Death to the Iron Genny

I have seen the future and it looks pretty darn good. I was at the Miami Boat Show this past weekend and saw lots of cool stuff, but my favorite by far was from Solomon Technologies. I’d heard and read about their stuff before, but this was the first time I’d seen it installed in a boat and got to talk with company representatives.

What is it? Simply put, it is a system that replaces a sailboat’s diesel engine(s) with electric motors, but it is really much more than that because the change impacts the boat’s entire electrical system.

What are the benefits?
• More efficient use of fossil fuels
• Simplified maintenance
• Extended cruising range
• Increased reliability
• Improved onboard power availability

Obviously, the electric motors need DC power so there is a pretty significant battery bank to drive them. The standard installation requires 12 4D batteries to produce 144V. At 135 lbs apiece, this is 1,620 lbs of batteries! The 144V bank is in addition to the existing 12V house bank.

Batteries need to be charged and this can be done in a variety of ways depending on the power needs and usage characteristics of the boat. When the boat is plugged in at the dock, the fastest and most efficient method has always been and remains to be plugging into shore power and using an AC battery charger.

The beauty is in the variety of ways the batteries can be charged away from the dock, the primary means of which is by “regenerative sailing”. Ordinarily, a propeller shaft has to be locked when the boat is sailing and the engine is off. Otherwise, it will turn the crankshaft which is bad for the engine. Locking the propeller has roughly the same effect as dragging a bucket in the water. To combat this, performance sensitive boats use feathering props that fold up when dragged through the water and open again when the engine spins the shaft. However, with an electric motor the freewheeling of a sailboat propeller can be turned back into electricity to charge the batteries and have a minimal impact on sailing performance. This is a similar principle to using the braking action of a hybrid automobile to recharge the batteries.

When not sailing, the typical sailboat battery charging techniques apply, such as solar, wind, and diesel generators. These may or may not be necessary as situations and usage patterns dictate.

So why is this so much better? Diesel engines are a pain in the butt to maintain. They are complicated contraptions and can be rather difficult to keep in good working order. They have a lot of moving parts what with the necessary water/fuel/oil pumps and filters, alternators, transmissions, and belts to hold it all together. And those are all parts that need regular service. The engine needs its oil checked every few hours while underway and completely changed at regular intervals. An electric motor has none of those things and since it can easily spin up to 15,000 RPMs, there isn’t even a transmission.

Diesels create heat and noise which makes living with them very annoying. And since they are large, need to be readily accessible for maintenance, and must go on the centerline of the boat they usually either take very prominent positions on the boat or are very difficult to work on. An electric motor is nearly silent, is much smaller, and does not need to be as accessible for maintenance.

A diesel engine transfers fuel to thrust very inefficiently. By the time it powers all the needed pumps, alternator, and transmission, a 30 HP diesel may only deliver 16 HP to the propeller, losing 47% along the way. An electric motor on the other hand has much less to overcome and can deliver 90% of its rated horsepower to the prop. This means that a diesel can be replaced by not only a smaller motor, but a weaker one too.

Most applications will still include a generator to charge the batteries, but a generator is a much smaller and simpler device than a diesel engine. Usually they are contained in their own sound-insulated boxes with fuel and air going in, and exhaust and electricity coming out. Because the generator’s one task is to charge the batteries it can be tuned to do this as efficiently as possible. While twin diesels will consume 2.5 gallons/hour for motoring, the efficient generator should only consume 0.8 gallons/hour to keep the batteries charged.

With the availability of a high-voltage battery bank and the recent improvements in inverter technology, it is now much more feasible to run high voltage appliances away from the dock. It used to be that you either had to be plugged in or have the generator running to have air conditioning. Now the air conditioner can be run through the inverter and the generator will only kick on when needed to bring the batteries back up to charge.

I struck up a conversation with the guy minding the boat with the Solomon rig installed, assuming him to be a sales rep for the boat builder. I started with “I know I should probably ask the Solomon guys, but…” and then proceeded to ask something about maintenance. I was surprised at how well he could answer the question. He was obviously well-versed and excited about the technology.

Several minutes into the conversation he mentioned that he lived aboard a Lagoon 47 with a Solomon setup. This struck me as odd that a sales rep would live on a million dollar catamaran, and must have looked at him stupid because he then explained that he was the inventor of the technology and founder of the company. Sure enough, it was right on his nametag that I hadn’t bothered to look at. He lives on his boat in Tarpon Springs, about 15 miles north of my house.

He said that he had his boat’s fuel tanks reduced to make room for the batteries, had the engines removed to make room for the motors, and only added a net 200 lbs to the boat. The boat stays mostly at anchor and does not generate much power through sailing, but instead relies mostly on solar and the generator. Even with reduced tanks he says that he can generate enough electricity to stay on the hook for 6 months. He gives no regard for power consumption and runs the air conditioner as much as he wants.

