Hybrid Houseboats - any electric, solar, or paddle wheel propulsion house boat?

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Hybrid Houseboats - any electric, solar, or paddle wheel propulsion house boat?

by Joe Stein
(Sandusky, Ohio)

Hybrid Houseboats - any 28' Marinette boats around?

When it comes to hybrid houseboats, is there any electric, solar, or paddle wheel propulsion aluminum house boat around? I think an aluminum Marinette houseboat would be perfect.

My idea is a Honda Insight CVT drive train, paddle wheel propulsion, 1959 Marinette/Aluminum Cruisers 28'AllFamilyCruiser. 4500# dry weight EST. Regenerative braking effect with paddle wheels charging the 144v battery banks, engine shutdown when not under throttle.

Charging while moored/anchored with water current moving paddle wheels. Electric braking with energizing the IMA (Integrated Motor Assist/motor-alternator).

Now I just need to find the "right" boat. Any info on the wherabouts of one of these would be helpful! We want to take our 2 and 5 year old daughters touring.

Thanks in advance, JOEY

Reply - Answer
Well Joey, it sounds like you have been busy designing the next hybrid houseboat, and I agree with your choice of the 28 foot Marinette.

As to finding an aluminum Marinette, you may want to keep an eye out on our Houseboats For Sale page.

There is also many articles that may interest you on our green, wind, and solar powered houseboats page.

Now if we look at advancements in technology, especially in the last decade, I see that we are close to achieving a commercially viable hybrid houseboat for consumers. I just hope that it will be affordable.

Lastly, hopefully some of our readers will share and post comments about their electric, solar, wind, or hybrid houseboat experiences. Feel free to use the "Click here to post comments." link found near the bottom of this page.

Thanks again for sharing, IAN - from www.all-about-houseboats.com

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Hybrid Houseboats - any electric, solar, or paddle wheel propulsion house boat?

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Green Houseboats - wind powered 1957 Marinette
by: JRL

I came across the article about the hybrid Marinette houseboat. How strange because I was mulling around with the idea of putting together a wind powered houseboat after a visit to the Mississippi River and saw all the boats in dock and none out traveling. Who could blame them with the price of fuel.

So, I am looking for the right boat and am almost convinced in purchasing large pontoons and putting an old Airstream on it. That would look so cool. However, I saw this old houseboat in a field near the Wisconsin Dells.

It is a 1957 Marinette. It was for sale for $1500. It needs to be gutted, but the aluminum was all good. I have since purchased 3x 1500 watt wind turbines from Wild Nature Solutions and will mount them approximately 15 feet off the deck.

I found a 1958 Penta Volvo I/O that the out unit was rebuilt. I did not want to waste horsepower turn an I/O from a 200 hp engine. This was 80 hp and the smallest I could find.

Right now, I have the boat gutted and am ready to take off paint. I hope by the end of the summer I will have the electric motor in and give it a test run.

Let me know if you found your boat and have converted it to hybrid. If anything else, it keeps my mind busy. JRL.

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Electric Houseboats - a PADDLEWHEELER design
by: Anonymous

I have a 35 ft Paddlewheeler I built for my Ice Cream Business. She's all electric, joystick control, including the steering. I am working on the solar recharging of the batteries or wind generator, not sure which way I want to go.

Regenerative is designed into this but provides little since Paddlewheelers only travel max 10 knots.

www.countrylofticecream.com/Country_Loft_Queen.html

For those who will visit southwest Michigan this summer, you can see her on Corey Lake, Three Rivers, Mi

The Ice Cream is all homemade on the boat using a 1917 hit miss churn.

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Green houseboat, with plenty of solar power
by: phil

We have a '95 ThreeBuoys houseboat, our roof is an unobstructed 15'x60', our bilge is huge 10'x5' (minus the 175 Merc), What I was thinking is does anyone know if I could lay solar panels on the whole roof and put plexiglass on top of the solar panels so I still have all my entertaining area?

Also is there any heavy duty electric prop motors to push this 60 tonne vessel? I am thinkining I could fit 60 batteries in the bilge (if I get rid of the motor) any ideas or companies that would know?

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A sizable array of solar panels
by: Albatross

One thing that occurred to me was that one thing you have on the water that you don't necessarily have on land is a lot of unobstructed space.

It seems like one could HAVE "a sizable array" of solar panels simply by floating them behind the boat on aluminum pontoons.

This would only work in calm, clear weather and you'd still need a combustion engine for backup, but there would also be a lot of days when one could deploy the solar array, turn on the electric motor, and hum quietly along...

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The Vision of Green Energy for Houseboats
by: Old Houseboater

Don't want to stifle creativity but:

1. Propellers are way more efficient than paddle wheels.

2. Solar is an established technology but conversion effiency is pretty poor and high energy required to propel a boat would require a sizeable array.

3. Harvesting energy from a moving body of water is feasable and is an established technology.

Putting all this together in one package is possible but would/will take a lot of engineering and money.

GO FOR IT

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video ot solar paddle wheeler
by: Anonymous

Here's a link to a Youtube video of an aluminum solar paddle wheeler. Their website even has a parts list. (Not a cheap project).

Oh, and paddle wheels, if designed right can be very efficeint for low speed applications. Their main advantage is that you can operate in shallow weed infested waters without a propellor
to constanly get tangled.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLOYfdJ0DGU

or search google for solar paddle wheel boat.

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Hybrid Houseboats - any electric, solar, or paddle wheel propulsion house boat?

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Hybrid Houseboats - any electric, solar, or paddle wheel propulsion house boat?