Bravo from Egypt. I am currently running my house by 18 solar panels and an 11kw inverter. I also charger my 60 kwh BYD Atto 3. I am soon going to increase my battery from 5kWh to 20kWh. I feel pessimistic. And if war erupts, maybe a boat like this might be a life line and at any rate It will be something for me to do in my late years. Once again Bravo from Egypt.
As a general rule 50V DC is around the safe upper limit before the voltage can overcome the natural resistance of healthy dry skin. The actual drop dead point in ideal conditions is a bit higher than that and you might get away with 60-70 but your playing with fire over 50. That's why 48v is such a popular "Safe" voltage as its 4X the ubiquitous 12 volt that many battery packs are designed to and a simple 4 in series gets you there while being nominally under the danger limit. Its the best compromise between safe enough to work with and keeping the amps down so you dont need massive wires. You'll still feel 50VDC but its going to be conducting along the surface of the skin for the most part. Thats painful but not deadly. The deadly comes if its shortest path to ground manages to get through the skin and into your internal organs. The resistance of your insides is much much lower than your skin. You still dont want to be playing around with even 50v if you have cuts on your hands and realisticly rubber gloves is never a bad idea unless it drops your dexterity too low to work.
I started shopping for a boat years ago to convert to electric. I ended up designing my own and started building it. I have a pretty similar setup. 2x 304ah lifepo4 @ 48v but I only have a 10kw motor. I hope I can get at least similar performance (5ish kts)
Crazy this popped up in my feed. This was always my dream. I also had the idea of having two layers of solar panels stacked on top of each other. The top panel layer is on rails and can be extended out over the water. The rail system would work much like kitchen drawers. This would effectively double the solar absorption capacity. The idea would be to be able to absorb twice the solar energy when at anchor or possibly while in very calm seas. If anyone doesn't think this would work, I'd love to hear why. Also I wonder if it would be able to put a folding mast. I understand the voltage drops immensely if the panels are shaded at all, hence fold the mast(this could be in the middle area). In the case of wind or at night, the mast can be raised and sail deployed. Great video.
@@Adventureman_Dan Just found this channel's update ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tnUgcw8kUh8.htmlsi=IDFqLmmV0rTOAQ85 Windelo build and in use. The build episode is the previous one. Goes well with the Barefoot doctors technical lookover.
really cool boat, i do love the irony of "i like to live" excuse for a 48v system but then several sharpened spikes around the roof of the boat that could definitely pierce an artery lol.
👋 DAN: Can you do another video with David💪❤ where DAVID explains what he would do TODAY with a new "dream build" implementing all of the latest new technologies... That would be fascinating ❗ It would get MILLIONS of views too❗ And, it would allow for a "crowd sourcing" of ideas 💡for your future BUILD ... You could have a whole separate NEW YT CHANNEL of enormous success !
I'm also living on a dollar electric catamaran that I built. I looked at Indigo Lady a lot when trying to decide if i wanted to keep the mast or fit more panels. In the end i kept the mast and have 3200W of panels. That means i can travel all day at 4-5 knots, but even the wind is right i can sail or motor sail at 6+ knots.
Was researching last week. There are now 500+ AH cells available in that form factor. I'm planning to take my sticks and brick home fully off grid. Have already been net zero energy using solar for almost 5 years with 9.25 kwp.
I bought 32 305ah CATL cells for replacing the 4ea Relion 300ah batteries that are going bad after 6yrs. They were being charged to 100% instead of 90% . Will be increasing PV panels to 2400w to the 2400ah bank. 2017 leopard 48
@0xKruzr nope, waiting for technology to get all the bugs figured out, then a swap of the 4JH57's & SD60 to electric would be nice, we've owned her for 2yrs. only added 60hrs to aux. and 180hrs to Gen. Never a wind gen. Live full time on the hook(s) got into the prismatic cell building 6yrs ago for Gem car, and portable power.
This is so awesome. I’d love to do this myself one day. I’ve done solar on motorhomes before, and recently got a simple electric car (eMoke), and yeah the massive benefit is just how much simpler everything become mechanically when you go all-electric. I think there is a part of me that would still want a generator backup like here, but even so that is so much simpler when you don’t need a gearbox and transmission.
