Electric boat for sale

[cuthound]

On 09/04/2023 at 13:48, Athy said:

Does anyone on the canals really want that? The sound of a diesel engine, be it a burping Bolinder or a bumbling Barrus, is part of the attraction and ambience of the inland waterways. Are there people who actually wish to pay far more money for something completely lacking in character? I suppose the ability to scare the bejasus out of waterside fishermen may be an advantage for some, but that pleasure comes at a high price.

 

If you hanker after a traditional engine sound and have an electric boat you could record the sound of the engine of your choice and play it on a continuous loop.

 

Why you record several and swap the sound to suit your mood... 😂

[IanD]

39 minutes ago, cuthound said:

 

If you hanker after a traditional engine sound and have an electric boat you could record the sound of the engine of your choice and play it on a continuous loop.

 

Why you record several and swap the sound to suit your mood... 😂

Ooh, several good candidates here -- Rolls-Royce Merlin, Chrysler Hemi, Ferrari V12, BRM V16, Bolinder, Gresley A4, a Big Boy going up Cheyenne... 😉

[cuthound]

11 minutes ago, IanD said:

Ooh, several good candidates here -- Rolls-Royce Merlin, Chrysler Hemi, Ferrari V12, BRM V16, Bolinder, Gresley A4, a Big Boy going up Cheyenne... 😉

 

The A4 Sir Nigel Gresley went past us on the WCML last week. Beautiful sight, smell and sound.

[magnetman]

Ford Mondeo diesel. 

I think Tesla might do something like this on the X model. I heard one making an awful racket which presumably must have been deliberate. 

[ditchcrawler]

1 hour ago, cuthound said:

 

If you hanker after a traditional engine sound and have an electric boat you could record the sound of the engine of your choice and play it on a continuous loop.

 

Why you record several and swap the sound to suit your mood... 😂

How about a Hornby sound chip, you could have a choice of steam and diesels

[Tonka]

28 minutes ago, magnetman said:

Ford Mondeo diesel. 

I think Tesla might do something like this on the X model. I heard one making an awful racket which presumably must have been deliberate. 

[cheesegas]

Haven't read the whole thread, but I reckon a series hybrid is the perfect setup for most liveaboards with no shore power. You'd have a very large 48v (so off-the-shelf chargers/inverters can be used) lifepo4 bank shared between propulsion and leisure, a near-silent encapsulated 8kva 240v variable speed generator and an 10kw ish electric motor driving the prop. And as much solar as the roof can fit. The idea is that the battery bank rarely gets charged to 100%, which is perfect for maximum life of a lifepo4 bank.

 

In winter when the solar isn't doing much, to charge the batteries to cover domestic usage, you now have a diesel engine running at near maximum efficiency as it's under load right until the very end of the charge cycle. Quite unlike your average Beta 38 with a 120a alternator being run in idle to charge a lithium bank at a fraction of the speed. And for heavy 240v loads like the washing machine, you can just run the generator. An average liveaboard uses 1kwh a day, so assuming there's zero solar, 1hr of generator running would cover 4 days of usage.

 

1.5kw of panels on the roof will still leave enough room on most 50'+ boats for some storage, and it'll yield around 6kwh per day in the peak of summer; assuming you cruise every weekend for a 7hr day, in summer you'll rarely need to the run the generator. A 8kva generator would only put just under two hours of cruising time into the batteries for every hour of runtime, but this is supplemented by solar for 8 months of the year. Putting the generator on to run the washing machine a couple of days before cruising would cover 3-4hrs of propulsion alone.

 

...oh if I had the time I'd love to do something like the above! 

 

[IanD]

1 hour ago, cuthound said:

 

The A4 Sir Nigel Gresley went past us on the WCML last week. Beautiful sight, smell and sound.

Love that triplet beat... 🙂

[peterboat]

3 minutes ago, cheesegas said:

Haven't read the whole thread, but I reckon a series hybrid is the perfect setup for most liveaboards with no shore power. You'd have a very large 48v (so off-the-shelf chargers/inverters can be used) lifepo4 bank shared between propulsion and leisure, a near-silent encapsulated 8kva 240v variable speed generator and an 10kw ish electric motor driving the prop. And as much solar as the roof can fit. The idea is that the battery bank rarely gets charged to 100%, which is perfect for maximum life of a lifepo4 bank.

