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eco-efficient-houseboatchanger this been on before?


rasputin

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1 hour ago, Graham Davis said:

Correct. We've got 16 panels on our bungalow which gives 4kw. I have room for 2 more but was told that it wasn't worth the hassle due to having to apply for commercial use and possibly planning permission. We are now waiting for our hot water tank to spring a leak so we can replace it with a twin coil unit and 2 water panels in the space on the roof.

I think they have 20 on the boat

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Just to put some real numbers on this, I have 660W array (flat not tilted), & on 29th June this year, when it was only 11°C outside at 7.30am so I lit my fire, it was that dark & cloudy, my panels were only putting out a whopping 0.5A into flat batteries (12.0V) & sunrise was supposed to be 4.46 am. It was so dark I thought I'd woken up at 4.30am, but I hadnt.

They say The <snip> solar panels <snip> produce 6KW of 100% renewable energy.
But surely that should be they produce kWh

Edited by Ssscrudddy
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11 minutes ago, Ssscrudddy said:

They say The <snip> solar panels <snip> produce 6KW of 100% renewable energy.
But surely that should be they produce kWh

No, they can have 6kW of panels which, in an hour, are capable of generating 6kWh of power (but never will in the UK, especially laying flat as they are). 

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Had to laugh at the video that showed how quiet the engine was, it sounded like a normal diesel engine to me.

2 minutes ago, WotEver said:

Or 300W panels to give 6kW?  Dunno where Mr Cruddy got the 6kW figure from. 

From their website

Edited by Ssscrudddy
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6 minutes ago, cereal tiller said:

I think the Blurb stated that the Boat needed one Hour of Sun to give 5 KW?

I’ve had a deeper nose on their site now. Under ‘Technology’ they state 20 panels with a total of 6kW. And a 96kWh battery bank (they don’t mention system voltage as far as I could see with a quick look). 

Edited by WotEver
Missed an important ‘h’
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They say they have a 96kWh battery bank, assuming 12V = 8,000 Ah battery bank, or 24V 4000Ah. I was under the impression you should have at least 1W solar per Ah battery storage.

Either way, even with all that solar, there's no way that battery bank is getting charged up in 1 hour.

Electric cooker? I bet they kill those batteries dead quick.

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1 minute ago, Ssscrudddy said:

Either way, even with all that solar, there's no way that battery bank is getting charged up in 1 hour.

Scaling up the bank size and/or the generating capacity has surprisingly little effect on overall charge time. That last 10% to 20% of charge still takes hours and hours. The bulk charge time will be reduced but the overall absorption time (by far the longest bit of the cycle) will be much the same as any other system. 

I agree that they’ll already be running into battery problems unless they’re on shore power. 

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The impression given on the website is that this boat will cruise for 10 hours a day, every day, using only solar power.  You don't have to know anything about electricity to know that isn't possible.  

I think the forum has actually been quite restrained in its critique of this monstrosity.

And by the way, the so called sustainability of this vessel might be tested when they have to replace all those forklift batteries.   

 

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Just now, Neil2 said:

The impression given on the website is that this boat will cruise for 10 hours a day, every day, using only solar power.  You don't have to know anything about electricity to know that isn't possible.  

I think the forum has actually been quite restrained in its critique of this monstrosity.

And by the way, the so called sustainability of this vessel might be tested when they have to replace all those forklift batteries.   

 

Yes, and those Batteries will not achieve many cycles ,they will be wrecked in a few months or less!

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7 hours ago, Ssscrudddy said:

They say they have a 96kWh battery bank, assuming 12V = 8,000 Ah battery bank, or 24V 4000Ah. I was under the impression you should have at least 1W solar per Ah battery storage.

Either way, even with all that solar, there's no way that battery bank is getting charged up in 1 hour.

Electric cooker? I bet they kill those batteries dead quick.

They have 48 2 volt cells, so 96 Volt if not have two 48 V banks

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I'm gonna be controversial now.

Although I agree that the article is pants, looking at the spec of the boat, I'm fairly impressed and can see this arrangement working well for certain users (but maybe not the owners).  The rainwater harvesting, compost toilet etc would all work fine as far as I can see.

Picture this user:  November - end of Feb in a marina on shoreline.  Then continuously cruising for the rest of the year, mainly on canals.  Moving a few miles every week or two.  Silent cruising, no bothering with diesel supplies, rarely needing to top up water, no emptying of cassettes, or pumping out.  The boat is very self-sufficient.  I like to moor for extended periods "out in the wilds", however I have to factor in stopping at services on a regular basis, this boat would free me up a lot.

Of course there would be down-sides - I'd have a nightmare singlehanding through locks with those panels covering the roof.

It's boats like this which attempt to push things forwards a bit which open the door for the rest of us to benefit.  Lots (most?) of us have solar now, but I'll bet when the first few boats appeared with a panel or two, all the grumpy old boaters came along sniping at them. 

 

Yes, there's a lot wrong with the boat, yes it's ugly, yes the stove is wrong, yes the owners seem a bit naive, yes the article sensationalises this boat to the point of ridiculousness, but if you try to see past that...

 

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9 minutes ago, Dave_P said:

Yes, there's a lot wrong with the boat, yes it's ugly, yes the stove is wrong, yes the owners seem a bit naive, yes the article sensationalises this boat to the point of ridiculousness, but if you try to see past that...

It's a floating flat, where the buyers/owners have no real interest in the canals, rivers or boating.   Many of the design "features" are flaws unless you just wanted a static floating house.

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2 hours ago, Dave_P said:

I'm gonna be controversial now.

Although I agree that the article is pants, looking at the spec of the boat, I'm fairly impressed and can see this arrangement working well for certain users (but maybe not the owners).  The rainwater harvesting, compost toilet etc would all work fine as far as I can see.

Picture this user:  November - end of Feb in a marina on shoreline.  Then continuously cruising for the rest of the year, mainly on canals.  Moving a few miles every week or two.  Silent cruising, no bothering with diesel supplies, rarely needing to top up water, no emptying of cassettes, or pumping out.  The boat is very self-sufficient.  I like to moor for extended periods "out in the wilds", however I have to factor in stopping at services on a regular basis, this boat would free me up a lot.

Of course there would be down-sides - I'd have a nightmare singlehanding through locks with those panels covering the roof.

It's boats like this which attempt to push things forwards a bit which open the door for the rest of us to benefit.  Lots (most?) of us have solar now, but I'll bet when the first few boats appeared with a panel or two, all the grumpy old boaters came along sniping at them. 

 

Yes, there's a lot wrong with the boat, yes it's ugly, yes the stove is wrong, yes the owners seem a bit naive, yes the article sensationalises this boat to the point of ridiculousness, but if you try to see past that...

 

Not sure i agree with that, the rainfall for 2016 was 1.1m, thats what, two tanks full, over a year?

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