Wave Power Crosses Pacific

Bhima

Sun Jul 06 01:00:15 -0700 2008

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There are a lot of other ways to power boats other than oil!  I had to chuckle during a phone conversation with a friend, he was grousing about the cost of diesel and had just spent around $15K filling up his boat.

This year marks the end of all small gasoline powered engines in my family, save one.  My older brother has converted his riding mower to electric with lead acid batteries and a solar panel /  sun shield.  My sisters & Mum have electric push mowers.  And the crowning achievement is the july 4th launching of the new boat which is all electric and has a charging station at our dock.  The boat was collaborative effort and built from plans by friends & family with only a smattering of professional help (mostly from psychiatrists).  Now if only we could think of a way to replace the jet-ski... it is far more popular with the young members of the family than the little wooden sail boat we built a few years ago!

Wave Power Crosses Pacific

Michael Smith

Sun Jul 06 04:20:24 -0700 2008

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Now if only we could think of a way to replace the jet-ski

How about this?

Wave Power Crosses Pacific

Bhima

Sun Jul 06 12:45:56 -0700 2008

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That is pretty cool. Anything that exhausts my nephews is a great idea.  I've sent the link to my sibs... I wonder what will come of it. 

specs on riding tractor

zogger

Sun Jul 06 12:28:06 -0700 2008

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if you would be so kind as to provide a bit more detail on the riding lawnmower tractor conversion I would appreciate it. As to the jetski..hmmm. dump it, get a small electric submarine as a water toy.

specs on riding tractor

Bhima

Sun Jul 06 13:08:37 -0700 2008

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To be honest I have not actually seen this machination... I don't live on the same country as my older brother and haven't been his house in a while.  I know he has a small welding kit so I'm sure he has Rube Goldberged the whole thing together.  From our discussions he mounted an electric motor for each mower blade and a separate one for motorvating the lawnmower (which I think is an old Craftsman).  The whole system is 36 volt so he has 6 lead acid car batteries.    He claims that a PV array is going to be mounted over the driver but I doubt that will be of any real use.

We have another friend who has expressed interest in the contraption so maybe something more will go on with this.  I don't remember my older Brother's house having a lawn that really warranted a riding mower anyway.  Whatever happens it should be interesting.

thanks

zogger

Thu Jul 17 08:21:03 -0700 2008

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Thanks for the reply, sorry about delay of game I am woefully behind on my email and forum notifications to the tune of hundreds of them, just trying to sort out the important stuff now. re: the solar panels over the thing your brother made, on the contrary, if you are only mowing once a week, parking the thing out in the sun should work just swell in keeping the batteries topped off for one run, plus it is a sunshield for the driver, I know the mowers that I use that have roofs as opposed to no roofs are just more comfy to ride around in, because shade works in the heat. My two solar panels on my RV topoff four golf cart batteries by around 2 pm in the afternoon, back when I was using them a lot at night to run the laptop and a reading light and small TV mostly, so sitting for a week so should do a small pile of traction batteries for his mower. I was just wondering where he found cheap DC motors and controllers, I can't find any and I have looked, they are ridiculously priced. My project there is not a mower though but my litle garden riding tractor with the rototiller, because I only need to use it a few times a year. It has a bogus gas engine, not worth it to replace at a thousand dollars (really, that is what they want for a new one, it is a kohler horizontal shaft), but I was thinking if I could do it for much less than that electrically I just might. From what I have found, a decent DC electric motor and a controller around 5 hp (the gas engine on it now is 10) would cost me more than just a new replacement gas engine. Going to an AC motor and assorted gear is also a non starter, that costs even more. An industrial as opposed to cheap consumer grade 3 hp electric motor (we use tons of them on the farm for running huge fans) is like 3 hundred bucks, up from there in size the price rises rapidly, and the DC motors are all around twice as expensive as the AC motors for the same horsepower. I am prone to say *nuts* when confronted with such dilemmas.... that is the main thing that has held me back from so many various electrical motor driven projects, the gear costs more in single unit quantities.