Excellent project, cost effective , low fuel cost for diesel only/generators, on a pension! ❤ Live like a king, and a different place to call home whenever you want❤❤❤
Lots of jump islands all the way down from Bahamas to South America. Long jumps really depend on weather windows because you are not gonna get away for unexpected weather.
Super intriguing. This idea has been floating around in my brain. I've figured I could get 7kW of solar on a smaller cat. With a sturdy slide mechanism, even have it be double layered so that in the open in light and moderate winds, the top layer could slide out, exposing a second layer for a 14kW array. I had been thinking about three battery banks. I'd one in each engine compartment and a under one of the aft bunks. On the boat I'm envisioning, the generator is forward, next to the windlass. I'd remove the engines, leaving room for the ocean volt motor and a battery bank (or two) in each engine compartment. At around $1500/15kWh of 300Ah LiFePO4 cells from China, I could get 6 of those for $9k (2 in each engine bay, and one under each rear bunk). The Quatro inverters, solar controllers, lynx bus bars, cerboGX, display, and cables are probably another $10-15k. Another $7-14k for solar panels, and probably $10k for the roof/solar rack. So, $40k-ish for the parts. Plus the Oceanvolt motors. They make you request a quote for those.
@@licencetoswill How do you even know how much OceanVolt motors are? They won't tell me unless I give them all my info. Not going to happen--at least at this early stage of my planning. But pray tell... what are the competitor brands that are better value?
There is a couple with a YT channel called 'Everlanders' the guy, Jason is a genius, some type of electrical engineer, with lots of structural engineering knowledge he built a rugged overlanding vehicle and on the roof he built a solar system that is in two layers, when the overlander is parked he voice commands his phone to open the solar that is actuated by pneumatic cylinders and rides on heavy duty drawer slides and he doubles his solar in an instant. He built the entire electrical system, developed his own management system using Raspberry Pi and Arduino boards and he controls the entire vehicle from his phone, A/C, lights, solar, TV, it is amazing. The water system is pneumatic as we so they do not have to hear the typical RV style pump constantly running. One the stainless steel water canisters are pressurize there is no sound when the tap is turned on.
Can not wait to do this some day! I am obsessed with the silent yachts but theyre so expensive. Would be cool to build my own. Also solar panel tech has gotten better, you can get 450-500+ watt panels now too so could increase solar production in addition to the better modern batteries!
It's a good prototype i can see a lot of others building and improving upon it. I like the kite idea keeping some sailing ability is beneficial. I wonder if some Wind Generators on some sort of a pop up arrangement could add to the night time (or overcast) power uptake? fold them back down in daylight so as not to shade any solar.
I think I would use ready-made LFP rack-based 48v batteries, 5kW or 10kW each. They are modular and easily changed if needed. Two racks with 4 x 5kW and you would have a 40kW system. Or four racks with an 80kW system, etc. They are robust and have very few wires outside the boxes for additional safety and individual switches and fuses are included. Also, the compression of the battery is already taken care of. Also easy to expand, just add some more for more kWs staying at 48v.
Thanks for this more technical follow up! Such a simple system. I tend to agree with you that saving the cost, maintenance and weight of the diesel gensets and investing it in more batteries would make this really viable. I’d be very surprised if these don’t begin to take over the charter market in the Caribbean very soon. Seems like it’s simpler and probably cheaper than sails from both an owners and sailors perspective…
Love a pioneer! This seems pretty well thought out for the technology and cost factors at time of build. However, every-time you mention "vent" for the 3 piece roof, i hit the pause button to contemplate that idea. Our dear physics teacher seems married to the idea that by splitting the solar roof into two large panels and a center walkway that equal the "wing" area of a single roof, he's lowering the chance of being blow away in a hurricane, that would be low anyways being mostly parallel to the wind. Does he have any teacher friends that are aerodynamics engineers, to run this past?
It would be nearly impossible to be certain without extensive wind tunnel testing, but I think it is a good precaution. That break allows the pressure to vent from one side to the other and reduce most of the possible lift.