 

In winter when the solar isn't doing much, to charge the batteries to cover domestic usage, you now have a diesel engine running at near maximum efficiency as it's under load right until the very end of the charge cycle. Quite unlike your average Beta 38 with a 120a alternator being run in idle to charge a lithium bank at a fraction of the speed. And for heavy 240v loads like the washing machine, you can just run the generator. An average liveaboard uses 1kwh a day, so assuming there's zero solar, 1hr of generator running would cover 4 days of usage.

 

1.5kw of panels on the roof will still leave enough room on most 50'+ boats for some storage, and it'll yield around 6kwh per day in the peak of summer; assuming you cruise every weekend for a 7hr day, in summer you'll rarely need to the run the generator. A 8kva generator would only put just under two hours of cruising time into the batteries for every hour of runtime, but this is supplemented by solar for 8 months of the year. Putting the generator on to run the washing machine a couple of days before cruising would cover 3-4hrs of propulsion alone.

 

...oh if I had the time I'd love to do something like the above! 

 

I have done it, so much fun and games were had! I have 5kw of solar 36kwhs of drive lifepo4s at 72 volts, nearly 10 kwhs of domestic lifepo4s at 24 volts. A 6kw generator which heats water and will also do the central heating if left on long enough! The 72 volts batteries can charge the 24 volts battery bank via a DC to DC charger, winter this year I used about 25 litres of diesel  to make up the shortfall from solar. Mine is a widebeam with wheelhouse so I have a bigger electric motor to cruise with than 10 KW 

[IanD]

12 minutes ago, cheesegas said:

Haven't read the whole thread, but I reckon a series hybrid is the perfect setup for most liveaboards with no shore power. You'd have a very large 48v (so off-the-shelf chargers/inverters can be used) lifepo4 bank shared between propulsion and leisure, a near-silent encapsulated 8kva 240v variable speed generator and an 10kw ish electric motor driving the prop. And as much solar as the roof can fit. The idea is that the battery bank rarely gets charged to 100%, which is perfect for maximum life of a lifepo4 bank.

 

In winter when the solar isn't doing much, to charge the batteries to cover domestic usage, you now have a diesel engine running at near maximum efficiency as it's under load right until the very end of the charge cycle. Quite unlike your average Beta 38 with a 120a alternator being run in idle to charge a lithium bank at a fraction of the speed. And for heavy 240v loads like the washing machine, you can just run the generator. An average liveaboard uses 1kwh a day, so assuming there's zero solar, 1hr of generator running would cover 4 days of usage.

 

1.5kw of panels on the roof will still leave enough room on most 50'+ boats for some storage, and it'll yield around 6kwh per day in the peak of summer; assuming you cruise every weekend for a 7hr day, in summer you'll rarely need to the run the generator. A 8kva generator would only put just under two hours of cruising time into the batteries for every hour of runtime, but this is supplemented by solar for 8 months of the year. Putting the generator on to run the washing machine a couple of days before cruising would cover 3-4hrs of propulsion alone.

 

...oh if I had the time I'd love to do something like the above! 

 

That's pretty much what I will have -- 48V 700Ah LFP bank, cocooned 9kVA generator, 2kW of solar (7kWh/day in summer, maybe 1.5kWh/day in winter), 15kW continuous motor, 10kVA inverter/charger. Looking at actual power use when cruising all day, I expect to need to run the generator for about an hour a day when cruising all day in summer, or getting on for 2h per cruising day in winter. If cruising is only a couple of days per week (or a few hours per day every day) then solar will provide all the power needed in summer, generator will still be needed in winter -- but running the genny for an hour will also give a full tank of hot water. No need to run the generator for any electrical load including cooking and washing, batteries and inverter can cope just fine.

 

LFP battery bank life for a boat is simply not an issue so long as you don't spend much time at 100% (or go below 0%, obviously...), they'll probably outlast the rest of the boat even for a full-time liveaboard.

