Re: [Electric Boats] B2G TECHNOLOGY: IS THAR GOLD IN THEM THAR HULLS?

Here on the east coast of Australia there is common pattern amongst
part time cruisers to go north to the tropics for a few months in
winter, and spend the rest of the year in their home port. The wind/
solar capacity of these boats is often enough for running the boat
while living aboard and refrigeration is usually the biggest load. In
the other 9 or so months of the year when the boat is left at the
marina, often enough without the refrigeration running, there is
virtually no demand on the batteries. So the full generation capacity
of the boat would often be available.

And a human foible is to have optimistic plans, and so quite often
these cruising boats remain at the dock, with plans put on hold for
another year while the bank balance is topped up enough :)

The drawback here is that all the marinas I've ever been at include
power as part of berthing charges, and its not billed separately. So
you guys in the US are at an advantage to implement this technology.
And the micro-inverters that Myles refers to are easily affordable,
and could be a small step in this direction, although they may take a
few years to pay for themselves.

Cheers

Chris

On 03/03/2010, at 2:23 AM, Kevin Pemberton wrote:

> Is there anyone out there that has more power generation ability than
> they need on their boat? It may be true that some solar and wind
> generation is on them but hardly enough to do more than maintain their
> house system. If you have more than enough then why not save some
> bucks
> by mooring rather than using a slip with power? I doubt the return
> from
> the power company would come close to the savings obtained by mooring.
>
> It makes more sense to hold off on the panels until you are ready to
> cruise, than to install for five years down the road. If you are
> planning to cruise, then why install an inverter that is designed to
> pay
> the grid? Then I guess that not to many people are really getting
> ready
> for that, so why not get a i2000 for the weeks you use the boat? If
> you
> are getting ready to cruise it also makes a lot of sense to rent
> batteries to test the system, and wait to purchase batteries till you
> will put them to use.
>
> In Newport Beach,CA the taxes for a mooring including live-aboard
> permit
> was only $1500 a year in 2002, slips were over $300 a month. If you
> aren't going to need the power why invest? Toys are nice, but a little
> common sense is golden. Unless of course your desire is to sponsor
> the grid.
>
>
> Kevin Pemberton
>
>
> Chris Witzgall wrote:
>>
>> Most electric companies, at least the ones in the states, do not
>> allow
>> this buy and sell back method using your batteries as storage. It
>> does
>> not work out to be cost effective usually, but I guess it could if
>> the
>> battery technology was LIFEPO4 or something that accepted 3000+
>> charge
>> cycles. We have a 4000w inverter and a 48v system in our house – the
>> inverter does have this as a factory setting, you sent the times when
>> you want to "Buy and sell" Our power company forbids the use of this
>> setting.
>>
>> Chris
>>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>

------------------------------------

Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/electricboats/

<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/electricboats/join
(Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
electricboats-digest@yahoogroups.com
electricboats-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
electricboats-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/