A roof today in Florida is designed under this principle for Miami Dade Hurricane code. The Roof is opened and does not connect allowing the air to flow preventing lift, only covered by a cap. A roof is less likely to separate from the structure like they did during Hurricane Andrew, not excluding the hurricane straps and gang nail designs to keep and strengthen the truss system
@@mcmlxxx1980 That's not how things works. simply saying "x" amount of volts and "x" amps is enough to kill is conceptually wrong whilst being followed by 99% of technicians worldwide, its a simple guideline which works but scientifically untrue. styropyro has a great video on it. The truth is that the human body has a complex amalgamation of factors like resistance, skin effect and many others. I can touch the positive and negative terminals on my 48v lifepo4 battery (which can discharge 500amps or more) and not feel anything because simple put, my body has a high enough resistance for it to never create a viable electrical bridge, though if you accidently bridge with something more conductive like a wrench, you can create a serious arc or explosion.
@19:40 - Redundancy that you never need, is worth the cost. If you have no redundancy and your system goes down, it can be the difference between life and death. It's like saying ocean liners are so reliable you don't need life rafts. 99.9%+ of the time, you are correct. The problem is that the 0.001% can kill you if you don't have a way to mitigate it. Can you imagine your entire propulsion going out in a storm because there is no backup. Crazy talk!
@@Adventureman_Dan I have been watching Sailing Uma for the last 6 years, and I really enjoyed their DIY electrified sailboat, so your video was right down that same alley. Thanks for the good content.
also he can add 5 portable 200watt Cigs/Yuma panels on his Bow trampolines which can be stored but would give him even more power from the sun. about 8kw more a day when needed.
@@licencetoswill That would make the Catamaran nose heavy and it would dig into waves. That would not be helpful. You need to keep the front light so it goes over waves not through them. Going through them would slow them down and use even more power from batteries. He has a very nice balance of weight right now.
This is fine as long as you stay in the mid latitudes. The tropics and equatorial regions. The Caribbean, South and central Pacific, the Indian Ocean, or even the Mediterranean during the summer months. In these places the sun shines strongly most of the time. But if you venture to more northern latitudes, up around the UK or northern Europe, you will encounter weather that's cloudy as often as not. And if you go there between October and March, you'll run into much less hours of daylight on top of that. A pure solar boat would struggle in those conditions IMHO, if you're going up there you need a diesel generator for backup, of sufficient power to drive the propulsion motors and support the hotel load simultaneously, and enough fuel capacity for at least a couple thousand miles of range on diesel power alone.
The leisure boating industry is largely piggybacking on the Automotive industries advances .. by virtue of the resources and research largely coming out of China and Europe.
As far as wind assistance, a electric motor driven Flettnet Royor would provide much greater power, and, it allows way higher pointing angles. I am developing a prototype Flettner Cylinder that can convert to a Vertical Axis Wind Turbine.
Thanks for this video series on Indigo Lady. If you look at our content, we traveled by land for 6 years off grid, but I would love to be able to build a Catamaran that would allow for unlimited travel on any body of water. If you want to talk about Victron parts, reach out.
I’ve been waiting for someone to have videos on this boat. Love the concept, but would need more panels and a lot more battery, and probably bigger motors. Donate for a Dream
Great boat. I would have wanted to reduce possible shading from the central spine by moving the inner rows of panels as far away as possible - looks like there is a 4 to 6 in gap you could do without.
One other thing to remember is the price of both solar panels and especially LiFePO4 batteries have dropped dramatically in the last 5 years. You could very easily build a battery pack today with twice the capacity for the same price as 5 years ago even with inflation. Even the panels themselves have been getting incremental improvements and you could probably get a bit more juice out of the same surface area with todays panels.
The old homes that were built in the Florida keys had a roof vents and vents in the sides of the walls for the exact same reason. You never wanted the pressure differential on one side or the other in a hurricane so by having vents it lets that pressure out.
Just read your your 3 month old video on loneliness and solo sailing. Comment so true of life generally. Rare to have conversations that are not shallow. How did someone so young become so wise.
If you want to electrify anything with electric motors instead of gasoline keep in mind that you can always buy smaller electric motors and run multiple motors on a pulley system using standard automobile drive belts which are very strong and very proven to all power one propeller or you can have multiple propellers on multiple small motors in the and that way you can start smaller and you can increase the amount of propulsion power as you feel you need it. My first electric motor on my sailboat which I converted was a simple yard sale 50 lb trolling motor and that was enough to push my boat which is a 27 ft catamaran that's about 6,000 lb at 1 1/2 not through the water all day on minimal power. Remember multiple small motors are often more efficient than one large electric motor as well. And they are certainly much less expensive to get the same amount of thrust into the water.
