem is you need a lot of space for ground source heating. I ran a project to put some in for an office building near London. Due to lack of available land, they dug a deep hole and put the glycol pipes in vertically rather than horizontally, and backfilled.

 

Made me wonder what would happen if everyone did it, would it lower the ground temperature?

Edited by cuthound
Spillung
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.