HOTOREL
XR Developer
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December 2023 Update is HERE
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Current project state:
Yacht: Bayliner Bodega 1982, 45ft LOA
Battery:
- 48V 4kWh 13S2P Old Leaf Battery modules
- 12V 400A Lead Acid (In plan to get rid off from it)
- 100.8V 9kWh 24S18P 21700 li-Ion (in the process of creation) about 9kW
Solar: 3 panels for 550W (1650W total)
Generator: 3kW + 7.5kW (in the process of repair)
Port motor: 2.5kW nominal 100.8V DC
Starboard engine: 350 Chevy V8
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Original post below
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Hello everyone, I want to ask for your opinion about my project. I'm thinking to invest in an oldboat yacht and rebuild it for a fully electric propulsion system. I don't think that someone tried to do something like that before and I have a lot of doubts if this is possible. I hope I can find answers to my questions here.
The yacht + engines
So here is the thing, a potential boat which I want to buy is the "Bluewater coastal cruiser 51". They are super cheap compared to all other yachts because of the hull design and because most of them have really old gasoline engines. They usually use "Chevy 454" or "Mercruiser FWC 502" engines for more fresh years. The first thing I want to change is to swap them for Tesla Model 3 drive units. Those drive units have less continuous power but I am not planning to fly 20 knots, stable 5-10 knots will be more than enough for me. The only information which I was able to find on the Internet about those Drive units is that continuous power is around 35 kW (47 Hp). So we will have around 70kW for both of them.
Battery construction
Now let's talk about the battery, because it is a really big yacht I am planning to use 28 EG4-LifePower4 batteries. Which will provide around 143kWh of juice. I know that they are server batteries. They will be installed inside of the boat so if they get wet it means there is already nothing to save) And here is the first question. I want to know what you think about the way how I want to connect them together. Because I have never seen anything like that before and I think I am missing some important point somewhere.
I want to connect them 7s4p so this way I will have a nominal 358.4V 400A battery which should be ideal for the two Tesla Drive units. I hope... Because the original Tesla battery has a pick output of 1000A for a couple of seconds but because I will not accelerate from 0-100 for 4 seconds I hope I will not have that current. (What do you think about it?)
Why 7s4p?
Here is the unusual part which I was talking about, sorry for a lot of words. Because I am planning to install this system on the yacht I don't need fast charging system. Because I can slow charge my battery at any marina or using my generator (about it later), or solar panels (also a bit later). I decided that I will use an individual 2000W Victron system for each 4p element of my battery. I know it is kinda a lot of Victrons BUT they are the only one (or at least I didn't find any others) who support up to 7 Victron devices connected together and communicating with each other. So in this case I will have only one battery on the boat which could be used for the main engines as for the home appliances because for each Victron unit, it would be an individual 4p 51.2V battery. I am still working on the scheme but I can attach later what I have so far.
So here is the question: how dangerous is it and why nobody did that before? I am pretty sure both of these questions are connected somehow)
Solar panels and generator
The last part here is the sources of power that I am going to use to recharge that thing. The minimum I want to install is 8 big residential panels for 400W each. I am glad that this yacht has ideal construction for that. All this power will be managed by Victron solar controller as well as the 11kWh generator and the 30A shore power.
Battery location
If you have read till here and still think this is real it is really nice because here is the next thing to think of. There is a lot of space on the floor of this yacht (I already did all 3D scans of the real one) but in this case, I would need to use cables with different lengths for different 4p elements of my system to the nearest Victron unit. Which I guess is not good. As another option, I can try to install all of them in a kind of server ruck but their total weight will be around 1260 kg which can affect the center of gravity which is also not the best thing. What do you think about that?
Tesla battery?
I think I need to explain why I don't want to go the "classic" way and just use a Tesla battery. Everything is simple, in this case, I will need to transform 48V to 400V using invertors which will lose some percentage of my energy, and generate additional heat, and I still will need one more battery with a more powerful Victron system for household use...
Range
Let's try to imagine that this thing is real and I didn't die from the short circuit while I am building this thing. As I understand the Tesla Drive units will consume around 70kWh at the full load. So in this case, if I will use them at 40-50% I should have around 4-5h of sailing time without solar or generator help? Or am I missing something?
