I am thinking of installing an EFOY or Maxima 160 Fuel cell in a boat I am having built, in lieu of a generator. 110 V power will be via an inverter.
Does anyone have experience with these fuel cells?
I will also be using solar panels to supplement the fue cell and save on the methanol fuel.
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Go for it. Your neighbors on the moorings and anchorages will appreciate the silence and absence of fumes! In fact, please visit my anchorage.
If you do … I would like to hear about it. E.g. how easy was it to design into your boat, was there an advantage to that or could it easily go into any boat. How is the maintenance compared to generators, how did you benefit from the elimination of noise, compare reliability, etc.
Beware to appropriately size your battery bank, since you need to accumulate the power over perhaps an entire day to run a decent size inverter load for a couple of hours. I would highly recommend you couple the fuel cell to golf cart type deep cycle lead acid batteries rather than fancy AGM batteries. The big benefits of AGM batteries are going to be lost on such a low power continuous charging source, and maybe even stress it as it does alternators. I say golf cart type … as they take deeper discharges much better.
I'm really interested too, Keith. The thing I like least about my new boat is its generator. I don't like the concept of running any engine at anchor, but this one is particularly obnoxious.
However, the currently available fuel cells seem awfully expensive for what they can do, and I can't find real world examples of boaters actually using them. The most detailed review I've found so far is here:
http://www.campervanstuff.com/shop_stuff/index.php?mod=product&id_prd=1068
At any rate, thanks for the idea, Keith, and please share links and your experience if you go forward.