Hi George,
I'm pretty familiar with electric conversions and I have stated consistantly that I believe that electric propulsion is a good alternative to ICE in some situtations, but it is not a universal answer.
You may ask about my credentials and why anyone should care about my opinion. That's a fair question. I pretty familiar with electric conversions. In the mid-1990s, I worked on a number of electric car conversions and built one for myself at that time. I don't own one now, I sold the car because it took more attention than my ICE powered cars.
Today I own two sailboats, one converted to electric and one that is not. Both boats were repowered in the last 5 years. The 27' racing trimaran got a new $2000 4 stroke outboard. That solution was driven by lower cost, easier conversion (swapping the motor and the controls took about 1 hour) and the much lighter overall drive weight. My local coastal racing safety regulations require that I have "Sufficient power and fuel for the boat to achieve a speed equal to the square root of her waterline, for a distance of 30 nautical miles in flat water without a headwind." Four gallons of gasoline (about 25 lbs) meets that requirement, I'm not sure if the $3500, 200 lb, 8kWh Lithium battery pack that I installed in my other boat would drive the boat that far. On somewhat of a side note, switching to a Torqeedo 801 for me dinghy motor saves about 5-10 pounds over my old 2hp dinghy outboard and fuel and the Torqeedo can be stored below (no fuel issues).
My other boat is a 1964 Cheoy Lee Bermuda 30 ketch. I removed the non-operational Yanmar SVE12 (scrap metal) and installed a 5.5kW drive system from Propulsion Marine. Due to some of my choices, (lithium batteries, PFC charger, electric system instrumentaion, etc.) the total cost of the project was no cheaper than if I had self-installed a new Beta Marine 16hp diesel. I am very pleased with the performance of the system and how it meets my particular usage.
In short, I believe that for one of my boats, converting to electric propulsion was not pratically or financially justified. For my other boat, it has been an excellent choice.
So when anyone here makes broad generalizations like "Electric propulsion is better that ICE" or "ICE propulsion is better than electric" I find their statements to be dogmatic and unsubstantiated if left unqualified.
Fair winds,
Eric
Marina del Rey, CA
--- In electricboats@yahoogroups.com, GNHBus@... wrote:
>
>
> Larry, John,
>
> .... Im ending any reply to this thread here, and I encourage you both to further explain how E-Prop is not
> practicable, justifiable, or financially feasible as I really need to understand your points of view on this subject.....
>
No comments:
Post a Comment