Re: Diesel electric canal boat.

On Tue, 09 Aug 2005 11:10:54 -0000, Steve Blinkhorn
>The auxiliary powerplant I was talking about is there precisely to
>provide electrical power - but IIRC it generates 300Hz AC, so it
>would need some fancy electronics for domestic power as well as for
>motive power. My diesel-electric system has fancy electronics -
>well, not all that fancy - to control the drive motor, but nice clean
>real 240v 50Hz AC (times 3 phases) for domestics with the genset
>running and synthesised sinewave from the inverter when it's not.

I've come in a bit late for this, having must returned from some
boating in France.

However, has anyone mentioned "The DC Concept", as promoted by Reinout
Vader of Victron Energy?

Basically, this involves having a small, silent generator running for
quite long hours, continually charging a large battery. Power is used
via an inverter, which first draws from the generator and then adds
power from the battery to this if the immediate (short term) load is
higher than that which the generator can meet.

A nice addition to this idea is that the battery could be used to
power an electric propulsion motor. Not for unlimited hours, but
quite possibly enough for average daily cruising, as an inland vessel
under way consumes much less energy than you might think, and the
battery would be able to supply plenty of instand power for a short
period if an emergency stop is needed. The generator could be run
while cruising too, if one wanted, to increase the daily cruising
hours available.

Vader uses the Whispergen as his generator, but these are (still)
expensive and not of proved durability. A conventional small and
well-cocooned generator would do just fine as an alternative, I think.

This is covered by the booklet "Electricity on Board", availably from
www.victronengery.com

Worth a look, I think.

>A final thought. Probably the single most important decision we
>made was to use gel batteries, because of the high rate of charge
>they will accept. So we only rarely run the generator just to
>charge the batteries. I'm not sure it is widely enough realised
>what the range of permissible charge rates is when boat electrics
>come under discussion.

I avoid these. Overcharge them once, and they are dead. The gel
dries out, and can't be re-moistened. I use conventional 2 V traction
cells (as found in fork lifts), and religiously keep them charged and
full of electrolyte. My last set lasted 15 years.

If you want really high charge acceptance rates, consider NiCads.
They can accept very high charging current. They don't mind being
left uncharged, or partly charged, either. There are some technical
problems, and they are so expensive new you probably would buy used
ones, but since they last 20 or 30 years that is feasible.

Adrian


.

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