Edited April 10, 2023 by IanD

[peterboat]

These batteries will I suspect be ideal for boats 

 

[IanD]

On 12/04/2023 at 18:56, peterboat said:

These batteries will I suspect be ideal for boats 

 

And probably most applications where cost is most important, especially because they use cheap plentiful sodium not more expensive rarer lithium, which will be a plus as volumes carry on going up.

 

Might take some time to happen though, especially a big price drop -- and in the meantime LFP is fine for boats 🙂

[ditchcrawler]

On 07/04/2023 at 21:55, Guest said:

Video from them : -

 

 

 

Someone here soon got tired of their dream. Its got some really good solar panels on it as well and two thirds the price of a new one
 Ortomarine High Spec Serial Hybrid – Available Now For Sale! – Ortomarine

[peterboat]

8 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

Someone here soon got tired of their dream. Its got some really good solar panels on it as well and two thirds the price of a new one
 Ortomarine High Spec Serial Hybrid – Available Now For Sale! – Ortomarine

He is moving abroad so cant take it with him, what surprises me is the size of the battery bank its 600ah which is smaller than my leisure battery bank!

[ditchcrawler]

1 minute ago, peterboat said:

He is moving abroad so cant take it with him, what surprises me is the size of the battery bank its 600ah which is smaller than my leisure battery bank!

But its got a lot of solar and a reasonable genny plus its not been used

 

[peterboat]

1 minute ago, ditchcrawler said:

But its got a lot of solar and a reasonable genny plus its not been used

 

True but you need batteries to store all that electric its making 

[IanD]

19 minutes ago, peterboat said:

He is moving abroad so cant take it with him, what surprises me is the size of the battery bank its 600ah which is smaller than my leisure battery bank!

It's probably 48V though, not 12V... 😉 

[Paul C]

Ah is a terrible unit. 

[peterboat]

5 hours ago, IanD said:

It's probably 48V though, not 12V... 😉 

Kwh would be better 

[IanD]

10 hours ago, peterboat said:

Kwh would be better 

Indeed, and I expect it's 30kWh of LFP...

[cheesegas]

I’d love a series hybrid boat as a CC’r. Big lifepo4 bank for propulsion and house duties, near silent capsule genny for fast charging in winter (no more having to run a 30hp diesel for only 1kw of charging!) and for extended cruising. 
 

Just need a couple months off work and a small workshop to do the conversion…it’ll never happen!

[peterboat]

5 minutes ago, cheesegas said:

I’d love a series hybrid boat as a CC’r. Big lifepo4 bank for propulsion and house duties, near silent capsule genny for fast charging in winter (no more having to run a 30hp diesel for only 1kw of charging!) and for extended cruising. 
 

Just need a couple months off work and a small workshop to do the conversion…it’ll never happen!

I did mine myself  so you could to

[magnetman]

I want to do this on my 9ft wide saloon launch. 

 

Keep the wonderful Diesel main engine and add a couple of electric motors as wing engines with their own little weed hatches. 

 

Big 48v alternator running off the main engine tailshaft. Generator in the gas locker. 

Plenty of solar. 

 

If fancy paints a feast it costs no more to paint it fine. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah !

[ditchcrawler]

5 hours ago, IanD said:

Indeed, and I expect it's 30kWh of LFP...

So how many full charges would this be equivalent to     

 

 2.4kW of solar panels on the roof (which have generated nearly 1.5 Mega Watts of power since launch)

[IanD]

1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

So how many full charges would this be equivalent to     

 

 2.4kW of solar panels on the roof (which have generated nearly 1.5 Mega Watts of power since launch)

Solar panels that can provide 1.5MW wouldn't fit on any canal boat... 😉

 

(I expect they meant 1.5MWh...)

 

2.4kW of solar would be expected to average about 8kWh/day in summer, so 1.5MWh would need about 6 months of summer days -- and be equivalent to 50 full charges from 0% to 100% SoC.

 

None of which helps if the sun doesn't sodding shine in the summer, like now -- in the last 12 days we've managed 48kWh of solar which is 4kWh/day, about half the expected number... 😞 

 

(generator has averaged 13kWh/day which is higher than expected for the same reason)