Electric boats - the future???

[WotEver]

2 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

Throw it in the bin like 99 percent of people do, especialy the ones who claim to be green!! ?

Well yes, that was my first thought

Just now, Alan de Enfield said:

Stop going onto the Viagra websites, you can (allegedly) get it direct on the NHS

But I keep getting all these emails...

[Robbo]

7 minutes ago, WotEver said:

Interesting article. It raises a question: I have recently replaced a lithium laptop battery which has swelled to double size - what should I do with it?

If a shop sells batteries they will take them back (by law if they sell over a certain amount).

[WotEver]

9 minutes ago, Robbo said:

If a shop sells batteries they will take them back (by law if they sell over a certain amount).

So drop it into the nearest Apple shop? (It came from an iMac)

[Robbo]

8 minutes ago, WotEver said:

So drop it into the nearest Apple shop? (It came from an iMac)

Aye (although can be any retailer) Although the iMac is a desktop and not the laptop!

 

The regs are here; https://www.gov.uk/battery-waste-supplier-reponsibilities

Edited October 10, 2018 by Robbo

[mrsmelly]

14 minutes ago, Robbo said:

If a shop sells batteries they will take them back (by law if they sell over a certain amount).

A good post, I looked online and you are quite correct. I a shop sells batteries over 32 kg in weight per year they have to accept returns. Doesnt apply to such as car/leisure batteries but does for small sealed and laptop type batteries. I havnt looked into it further than that so dont know if that includes such as laptop suppliers who sell the battery as part of the original sale or if its just applicable to retailers who sell stand alone batteries for instance?

[Robbo]

Just now, mrsmelly said:

A good post, I looked online and you are quite correct. I a shop sells batteries over 32 kg in weight per year they have to accept returns. Doesnt apply to such as car/leisure batteries but does for small sealed and laptop type batteries. I havnt looked into it further than that so dont know if that includes such as laptop suppliers who sell the battery as part of the original sale or if its just applicable to retailers who sell stand alone batteries for instance?

Aye, has to be portable batteries which is classed as under 4kg.   It quotes the below so they need to be able to take all batteries even if they don’t sell them..

 

The collection point

You must have a collection point in your place of business.

It should be suitable for the safe storage of all kinds of portable batteries, not just the types you sell.

[WotEver]

13 minutes ago, Robbo said:

Aye (although can be any retailer) Although the iMac is a desktop and not the laptop!

 

The regs are here; https://www.gov.uk/battery-waste-supplier-reponsibilities

Yeah... MacBook Pro, thinking about it. I’m not much of a Mac person. 

 

Thanks for the info.

 

[Robbo]

5 minutes ago, WotEver said:

Yeah... MacBook Pro, thinking about it. I’m not much of a Mac person. 

 

Thanks for the info.

 

Although you could have some fun with the battery and stick a screwdriver through it - probably wise to do it outside tho, and stand back a bit ? 

[WotEver]

4 minutes ago, Robbo said:

Although you could have some fun with the battery and stick a screwdriver through it - probably wise to do it outside tho, and stand back a bit ? 

I considered starting a bonfire with it... make a little tripod with it sat on top and have a little tea light below... see what happens  

[Mike Todd]

13 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

The first boat I drove was electric 

What was the negative return?

[Alan de Enfield]

8 minutes ago, Mike Todd said:

What was the negative return?

They cost more to operate than the income they generated.

[WotEver]

45 minutes ago, Mike Todd said:

What was the negative return?

Maybe they brined the water. 

[MtB]

1 hour ago, WotEver said:

I considered starting a bonfire with it... make a little tripod with it sat on top and have a little tea light below... see what happens  

 

Your laptop will stop working if you burn the battery.

 

Hope that helps...

 

[WotEver]

22 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

Your laptop will stop working if you burn the battery.

 

Hope that helps...

 

Cheers mate, I knew I could count on you. 

[Mike Todd]

2 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

They cost more to operate than the income they generated.

I was not trying to be funny (but then you probably weren't either) . . . 

[Horace42]

Back to the boat itself, I did not pursue the idea of all electric drive and large batteries (but with an on-board separate small silent generator) was by chance we went for a ride on one - and I found the almost silent 'whine' of the motor (or maybe the speed controller) was somewhat disconcerting. I did not like it......so I abandoned the idea.

[ditchcrawler]

9 hours ago, Robbo said:

Aye (although can be any retailer) Although the iMac is a desktop and not the laptop!

 

The regs are here; https://www.gov.uk/battery-waste-supplier-reponsibilities

Aldi have a bin for them

[dunfixing]

I don’t think battery powered narrow boats will ever take, you can’t drive a battery powered car the same distance and speed as petrol or diesel. (Comparing size like for like).

i would like to see any solar panels that can produce more than 20% in the winter with cloud cover.

[Alan de Enfield]

5 minutes ago, dunfixing said:

i would like to see any solar panels that can produce more than 20% in the winter with cloud cover.

I'd be more than happy to see some that produced an average of 5% of rated output during the 4 months, November to February

[Naughty Cal]

We hired an electric day boat in Norfolk earlier this year. It wasn't quite the silent experience we had expected as there was a lot of noise from the drive train. 

 

These were far from new boats and have been in service for many years.

[StephenA]

Ken who used to be the engineer at Wayfarer Narrowboats and then went on to own Edgerton Boats had an all electric narrow boat back in the 1980s - used a lot of milk float traction batteries and he kept it charged up from a land line...

[Naughty Cal]

Just as an aside there is a hybrid electric diesel cruiser which we really like the look of. The Greenline 33.

 

It can on a sunny day propel itself at 3 knots max using the electric motor and the 2kw solar array on the roof will generate enough power to sustain this and run the electrical items onboard. 

 

On a more typical day the boat can do circa 30 miles before the diesel engine takes over.

 

We think it is a great concept that would work really well on a boat used on the rivers.

[ditchcrawler]

Anyone knows how that wide beam all electric boat on the Thames is making out

[StephenA]

I'd forgotten that the trip boats at Wigan Pier were electric - they were widebeams and not doing a great distance each day and although I know they charged up over night I don't know if they were topped up during the day,

[Guest]

19 minutes ago, Naughty Cal said:

Just as an aside there is a hybrid electric diesel cruiser which we really like the look of. The Greenline 33.

 

It can on a sunny day propel itself at 3 knots max using the electric motor and the 2kw solar array on the roof will generate enough power to sustain this and run the electrical items onboard. 

 

On a more typical day the boat can do circa 30 miles before the diesel engine takes over.

 

We think it is a great concept that would work really well on a boat used on the rivers.

I think the future will as for cars be a hybrid solution.

 

Pure electric propulsion is simply not viable for lots of reasons and lots of people for both cars and boats. The govt. have been careful to say Hybrids (that can achieve a certain mileage under pure electric propulsion) will not be banned in the future thus paving the way for makers to create even more efficient hybrid systems. There is also the potential for cars and boats to share hybrid technology.

Edited October 14, 2018 by MJG