I really want to say thank you to everyone who wants to participate in the discussion for this project. I was thinking about that for the last year or so and have a lot of details that I will be happy to share with you. For now, I just want to see if there will be anyone who I can discuss my ideas with because chatGPT already don't know the answers to my questions)
December 2023 Update is HERE
**********************************************
Current project state:
Yacht: Bayliner Bodega 1982, 45ft LOA
Battery:
- 48V 4kWh 13S2P Old Leaf Battery modules
- 12V 400A Lead Acid (In plan to get rid off from it)
- 100.8V 9kWh 24S18P 21700 li-Ion (in the process of creation) about 9kW
Solar: 3 panels for 550W (1650W total)
Generator: 3kW + 7.5kW (in the process of repair)
Port motor: 2.5kW nominal 100.8V DC
Starboard engine: 350 Chevy V8
***********************************************
Original post below
***********************************************
Hello everyone, I want to ask for your opinion about my project. I'm thinking to invest in an old
The yacht + engines
So here is the thing, a potential boat which I want to buy is the "Bluewater coastal cruiser 51". They are super cheap compared to all other yachts because of the hull design and because most of them have really old gasoline engines. They usually use "Chevy 454" or "Mercruiser FWC 502" engines for more fresh years. The first thing I want to change is to swap them for Tesla Model 3 drive units. Those drive units have less continuous power but I am not planning to fly 20 knots, stable 5-10 knots will be more than enough for me. The only information which I was able to find on the Internet about those Drive units is that continuous power is around 35 kW (47 Hp). So we will have around 70kW for both of them.
Battery construction
Now let's talk about the battery, because it is a really big yacht I am planning to use 28 EG4-LifePower4 batteries. Which will provide around 143kWh of juice. I know that they are server batteries. They will be installed inside of the boat so if they get wet it means there is already nothing to save) And here is the first question. I want to know what you think about the way how I want to connect them together. Because I have never seen anything like that before and I think I am missing some important point somewhere.
I want to connect them 7s4p so this way I will have a nominal 358.4V 400A battery which should be ideal for the two Tesla Drive units. I hope... Because the original Tesla battery has a pick output of 1000A for a couple of seconds but because I will not accelerate from 0-100 for 4 seconds I hope I will not have that current. (What do you think about it?)
Why 7s4p?
Here is the unusual part which I was talking about, sorry for a lot of words. Because I am planning to install this system on the yacht I don't need fast charging system. Because I can slow charge my battery at any marina or using my generator (about it later), or solar panels (also a bit later). I decided that I will use an individual 2000W Victron system for each 4p element of my battery. I know it is kinda a lot of Victrons BUT they are the only one (or at least I didn't find any others) who support up to 7 Victron devices connected together and communicating with each other. So in this case I will have only one battery on the boat which could be used for the main engines as for the home appliances because for each Victron unit, it would be an individual 4p 51.2V battery. I am still working on the scheme but I can attach later what I have so far.
So here is the question: how dangerous is it and why nobody did that before? I am pretty sure both of these questions are connected somehow)
Solar panels and generator
The last part here is the sources of power that I am going to use to recharge that thing. The minimum I want to install is 8 big residential panels for 400W each. I am glad that this yacht has ideal construction for that. All this power will be managed by Victron solar controller as well as the 11kWh generator and the 30A shore power.
Battery location
If you have read till here and still think this is real it is really nice because here is the next thing to think of. There is a lot of space on the floor of this yacht (I already did all 3D scans of the real one) but in this case, I would need to use cables with different lengths for different 4p elements of my system to the nearest Victron unit. Which I guess is not good. As another option, I can try to install all of them in a kind of server ruck but their total weight will be around 1260 kg which can affect the center of gravity which is also not the best thing. What do you think about that?
Tesla battery?
I think I need to explain why I don't want to go the "classic" way and just use a Tesla battery. Everything is simple, in this case, I will need to transform 48V to 400V using invertors which will lose some percentage of my energy, and generate additional heat, and I still will need one more battery with a more powerful Victron system for household use...
Range
Let's try to imagine that this thing is real and I didn't die from the short circuit while I am building this thing. As I understand the Tesla Drive units will consume around 70kWh at the full load. So in this case, if I will use them at 40-50% I should have around 4-5h of sailing time without solar or generator help? Or am I missing something?
I really want to say thank you to everyone who wants to participate in the discussion for this project. I was thinking about that for the last year or so and have a lot of details that I will be happy to share with you. For now, I just want to see if there will be anyone who I can discuss my ideas with because chatGPT already don't know the answers to my questions)
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