For me the enticing thing about regen is to have a reliable source of power when cruising. And even though 200 watts doesn't sound like much, when coastal sailing, and being at sea for 24 for 48 hours at a stretch, the potential is enormous compared to what I'm used to.
Regen is an interesting recurring topic on this forum.
And there are various ways to look at it---find the way that suits your needs and go with it.
Just be sure to respect the laws of physics and known applicable equations and curves.
As mentioned by Chris, the return is not great and if the regen is to be had while under sail (rather than anchored in current), there's a penalty to be paid: Speed of boat in water.
Where the regen tradeoff is not worthwhile for sailing is if you need to keep the speed up to reach the destination by a certain tide or time and if you will have power available at your destination anyway. If it costs 1knot on your speed to capture a mere 200watts of electricity, while it requires a doubing of power for the boat to increase speed by 1knot, the cost of regen can be steep if the primary need is to cover distance quickly and you expect good wind the entire way.
Where it would certainly be worthwhile is if you're sailing and really don't need the speed, but could or will need the electricity later.
And there's a million other circumstances between these that could swing either way. Be conservative and have backup plans---having regen can be part of that backup plan. But you might best add a wind generator instead.
Of course the no-brainer free-energy case is where you expect to be anchoring in a high current zone----but how often do you really want to do that?
-Myles
No comments:
Post a Comment