# Wanting to push a medium sized boat with an electric motor off of solar. Can It work?



## birddseedd (Jun 1, 2016)

Wanting to push a medium sized boat with an electric motor off of solar. Can It work?. I'm looking at needing 120hp of power.


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## Montana Rancher (Mar 4, 2013)

No, it can't be done.


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## birddseedd (Jun 1, 2016)

Maybe I should rephrase my question, since i know it has been done... can it be done affordabely. its done with cars, all be it, they have to store up energy in a battery and recharge off the grid. not sure that would work quite the way i'm wanting.


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## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

Man,,,,That's just to much power to ask from solar panels unless you had ackers of them


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## birddseedd (Jun 1, 2016)

budgetprepp-n said:


> Man,,,,That's just to much power to ask from solar panels unless you had ackers of them


how much wattage would it realisticialy take to keep the battery charged ?


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## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

birddseedd said:


> Maybe I should rephrase my question, since i know it has been done... can it be done affordabely. its done with cars, all be it, they have to store up energy in a battery and recharge off the grid. not sure that would work quite the way i'm wanting.


Big difference in straight up powering a boat with solar panels. Or using solar panels to store up enough power to power the boat.

How Big a boat? And how heavy a boat? how big how heavy?

Need more information,, what kind of motor? and any idea how many amps it would pull under a load?


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## jartgo (May 10, 2014)

Many things are feasible without regard to costs, while reality demands that as a consideration. The challenge you've considered seems insurmountable. Back of the napkin math suggests you'd need about 90,000 watts for a 120hp motor. There are certainly other parameters to be considered when converting electrical energy to power, but suffice it to say that 90,000 watts could power about 10 modern households, while its difficult to fit enough panels on the roof of a house to power that household.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## budgetprepp-n (Apr 7, 2013)

I feel an experiment coming on .( my eye is twitching) I have a small John boat and some panels.


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## birddseedd (Jun 1, 2016)

its hard to give weight, as i won't really know till its built. 8.5 x 28 houseboat.


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## 8301 (Nov 29, 2014)

budgetprepp-n said:


> I feel an experiment coming on .( my eye is twitching) I have a small John boat and some panels.


Don't do it,,, If you succeed it will ruin your prepping budget for the next 5 years... that or the boat will sink from all of the battery weight.


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## 8301 (Nov 29, 2014)

birddseedd said:


> its hard to give weight, as i won't really know till its built. 8.5 x 28 houseboat.


Enough FLA batteries to make 90,000 watts for 1 hour would weigh well over 4416 lbs. Lithium batteries would weigh much less but still well over 2000 lbs. Enough solar panels to recharge that battery bank in one long solid day of sunshine would weigh at least 2688 lbs and that doesn't include the weight of the panel mounts.

Can you say "super heavy top heavy boat" real fast 5 times???? because that's how fast it will sink. And the batteries will assure that local marine life won't want to live around the new boat shaped reef on the bottom of the ocean.


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## jim-henscheli (May 4, 2015)

Bird feeder, I like be on a boat, full time, I push a. 10 foot Jon boat with a BPS saltwater prowler, run of a group 32(?) deep cycle marine battery, charged by an 8 amp panel. It's a pain. But I already have it, so I use it.....and row often.

Honestly I don't believe you could push a house boat with solar charged electric motors. Atleast not for very long.
Have you looked at small generators? You could run the motors, at least 150 ft/lbs torque, off batteries charged by a small generator.
The best option, IMO, would be an outboard or two, totaling at least 10 hp, or something like a diesel inboard/generator, such as a yank are 1gm10.
The inboard method will also serve as a generator, that you could run electric motors off of, if you wanted redundant systems.


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## Operator6 (Oct 29, 2015)

If he's building a house boat he could build it on a barge. 

20x10x5 barge can carry 17,500 lbs at 2.6' draft. Draft = amount of barge sitting below waters surface.


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## 8301 (Nov 29, 2014)

Operator6 said:


> If he's building a house boat he could build it on a barge.
> 
> 20x10x5 barge can carry 17,500 lbs at 2.6' draft. Draft = amount of barge sitting below waters surface.


And with 2.6' of draft he might make 7 knots with that 120 hp engine. Of course barges do tend to ride very smoothly so he can have a glass of wine on the SLOW trip.


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## birddseedd (Jun 1, 2016)

A shipwright designed a hull for me that he said will do 30mph with 2 60 horse outboards. catamaran


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## Stick (Sep 29, 2014)

100 watt panel, deep cycle battery, electric trolling motor, sunny day, canoe. Kick back.


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## hag (May 19, 2016)

It may be more feasible for you to consider a steam room and a water wheel. Won't weigh as much


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## stowlin (Apr 25, 2016)

Its a desirable thought but just a thought. The number of panels to charge a battery to run a 120 hp engine would require a boat so big your 120hp wouldn't cut it. This isn't supposed to be rude but they have these things called sails and they power the crap out of my boat with no batteries!


