T-Pain Is On A Boat: Re: [Electric Boats] Re: advice for catamaran project

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Re: [Electric Boats] Re: advice for catamaran project

If Eric goes by total cost for one trip around the globe and does not include rebuilds, parts, tuneup, oil changes hours of your time or the marines mechanics time. Then he might have something. But by the same logic most sails have never paid for themselves either. After you buy the sail, mast ,boom and the ground tackle, it would take a very very very long time to get a return on investment vs miles traveled vs gas, not counting any of the cost of a gas engine. But then your not including things like the value of not needing to have monetary daily outlay. Very important for someone who wants to cruse on a budget. But as most world sailers, and well throughout electric drive systems owners can tell you. It is nice to prepay for maintenance and fuel cost.

But I am still not sure I'll sussed the "premise when evaluating the financial impact of the decision" That gas is less costly then electric for total return on investment. Eric makes some bizarre assumptions like gas engines are as reliable as electric and have similar maintenance costs and life spans. Once you factor in those differences I think electric does come out way ahead. I know my electric vehicle has been massively less expensive to use and operate then a similar gas one. In this case I am comparing an electric Vectrix to a Honda Silver-wing. The Vectrix cost about $1000 more new then a Silver-wing for similar performance scooters. In just a couple of years of use I have easily got that $1000 dollars back via zero maintenance cost and fuel savings and that is just in two years! I'll tell you as someone who has owned Gas scooters before, I'll never be going back to gas. It was far far more expensive, Your very first engine repair could easily make the difference in initial price!

My second example is an Electric lawn mower I own, Way over ten years old zero gas or maintenance needed. Compare that to friends that have replaced there cheaper gas mowers at least one in that time frame, I have come out way ahead total cost wise.

To sum up an electric motor is several orders of magnitude less complex then a gas motor with thousands of moving parts. And by all rights a good well designed electric system should be trouble free for years in not decades. How many post in this forum start out " I have a gas motor that is broke/ unreliable / on its last leg" Think about that! If you have to replace your gas motor every 6-7 years how cheap was it really?

On May 26, 2010, at 5:50 PM, nzsilvia wrote:

hi eric

diesel is considerably cheaper in nz due to the road tax being paid seperately while it is included in the price of petrol. you are right though it would take me a very long time to recover the difference if ever.. (unless i mannaged to work out a very cost effective way of doing diesel electric) i've just always hated going along burning 4 lires an hour knowing i could be burning 3.. one of the reasons why i have sold my planing boat and i am now going to a displacement boat with sails! the new technology certainly does interest me too and the possibility of regen etc if i were to have a battery bank in the future is appealing.. i have not ruled outboards out completely yet though if d/e is going to be unobtainably exensive for me i will follow that route. thank you for your advice it is good to know about all options.. would 20 horses really only burn 2l/hr? i had heard similar figures for 9.9's

thanks.
adam.

--- In electricboats@yahoogroups.com, "Eric" <ewdysar@...> wrote:
>
> Adam,
>
> Please check your premise when evaluating the financial impact of the decision. Let's assume that petrol and diesel both cost about the same, $1.40 AUD/liter. I'm in California, so you can adjust the fuel prices to your local sources. Also, diesel electric will not be twice as efficient as petrol outboards.
>
> Dual petrol outboards should burn less than 4 liters/hour at electric equivalent speeds (5kts) or $1.12/nm.
>
> If the dual diesel electric drives burn 3 liters/hour at the same speed, then they cost $0.84/nm or a savings of $0.28/nm.
>
> If you circumnavigated the globe (25,000nm) entirely under power at 5kts, your total fuel savings would be only $7,000.00. A more realistic figure of 1000nm/year will save you $280.00 annually.
>
> Of course, you can pick alternative drives because you're interested in new technology or just because you want to, but try to be realistic when formulating financial justifications.
>
> Fair winds,
> Eric
> Marina del Rey, CA
>
> --- In electricboats@yahoogroups.com, "nzsilvia" <nzsilvia@> wrote:
> >
> > hi again everyone, thanks for all the advice!
> >
> > the main reason i am put off petrol outboards is the lower fuel ecnomy.. i will be living on the boat for probably at least a year before i get sails and moving around alot. plus i plan to live onboard longterm exploring overseas eventually so the fuel saved should overcome the likely larger initial investment....
> >
> > thanks.
> > adam.
> >
>