I made a 24 volt battery out of 280 ah cells. Same battery chemistry as this boat's batts. They are cobalt free and last far longer than the types used in cars. Less energy dense though. I've fantasized about doing this to a cat. Don't have the money. I also thought that a kite would work well for downwind sailing.
@@Adventureman_Dan I also put electric motors in two of the sailboats I've owed but that was before lithium batts were affordably. I used six volt trojan lead acid batts to make 48 volt system.
Watched the whole video :) I am kinda surprised at how he can generate his full 32 kwh by 1pm with a 7.2 kwp system. If he says he can generate 60 kwh per day thats 8.3 sun hours (kWh/m2). I think 4.5+ sun hours is more realistic which means he should be able to generate 32kwh the whole day assuming sunny day? However, an electric catamaran is only a dream i have for now :)
Yeah, the energy doesn’t work out. It’s like powering a 40ft power boat with a 10HP motor for 2 hours a day, 😀 It’s a joke, but people so want to believe it. ☹️
I'm a bunch of years away, but yes I want a Cat with no fossil fuels. MAYBE I'd keep a very small generator that could run nav and radio. When I start building it, I'll focus on a very large battery bank, and, extra efficient appliances.
Some things missing. All of the calculations are based on 5(ish) knots, or full power. How far down from that to double the range? 1knot, half a knot? I guess I am asking what is the speed with half that power? For island hopping, full speed makes sense, get to that next anchorage. For ocean crossing, going a knot or two slower to be able to keep on way for steering. Or being able to still recharge every day while moving 24 hours a day. Maybe for ocean crossing, sails still make sense.
Now there are hybrid inverters (inverter, charger, charge controller) This what I have. 14.5 Kw heated and weather proof Battery and 18K inverter. Nothing more is needed except the panels.The heated 14.5Kw battery is $3900 and signature solar. More power than a Tesla power wall and 1/3rd the price.
I'd sure like to know more about his lightning protection system. For example, what wiring (gauge? insulation?) does he run from the spikes down to the metal hull plates? What are those plates made from? How big are they? How do the wires attach to the plates? Where are the 5 plates located on the hull? How are they attached to the hull?
He should elevate those PV panels several inches so there is a good air flow underneath as heat is the enemy of electricity production. "Typically, a panel will experience only a 0.5% decrease in power for every degree above 25°C[77°F]" Dark color objects absorb heat energy from the sun, that is why asphalt in the summer is hot, black clothing absorbs more heat, black vinyl seats in a car. Solar PV cells are dark in color and if they do not have airflow to keep cool they lose a significant amount of production. Asphalt can reach temperatures of 120-150°F (48-67°C) in the summer. If a PV panel reaches 120°F its production decreases by 21.5%, if the panel reaches 150°F the decrease is an astounding 36.5%.
MPP controllers actually get most of their efficiency advantage over pulse with modified controllers when your panels are often half in the shade or you have one panel in the shade and one panel out of the shade. However if you're operating outside on the water that's rarely going to be the case and and it just means again there's a lot less reason to get mppt controllers which are so much more expensive than the pulse with modified controllers. Also remember that anything that has boat or airplane in front of it is 10 times more expensive than the exact same thing you can get that says automobile. So you can buy DC motors and all kinds of controllers and relays for automobiles that are built to last 200,000 mi in all kinds of dirt and Dusty bouncy conditions for 1/10 the price you can buy the same devices for a boat or an airplane.
Excellent, however he shouldn’t have gotten rid of the sail. Sailing is fun and it’s also a backup if his battery system fails. Batteries can die, they can catch fire, and they can explode, especially if they are Lipo or Lithium Ion.
They are not that kind of batteries, and there are two banks for redundancy. And sailing is not something that we all want to do. I'd love a solar boat that I did not "have" to sail. I would like an emergency sail, as David has on board, just in case.
Best idea ever! He mentioned that he would put a link to his how to build instructions. Did he provide a link? Also, was he in the US Navy? Thought I saw a Navy flag....
As long as the sun is out, you're golden. Just don't go to limited sun areas, like the British Isles, or other far northern climates. You could really use sails on that boat as well. They work without sunlight. It's really amazing.
