Forget Electric or Junk Gasoline - Here Is The Way . . .

[HopCar]

Ironhorse, on the subject of a conversion kit, I don't see why it wouldn't work. You would lose a little power on propane since the engine was designed to run on gasoline, but not much. I had a generator converted to propane after I got tired of rebuilding the carb every year at the start of hurricane season.

[donradcliffe]

Originally Posted by deckofficer

I also prefer a single fuel, diesel, because it can come from renewable sources. As to how I want to use the energy from the diesel, nothing but electrons for all end use. Electric galley all the way down to the 1500 watt BBQ on the railing, electric propulsion for both the boat and dinghy. No propane or gasoline, and since we can not make our own fossil fuel, it is nice to know we can roll our own electricity.

I think you have been blowing too much California weed and not paying attention in your thermodynamics class. The Carnot efficiency is a theoretical limit which basically says that it will take at least 3 times as much diesel to run an engine to make electricity to boil a pot of water as it would if you simply burned the diesel under the pot

[deckofficer]

Originally Posted by donradcliffe

I think you have been blowing too much California weed and not paying attention in your thermodynamics class. The Carnot efficiency is a theoretical limit which basically says that it will take at least 3 times as much diesel to run an engine to make electricity to boil a pot of water as it would if you simply burned the diesel under the pot

If it was just a conversion from one form of energy to another and back again, that would be wasteful. Solar will be sized to meet or come close to daily demands. What is wasteful is a AC diesel gen-set when you have a pure sine wave inverter on board. Much better conversion efficiency, not to mention a big weight reduction, to employ a diesel DC gen-set that will run at a loaded (it, not me) output and chosen rpm rather than partial load at a fixed by frequency regulation needs, rpm. Only needed run time would be to charge house/propulsion bank and during extended motoring that exceeds battery capacity. I did mention electric propulsion? Of course microwave and induction stove top will help keep daily cooking within a Kw/hr budget.

I've done this on a few off-grid homes and feel it will cross over to the boat quite nicely.

[Ironhorse74]

Originally Posted by HopCar

Ironhorse, that in home Natural Gas compressor is pretty neat. I wish I had natural gas available in my neighborhood. I'd use it to heat water and run an emergency generator. I'd cook with it but my wife won't let me have a gas stove. Don't get me started on that fight!

I'm still having a hard time getting propane outboards. Lehr really jumped the gun in showing them at the Miami boat show. I've got customers waiting for them and I want one.

You should walk in my shoes. I sell thousands of gas fireplaces every year. Work on them daily. She however is scared of gas and won't have it in the house.

Let me know when the 2.5 is available I might be interested.

[HopCar]

Ironhorse, was it yesterday I said I didn't think natural gas would be a good marine fuel? Please help me pull my foot out of my mouth. Trinity Yachts is building LNG powered work boats and talking about LNG powered super yachts. There is an article in today's Soundings, Trade Only. There is also an article about the propane outboards. Go to Trade Only Today | Boating News for Marine Industry Professionals click on "Highlights" and scroll down. LNG probably won't scale down to our size boats any time soon, but it will be interesting to watch what happens.