Running Vivarium power as a continuous cruiser

[Machpoint005]

20 minutes ago, Tony1 said:

The percentage of boats I've seen with wind turbine things is very low, which makes me pretty sceptical.

 

You are right to be sceptical. In order to get the turbine into a decent wind speed, you need height, lots of it. If the thing is just a few metres off the ground you are barely starting to overcome the problem of wind shear.

 

Canals tend to be in hollows, or have trees either side, meaning that boats are usually moored in areas of high surface roughness, which dramatically slows down the wind near ground level.

 

[Jim Batty]

I dug out a photo I made of this fellow's vertical spiral generator. This is in West Mills on the K&A, and he was an architectural student on his way down to Bristol. Aside from being a quite novel attachment to his otherwise fairly traditional looking boat, it struck me that it seemed to turn with the slightest breeze. And he told me that the beauty of this particular device was that it did generate power at very low wind speeds. How much energy I don't know.

 

 

I think is was a matter of using an Allen key to remove the generator and lay it on its side when it was cruising time. But I can image a quite cool rack or case that could be made for this.

 

In comparison, I have occasionally stood in what I would consider a Moderate Breeze (No 4 on the Beaufort scales mentioned above - so 13-18mph) and looked up at a boat's bladed wind generator on a raised mast ... and wondered at the fact that it wasn't turning ... so not producing any energy.

 

Just as a curious aside: On the other side of the trees on the island in the background of this picture, runs the River Kennet. In the river over there, earlier in the summer, I spotted a tortoise seemingly dazed and sunning itself whilst floating at about 30-degrees. I guess its shell was about 8 inches across. I was amazed. But when I reached for my phone to photograph it, it spotted me and immediately dove down to the river bed where it raised a 'cloud' of sediment and disappeared for good. 

[GUMPY]

7 minutes ago, Jim Batty said:

Just as a curious aside: On the other side of the trees on the island in the background of this picture, runs the River Kennet. In the river over there, earlier in the summer, I spotted a tortoise seemingly dazed and sunning itself whilst floating at about 30-degrees. I guess its shell was about 8 inches across. I was amazed. But when I reached for my phone to photograph it, it spotted me and immediately dove down to the river bed where it raised a 'cloud' of sediment and disappeared for good. 

Its a Terrapin

Releasd after Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles faded from popularity.

Seen them on the GU the size of dinner plates.

[Jim Batty]

13 minutes ago, Loddon said:

Its a Terrapin

Releasd after Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles faded from popularity.

Seen them on the GU the size of dinner plates.

Ho ho. 

 

The best pet name I ever heard was ... Ivan the Terrapin.

[MtB]

4 hours ago, Jim Batty said:

Ho ho. 

 

The best pet name I ever heard was ... Ivan the Terrapin.

 

There is apparently a couple of bods doing drive resurfacing, calling themselves "William the Concreter, and Vlad the Imprinter", lol!

[Alan de Enfield]

And of course in all areas of business there are the "cowboys"

 

 

 

 

 

[Batavia]

And the concrete cutting/drilling company - Natural Born Drillers

[David Mack]

Used to be a concrete supplier near my inlaws called 'Jim'l mix it'. Changed their name pretty quick though when Savile was shown up for what he was.

[Slim]

19 hours ago, Tony1 said:

The percentage of boats I've seen with wind turbine things is very low, which makes me pretty sceptical.

But that said, the percentage of boats with lithium batteries is also pretty low, and I think lithium batteries are the dog's cojones. So you know.....  😀

The flaw in that argument is that marine wind turbines have been around for decades whilst lithiums are a fairly new option for boaters. 

[Alan de Enfield]

13 minutes ago, Slim said:

The flaw in that argument is that marine wind turbines have been around for decades whilst lithiums are a fairly new option for boaters. 

 

 

And they work reasonably well 'at sea'.

Some are even reversible, stand them upright when anchored and you have a wind generator, turn them upside down and you have a water driven "Hydro" generator when cruising.

 

 

DuoGen 3 – Wind & Water Generator – Hybrid Generator – Micro Wind Turbines manufactured by Eclectic Energy Ltd (eclectic-energy.co.uk)

 

Assume the output at 7 knots is a typo ?

 

 

Water mode performance

• 8amps at 6 knots (100W) 190 Ah per day
• 5 amps at 7 knots (150W) 275 Ah per day
• 16 amps at 8 knots (200W) 380 Ah per day
• Minimal loss of boat speed
• Easy to deploy and recover
• Proven in all sea states
• Can provide all the power for a yacht on passage

 

Wind mode performance

• 5 amps at 10 knots wind speed (30W)
• 6 amps at 15 knots wind speed (75W)
• 11 amps at 20 knots wind speed (140W)

Edited October 24, 2021 by Alan de Enfield

[David Mack]

On a canal boat a water driven "Hydro" generator would just be a very inefficient way of converting diesel fuel into electricity!

There are better ways...