how to keep the batteries charged

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SidWell
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how to keep the batteries charged

Post by SidWell » Tue Sep 13, 2011 4:21 pm

What is the common electrical configuration for a steamboat? 12VDC, 24VDC?

What is used to charge the batteries? Do you hang an automotive alternator of the drive shaft? Do you install a small aux steam engine? How do you charge the batteries if you are at anchor over night?
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Re: how to keep the batteries charged

Post by fredrosse » Tue Sep 13, 2011 11:05 pm

IMHO kerosene lanterns and lights are the only proper lights for a period steam launch.

However, if you insist on electric lights, go with the modern LED technology. I use a camping lantern on my porch, 4 x "D" flashlight cells, has beeb running all summer about 10 hours per week, suitable for the cabin of a small boat, and the light is still going strong. A small stash of flashlight batteries will last for weeks, and do all your required marine lights, plus cabin lighting, plus a searchlight if you want.

This expense is so much less than trying to put together a charging system for heavy electrical use. Bilge pumps and potable water pumps can be had that are manually (or via steam) operated.
farmerden
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Re: how to keep the batteries charged

Post by farmerden » Thu Sep 15, 2011 3:44 am

"Steam Queen" has an alternator but with only about 8HP ,it's amazing how much the engine slows down when the alternator is in use! Because of this I very seldom use it. I have a small solar panel that keeps the battery up.My Bilge pump is my only concern and I've never had a problem when leaving the boat in the water.I have also swiched to LED lights which draw negliable amounts of power.Now if you decide to run a 12 volt "furnace style" burner you will need an alternator,otherwise a small battery is all you really need. An interested bystander at a show once asked me how did I start the engine if I didn't have a battery-I was really stuck for an answer! Den
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Re: how to keep the batteries charged

Post by dhic001 » Thu Sep 15, 2011 7:01 am

Den,
How does your alternator set up work? How is it driven etc. Am going to fit one to Zeltic at some stage to charge things when on long night runs. Have provided a reasonably large vee belt pulley on the back of the flywheel, but doing only 150rpm would seem to provide a bit of a problem if we need top get to 1500rpm or the like for the alternator to work.
Interested in people's thoughts too.
Daniel
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Re: how to keep the batteries charged

Post by Mike Rometer » Thu Sep 15, 2011 8:38 am

It's hardly surprising that an 8HP engine struggles with an alternator attached, the alternator requires around 6 of those horses to turn it, especially if the battery is low. I would think speed would be a problem as well, alternators require much higher speeds than dynamos hence why they have smaller pulleys.
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Re: how to keep the batteries charged

Post by artemis » Thu Sep 15, 2011 6:32 pm

My last steamboat (under construction Pond Skimmer excepted), was a 26' Navy whaleboat ("liberty" boat) named Artemis. See pic below:
Image
Because USCG regs require electric running lights (and most local boat cops enforce this far more rigorously than the CG) and I wanted a working fathometer for the Columbia River, I needed someway (I thought) to charge batteries. I happened to have a lightly used Stuart Sirius engine (the same one used to power radio transmitters of "opposition/guerilla forces" during WWII) which I knew would power an alternator to put out 20A, 12vDC at 1800rpm - A x V = Watts so 20 x 12 = 240 Watts and 1 HP = 780 Watts electrictiy 101). The drawing below shows how I did it. I put an adjustable pressure reducing valve on the steam line to the generator, set at 80psig and hooked a small tachometer to the signal output to tach post on the alternator. One could run it automatically with some sort of weird lashup, but I found that just listening to the Sirius engine I could tell if it slowed down or speeded up and adjust the throttle according using the tach as a guide.
Image
As I used 2 six volt golf cart batteries in series (much better "draw down" capabilities, work very well in marine environment and cost a LOT less than marine batteries) I actually had more power than I ever needed, even over a several day period. I had a marine battery charger permanently mounted and simply "topped off" the batteries whenever I tied up to a dock with power overnight. But if you're going to go off somewhere in the backwoods a week or more, it wouldn't hurt to be on the safe side. A hand held high intensity spotlight is great for night cru1sing
Last edited by artemis on Thu Sep 15, 2011 10:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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SidWell
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Re: how to keep the batteries charged

Post by SidWell » Thu Sep 15, 2011 10:34 pm

Very Nice! That is the kind of answer I was looking for. The Sirius engine may be a bit difficult to find, are there other options that come to mind?
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Re: how to keep the batteries charged

Post by artemis » Thu Sep 15, 2011 10:56 pm

SidWell wrote:Very Nice! That is the kind of answer I was looking for. The Sirius engine may be a bit difficult to find, are there other options that come to mind?
I don't know about that "hard to find". They show up periodically on eBay. Three or four of the complete (engine, generator, controls) units have even shown up over the years. And I'll bet that our "cousins" can easily get you one. Otherwise something relativly high rpm. With all the "off grid - green" stuff out there I'm sure there are a number of alternators at varying rpms available. Don't mess around with using belts to alter rpms to a small engine. They're cumbersome and very energy inefficient! :o
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farmerden
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Re: how to keep the batteries charged

Post by farmerden » Fri Sep 16, 2011 3:55 am

Daniel Here's a photo taken when I was putting the engine back in [excuse the mess!] The flywheel has a groove machined in it and the alternator [green] has a much smaller pulley.The belt is just rolled on by hand whenever I want to! There is an external regulator but I think if you were to use a single wire GM unit with a built in regulator it would be easier and more tidy! The flywheel is about 12 in ,the alter. pulley is about 1 1/2 -2 in,my RPM is 400-410 and I think some alternators will start as low as 1000RPMImage[/img]
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Re: how to keep the batteries charged

Post by SL Ethel » Mon Sep 19, 2011 1:44 am

One possibility to address the issue of needing a higher speed drive than is convenient from the main engine might be to use a wind turbine generator. They are multi-pole generators designed to run at the same speed as the wind turbine blades. Another good thing is that it's easy to get one in the 400-1000 watt range - enough for most of our needs, but small enough that it won't lug down the engine even if called on to charge dead batteries. For most of our engines, these would probably run at somewhere between engine speed and a 2:1 step up. Much easier (and more efficient) than trying to spin a car alternator up to 2000 rpm.

I am planning on using such a generator on my launch, where I plan to have 12v power for stuff like computers and cell phones in addition to running lights and spot lights. I'm not sure about sources for the generators alone, but Northern Tool sells a 600 watt turbine (the whole works including the blades, tail, etc) for $800, so it must be possible to get a generator alone for much less.

Cheers,
Scott
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