The Steamboating Forum

Ok, I will brave uncharted waters here and risk heresy by suggesting, for the good of our hobby - what research and/or experimentation has been done to build, retrofit or incorporate solar panels, arrays or electrical heating coils with in current boiler designs to make our hobby a "greener" more environmentally friendly hobby?

I run my boat on solid wood fuel - scavenged mesquite, pecan, live oak, etc....even sometimes untreated scrape lumber (old fencing boards). I short, no fossil fuels. I like using this little or "no cost" fuel source that otherwise would be going to our local landfill or setting rotting in the field.

Since most of the boats with canopy superstructures or solid roofs (like my engine room & wheelhouse) have a quantifiable amount of square footage that might be incorporated to have solar power put to use in operating our vessels, I was wondering who else may have been intrigued by this possibility?

I know this will make many scratch their heads. But just an idea. Who and how many have also given this a thought?

Please don't come after me with tar & feathers or torches & pitch forks.........just asking the question.

Like the idea, but not sure you could get much more than pre-heat with solar water-heating (if), and as for what we've been able to achieve here (UK) this last two months, you'd be lucky to keep navigation LEDs alight with P.V.s. In the future things may well improve as different technologies come forward. It'd be good to see.

Using solar collected energy to run a steamboat is far far away from reasonable in the engineering sense. To get enough energy for a very small launch engine (well under 1/2 horsepower), around 10 kilowatts of boiler thermal power is needed. The solar array seen on large houses do not produce anything near that power even in strong sunlight, but require a large surface pointed at the sun.

Using solar photovoltaic arrays to charge batteries for electric launches has much better efficiency, and can manage perhaps 1/2 kilowatt peak power in strong sunlight, with a large solar array covering the entire boat canopy. About 80% of that power can be brought to turning an electric motor driven propeller, or charging batteries for short time running sprints at a few horsepower.

The same solar setup used to make steam could, at best, make around 10 to 20 watts of propulsion steam power, such a small amount indeed.

So, in summary, solar power on steamboats may be practical for charging a battery that serves the running lights, but if you use LED lights, a couple of flashlight batteries will do the same job all year long, with much less expense.

fredrosse wrote: So, in summary, solar power on steamboats may be practical for charging a battery that serves the running lights, but if you use LED lights, a couple of flashlight batteries will do the same job all year long, with much less expense.

For larger boats left in the water for extended periods, solar panels on the cabin/pilot house top are very practical for keeping a bank of lead-acid batteries charged. Lots of sailboats do this to insure they have continuous battery power for bilge pumps, LED lighting, engine starting, etc.

We have 200W of solar panels we added to our 1971 Airstream; this provides plenty of power for LED lighting, my CPAP, and other incidentals so long as we're not parked under a tree. The batteries are always charged, and they're kept at just the right state of charge.

- Bart