possibiliy of an electric outboard???

[cdoliver]

I just saw this electric car online that puts out 300hp... I wonder if anyone has thought about making an electric outboard. Not trolling motor. I don't know why it wouldn't work...
Heres the link to the car.

http://www.opb.org/programs/ofg/videos/view/56-Electric-Drag-Racing

 

[mphy98]

Re: possibiliy of an electric outboard???

hole shot would be fantastic, battery weight will stop any development though

 

[Barnacle_Bill]

Re: possibiliy of an electric outboard???

Minnkota and several other manufacturers already make them. Google "electric outboard".

 

[Chris1956]

Re: possibiliy of an electric outboard???

1 HP is about 700 watts/hour. So your boat with 115HP outboard is 700Watts/HP*115HP = 80.5KW/Hour. A fully charged standard series 24 battery is about 75 Amp/hr. So, the wattage of this battery is 75 Amp/Hour * 12V = 900 watts(close to 1 KW).

So you will discharge more than 80.5 standard batteries per hour running at full power. Let's see a 24 series battery is about 30 pounds, you will need to carry 80 * 30 = 2400 pounds of batteries for an hour's run time.

Of course LI batteries are lighter per watt than lead/acid batteries, but you get an idea of the wattage necessary to power a boat or car. Todays batteries have come along way from the simple car batteries of my example, but the current beleif is that battery technology is not going to provide much more improvement in weight per watt.

 

[Silvertip]

Re: possibiliy of an electric outboard???

LiPo (lithium polymer) batteries certainly have become popular in lots of applications but the real issue with them is safety -- especially in mobile applications. With all of that LiPo power on a boat, coupled with the electrical handicap of most boaters, a short circuit of a nanosecond would have the boat up in flames in a heartbeat. LiPo batteries can discharge with catastrophic results so don't plan on an electric outboard anytime soon. People simply could not afford the batteries, the charger and cell balancer required to care for these batteries. And the speed controller would probably cost more than a current 100 HP outboard all by itself. I use a LiPo battery pack in my electric radio controlled airplane. Great power source, but it does have some safety issues. The battery is stored in a fire proof can when not in use. It is charged inside that can which sits on a ceramic tile and I do not leave the room during the process. Puncture one and you have the possibility of explosion and fire. 'Nuff said.

 

[sschefer]

Re: possibiliy of an electric outboard???

Outboards they are comming, you can bet on that, inboard is already here, just not in the recreational boating arena. It isn't done with a bunch of car batteries, you run a gas engine that powers a generator that runs the electric motor.

Locomotives have been using this concept for years. My first ship in the Navy was diesel/electric. Many of the Tugs use it too. It is extremely efficient and can create large amounts of horsepower but it requires a lot of room. The Toyota Prius manages that problem pretty well so maybe we'll see that technology in recreational boats too.

I should add that the Prius does use batteries and a different principal but the theory of efficiency could be concieved as similar.

 

[cdoliver]

Re: possibiliy of an electric outboard???

someone beat me to it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPcQ4NGspBw&feature=related

 

[slasmith1]

Re: possibiliy of an electric outboard???

Locomotives have been using this concept for years. My first ship in the Navy was diesel/electric. Many of the Tugs use it too. It is extremely efficient and can create large amounts of horsepower but it requires a lot of room. The Toyota Prius manages that problem pretty well so maybe we'll see that technology in recreational boats too.

I should add that the Prius does use batteries and a different principal but the theory of efficiency could be concieved as similar.

the technology has already been used in production recreational boats check out duffy electric boats
http://www.duffyboats.com/#

 

[sschefer]

Re: possibiliy of an electric outboard???

Duffy has been around for a long time, I forgot about them. I was just on the State Of California website looking at upcomming EPA events and saw where there is legislation for electrifying state harbor craft. I guess that means Lake Tahoe cops are gonna be forced to dump their Etecs.