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Old 12-23-2020, 12:07 PM   #134
DDW
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City: San Francisco
Join Date: Apr 2018
Posts: 3,094
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marco Flamingo View Post

Explosive gasses are a problem in addition to having an electrical system on your boat. It is a risk analysis issue. That doesn't mean that it isn't a risk. Understanding risk is great. Avoiding risk may be better.
In assessing risk, hours of exposure are important. Every boat has an electrical system, but using it at high capacity whether from a genset or inverter to power a range increases the risk. That risk is absent with a propane range, replaced by the risk of a propane leak. This is also time limited to range use, as any properly installed propane system will have a shut off at the tank, which is topologically overboard.

There are risks to both. The problem in quantifying the difference, is that the absolute risk with either is vanishingly small. Dividing two very small numbers, each with a large potential estimation error, is meaningless. So while you might assert that electric is safer than gas by some imagined or theoretical consideration, there is no evidence for that assertion as both are statistically and provably safe. Many more people drown by falling overboard than are killed by either.

To David's obsession of space requirements for batteries, the power density of various battery technologies are very well documented. LA are about 60 Wh/L, LiCo about 550 Wh/L, and LFP about 330 Wh/L. So a 200 KWh LFP battery is at least 22 cu ft. Diesel by the way, is about 10,700 Wh/L, which is why electric trawlers will not be popular anytime soon. The same 22 cu ft tank will give you 6,400 KWh, about an order of magnitude better even after energy conversion efficiencies are considered.
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