Solar electric sails boat make a lot of sense. They need proper fire suppression for lithium batteries and super capacitor banks. Every see the lights dim on a car as bass hits? A super capacitor stops the lights dimming and batter last longer as less hard cycles. You can still use power with dead batteries using super capacitor banks and batteries will charge.
Don't need super caps on LFP cells that big. Those cells can dump 1500 amps each for a short time if you really need it. Those cells are way more robust than lead acid. With the motor VFDs you're not instantly slamming on the propulsion drives. There's a ramp curve.
just don't make $1k mistakes on a unit you could have bought for $800 trying to spend $500 to get more than an $800 unit. See it all the time. I used to laugh ... now it's more like ... oh no, not again. From funny to disheartening. I spent about 500 on a small system and did everything to kill it so i know the limits for the real thing.
Electric motor has one moving part with a couple of Bearings, compared to a diesel hundreds of moving parts (I would have to look it up but it’s not even comparable)
I don't think its safe to have just solar on a boat. You've got to have a generator on board and a small back up generator just in case. Always have redundancy. I like how he did two separate systems for each hull. Very smart. I thought about doing this on a wharram design sailboat.
Great video!! I wonder how much an All In One inverter with premade wall hung battery bank would simplify this build (and make it cheaper). Its under $1400 for a 6kw AIO inverter (would need two of them for 7200w) and less than $3600 for a 14.3kw wall hung battery. The entire solar, battery, and inverter for this build would be under 10k for this build at todays prices.
Dave talked alot about redundancy. When something breaks, not if, then you have a backup. If an all-in-one breaks, it takes out your charger, solar MPPT, and inverter. If one of those breaks in a component system, no big deal...much easier to find and ship one smaller box if you are remote.
You can start now - no need to wait for new technologys. Prices for these cells are down to $60 - use 17 per bank ( Victron can do up to 60V) and you pay just 3000$ for 50kWh. Add BMS, charger and inverter for anothr 2k and you have a nice Set. Compared to cost of the electric engine thats peanuts...
If you're trying to travel long distances solar isn't the way to go. You want to keep your sales. Solar is wonderful if you're going to motor from Little Marina and mooring spot and harbor to the next one or the next Island but it's difficult to do anything overnight because remember if you deplete your battery Bank overnight then you can't use your solar panels to travel the next day because the solar panels have to recharge your battery Bank from the previous night. So if you're going to be sailing hundreds of miles and your goal is to see the world you want to keep your sails!
@@XX-dp8un Ah, gotcha..... Ya, I thought they looked cool and they provided quite a bit of power. I just don't know much about wind generation. Thanks for the answer.
Cool. The radios and such as grounded to another dyna plate? What about the negative bus bar is it got it's own too? Will I see static change from the boats movement? Anyway thanks this gives me a good jump off point to build something much smaller. 12 by 8 can do 2k solar if I cover every inch. Also considered a solar raft with additional panels. There's just not enough room to generate. Agree 48v is worth the safety factor. Jumper cables are cheap vevor make 48v 2k brushless $150 with the controller. I have 6k in lifepo4. Solar is down to $60 a 100w. I have 1000w but need more. Running 2 2k motors. I'd need to roughly double my solar area to 4k for full power under ideal sun angle. So the raft could stack on the roof. The semi flexibes are a little less robust and powerful but very light. I need a lot more battery if I want range but it looks good
A very cheap source of 12-volt equipment such as refrigerators and other things are truck stops because truckers usually prefer to have their refrigerators and other things running off 12 via you really don't want to convert from DC to AC using an inverter and then the refrigerator itself will convert from AC off into DC to run the internal motor and run the other parts of the device so you would really rather have the refrigerator just be a 12 volt refrigerator or the lunch pail or the heated lunch pail or whatever be a 12 volt device and you can find those at the large truck stops because that's what truckers by. And again because they're made in mass quantities and they're made to be very durable for truckers you're going to find the quality is very good and the cost is very low.
The future compact multifuel generators are tiny and so much efficient cleaner and quieter.. Two configurations the Liquid piston Rotary motor and the twin opposed piston crankless .. generator developed by Duhram University.. 20-30kw the size of a briefcase. .. Short blade LFP lithium Iron Phosphate batteries are super safe .. and now being challenged by Na sodium.. salt batteries.
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