So if he can sit for 6 months without refueling, it stands to reason that a boat can go a heck of a lot longer when sailing.

Of course it isn’t all peaches and light. The install is likely to cost upwards of $40K and batteries don’t last forever. Since 4Ds cost about $400 apiece you should budget about $1,000 per year for new batteries. But given the fuel costs, maintenance hassle, reliability, and eventual engine rebuild/replacement it may very well be worthwhile to switch. Hopefully prices will come down, the government will offer some clean energy incentives, and these things will become standard equipment.

Pass the Perchlorate

There's a news article today about how women all over the country have been found to have perchlorate, a toxic component of rocket fuel, in their breast milk. The really nice part is that the people most vulnerable to this chemical that inhibits the thyroid hormones necessary for brain development are... infants.

Reminds me of another story a few weeks ago about how chemicals used to make Teflon cookware can cause birth defects and how this chemical just so happens to be present in the bloodstream of the general population. DuPont swears up and down that the chemical is only used in the manufacturing process and doesn't make it into the products. I guess then it's only a health risk for their employees and the people fortunate enough to live downstream of the manufacturing plant? And what if it does make it into the products, or a different product, or a different chemical does?

"Progress" is killing us. Chemical contamination, air pollution, electromagnetic radiation; all byproducts from our lives of convenience and efficiency. There is a good argument that technology actually complicates our lives while promising to simplify them. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if it was killing us too.

I love technology, and as a willing participant I deserve a slow and painful death. I feel sorry for the Menonites. How much would it suck after a hard life without air conditioning, automobiles, or Internet pornography to die from drinking water contaminated with rocket fuel?

All Aboard

It was another day at Largo Central Park a couple weeks ago. This time for the first-weekend-of-the-month running of the Largo Central Railroad. This is where a club of train hobbyists gives free rides on (1:10 scale?) model trains around a 1.2 mile track inside the park. They have diesels as well as steam engines (with little coal fired boilers and everything) and usually have four or five engines out on a given weekend.



The diesels are faster and can pull more people, but I really like the steam engines for the cool factor. You end up covered with coal dust and I try to hold my breath in the tunnel, but its a lot of fun. And I'm not even a big model train guy.

Some people really get into it. It's hilarious to watch old guys act like little boys when there's a model train around. My neighbor John is about my dad's age and every year he sets up his model train around the Christmas tree. My boys went over to his house to see it and the three of them played with the train for almost an hour.

The track at the park goes over a little pond and through a tunnel, which of course is the coup de grace, and there are bells and lights and little crossing arms where it goes over a sidewalk -- a real quality setup.



We rode the last train of the day, so I got to ask about the daily count. 1,938 people rode the trains that day, a Sunday, which is about average. Their all-time high is 3,500 in a single day.

Tree Update

As mentioned in a previous post, I have two large 45-year-old oak trees on my property. Most of my neighbors have similar trees as they seem to have been planted when the neighborhood was developed back in the early 60's.

I have since learned that these trees are primarily laurel oaks (although some are live oaks and I can't tell the difference) and have a life expectancy of... 45 years. They can live to 75 in the wild, but with trimming and root congestion common in residential areas, 45 is the norm.

Because of their size, they are not cheap to remove. This is compounded by the fact that the lots are small and the houses are close together necessitating a crane to lift the tree over the house.



A neighbor across the street had one such tree removed last week (which did little for my work productivity). The homeowner reported that the operation cost $5000 and had received estimates as high as $8000. This does not include any hidden roof repair costs that I think may be in store after watching the tree guys tromp all over the concrete tiles. I've learned since owning my own tile roof that you must walk on them carefully. Not so much to avoid cracking the tiles, but to prevent them from shifting and tearing the felt paper beneath, which is the water barrier.



Fortunately, I only have one tree that will require the crane. My next door neighbor has two. I know another house that has four. A front yard tree should only cost $2500 to remove.

But it has gotten me to thinking. If there are 200 houses in the neighborhood, and guessing that there is a 1.5 tree average, that's 300 trees. Assuming that half are in backyards, that's $1,125,000 in tree work that will have to be spent over the next few years. It seems that the neighbors would be wise to join together to negotiate a large operation. It seems a tree company would be wise to court the neighborhood for such a deal. It seems there is opportunity for an enterprising individual to bring these two together and maybe make a buck or two.

I'm not saying that I'm that individual. There are some cantankerous old farts living around here that I don't think I have the patience to deal with. But it is something to think about. I wonder how many other neighborhoods are facing the same problem.