Going Electric
Going Electric
The why's and wherefores' of dumping the diesel
Lagoda is still sporting her faithful YSM8 Yanmar single cylinder 8hp diesel engine. Whilst, with a little coaxing, the engine still runs, its noisy, smelly and requires maintenance.
Challenge
The ultimate aim of this project is to replace the existing diesel engine with an electric motor and battery bank that will be self contained and off grid. Using the sun and the wind to charge the battery bank
Value
How it all works....
There are pro's and con's to changing to an electric motor.
The Pros
- Instant torque, (the ability to produce a twisting energy)
- Noise, the current single cylinder means everyone aboard has to shout at each other when the engine is running. The Crowne motor will produce little more than a whine
- Space, with a footprint little more than a sheet of A4 and no more than 7 inches high, the space used by the motor is a tiny fraction of the current installation
- Cleanliness, this is a two tiered benefit. Inside the boat has gone the smell of a 30 year old engine that oozes oil and diesel, also there are no exhaust gasses, and given the area we sail, that can only be good
- Energy storage, there is only so many batteries you can store...
- Recharging batteries, with a hungry thirst for current draw of over 100Amps at full throttle, battery bank will need recharging soon...
Heat, the motor itself will generate quite a bit of heat, as does the controller, I am currently looking at ways to dissipate heat generation by means of using the existing water pump and carefully wound copper piping.
"Homebrew" concoctions
often lack the fancy packaging that commercial applications have, but they do not cost the same either. The current build costs do not have an open budget, but I don't have an endless supply of cash either. Costs of the build so far have been honest. They have been kept to a minimum as I have been patient and kept an eye on eBay, Facebook's Market Place and not being so proud as to go to the local car breakers for used batteries. The only thing that I have paid full price for is the motor controller, and this is purely because I wanted the facility to use the existing throttle/gear lever rather than flicking a switch to select forwards and reverse. All in all, the project will cost less than £1000, and that will be fitted and running.
How do you control the motor?
One could simply wire the motor directly to the batteries via a (bloody big) switch and away you go. This will work, it has to. But it doesn't leave you with any control of how fast you go, or the ability to reverse. If you were doing an installation in a small dinghy then this might suffice, but in a vessel with a dry weight (just produced without all the crap that one has aboard) of 3000kgs, a bit of finesse may be useful at times so we add a motor controller.
So what is the point of a motor controller and how does it work?
A motor controller is essentially an electronic switch. It allows you to select forward and reverse by changing the polarity to the motor, it also manages the amount of power available to the motor, in this case by delivering power in pulses. The motor controller we have used aboard Lagoda is known as a PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) controller from 4QD
and gives an almost infinite amount of control to the delivery of power to the motor.
What motor have we used?
We have bought three motors that came as a package/bundle through an eBay sale. All these motor started life in fork lift trucks and were manufactured by Crown, there are a 2.5Kw, 4Kw and 9Kw, we will be using the 4Kw motor initially.
Will 4Kw really be enough?
There are two things to consider. We have been on Windermere for over 2 years with an engine that has been well and truly abused. It is never run at full throttle, and I would be surprised if it is producing anything more that 4hp as it is used. As electric motors are rated differently to internal combustion engines, a 4Kw motor produces roughly 5.5hp As we don't have tidal currents to combat on Lake Windermere and the original engine was only rated at 8hp @ 5000RPM, also we only intend to use the motor to get on and off the mooring, into the jetties at Ferry Nab and possibly for backing down on the anchor, if we can use our motor for 20 minutes reliably, then we can be sure that we are safe out on the water.
Where does the power come from?
Solar.... Mains hookup.... Wind generator.... and if non of that works (though it defeats the green factor) a generator. Read about the Solar project, two "ex-solar farm" panels (again courtesy of eBay) that are connected through a Victron controller. Main hookup, this is only a viable solution when tied up at Ferry Nab, our 30 Amp smart charger will recharge our battery bank in about 15 hours (which isn't particularly clever) The wind turbine (courtesy of eBay and China) is a 800 watt 48V that will trickle charge the batteries (wind dependant) over a period of time ensuring that the batteries are ready to go...... (I hope) Lastly, and if circumstances demand, a generator, but lets not go there.
Where on earth did you get the idea to go electric?
As I have pointed out, Lagoda's Yanmar YSM8 single pot diesel engine is on its last legs. It is addicted to Easy Start, hasn't likely made full power this millennium and is so damn noisey - there needed to be a replacement and I needed a challenge. The cost of a new diesel engine would be twice what I paid for the boat in the first place, second hand engines are hard to come by and you don't really know what your buying. Then following a link from a sailing series that I watch on YouTube I found Dan & Kika's vlog, Sailing Uma. There was the inspiration I needed and the fact that their series is quietly entertaining, damn shame I bought a couch. Damn you DFS!!
Related Projects
More information and pictures will be published in time, hookup with our Facebook group to stay informed of how Lagoda is progressing and how we are enjoying ourselves on Lagoda. If you are in Windermere and see us about, say hi, we'll show you about our battered old boat :)