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## Operator6 (Oct 29, 2015)

FoolAmI said:


> And with 2.6' of draft he might make 7 knots with that 120 hp engine. Of course barges do tend to ride very smoothly so he can have a glass of wine on the SLOW trip.


House boats aren't for race'n...... Lol !

I'm just throwing info out, I wouldn't try to do what the OP is wanting to do.

The house boats I see have a regular outboard and are only used on occasion, most of the time a house boat is docked. It's not designed to take cruises everyday. In the Rivers around me the tide will move you with a little help(small motor) and patience.


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## Operator6 (Oct 29, 2015)

Oh and some barges move at a pretty fast clip.....fast enough to suck you under one if your close to it in the water. ( swimming). It's happened here a few times.

There's a good bit of industry here on the water.......we even build warships here for the Navy.


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## Slippy's-Attorney (Sep 23, 2015)

budgetprepp-n said:


> Big difference in straight up powering a boat with solar panels. Or using solar panels to store up enough power to power the boat.


RIGHT... in MOST set ups the solar panels does not POWER anything.... Solar Panels charge batteries which in turn run stuff


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## GTGallop (Nov 11, 2012)

The panels on my house are roughly 6'x3' and produce 435w at PEAK OUTPUT. That means they have to be at just the right angle. Most of the time they are producing about 60% to 80% of that. So about 300w.
http://us.sunpower.com/sites/sunpow...s/ds-e20-series-435-solar-panel-datasheet.pdf

If you had a Grizzly Tracker 1754 that was 6.5' wide and 17' long...
TRACKER Boats : All-Welded Jon Boats : 2016 GRIZZLY 1754 MVX Jon Specifications
You could put a rack like a covered awning on top to shade people on the boat and put your cells on top of that. You'd have room for about 5 panels giving you 1,500 to 2,000 watts of power - or 1.5 KwH to 2KwH.

If you put a Tesla Power Wall on your boat.
https://www.teslamotors.com/powerwall
It can provide 6.4 KwH.

Using a motor similar to my pool pump, a Hayward Eco Star, you would use 2,324 or 2.3 KwH at full Wide Open Throttle to produce 2 horse power.
EcoStar | Pumps | In Ground Pool Pumps - Hayward Pool Products

So yes you can power a Jon Boat.
Your solar panels would take about four hours of good sun to charge your power wall.
Your Power wall would run your motor for 3 hours.
And you would have spent $9,000 to push your Jon Boat with a 2 horse power engine.

It "can" be done but shouldn't with today's technology. Even if you covered the entire surface of a car with solar panels and made the windows out of that new-fangled solar glass, you still couldn't power a car with solar and water is like 12 times more dense than air is so the resistance to motion is 12 times higher. I wish it was possible, but it really just isn't - yet. Science will get there one day if we don't rip ourselves apart over people shooting a gorilla or schools named after confederate heroes first.


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## Seneca (Nov 16, 2012)

I think you could use solar to power a few item in the house boat, lights, laptop, small fridge etc. but to actually power the boat probably not. I think setting up a solar battery charging station for a small watercraft that uses a trolling motor is doable. Float tubes have evolved into personal fishing platforms most have a deck for a battery and trolling motor.


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## PaulS (Mar 11, 2013)

In the first post was a value of 120 HP...
That is just under 90,000 watts of solar panels. Approximately 7500 amps at 12 volts. 
I'm thinking it is doable with a medium sized ferry boat. You still won't go fast but it will be solar powered.

There is an outfit in California that prints solar cells on media. Maybe you could make a sail sized solar panel to power a trolling motor. When the sun isn't shining you can use the wind to get home.


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## Slippy (Nov 14, 2013)

Hey PaulS, 

Great to hear from you Sir!


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## PaulS (Mar 11, 2013)

You sir, are a sight to "see".
I will stop by from time to time just to keep you all confused or informed - depending on the way you look at it.
I am doing well, got the garden in full swing this year with plans to expand it even more next year. I've been very busy at the local gun club - they elected me to the board of directors and it has been, "interesting".
I have my shop complete and my project car is finally home. I have started working on it and I have been doing some reloading as well.
I decided to build an annealing machine for my rifle brass - I have tons of it that has been in storage long enough that it will all have to be annealed before it is loaded.
My wife is doing a little better and I am getting "younger" all the time. I am down to using aspirin for my back now and I am getting stronger.
I hope each day finds you healthier and happier than the day before.
Paul


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## Draq wraith (Oct 25, 2015)

Battery weight would be a problem. The solar panels you need would be costly.
There was a site called microship2000 that was building or had built a small one man type job that could give you an idea what's involved but generally sails are more effective and if you follow Bigelow shipping news it might give you another idea all together.


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