Efoy Fuel Cells

[CamanoBob]

What price is too much for peace of mind and peacefulness? My wife and I don't want to hear a honda suitcase or worry about batteries or ruin a diesel using it as a generator or drill new holes that drain water into my boat to mount visually unappealing solar panels (Little Charmer is a classic beauty). Simple as that. The way I see it, I buy two ethanol cartridges for a year of worry free intelligent charging. That's $160 bucks Canadian. I spend $200 on a diesel fill-up every 6-8 hours of engine runtime. And happy wife, happy life and, as the old Irish Spring commerial says it "I like it too:. Actually, love my Efoy!

 

[John the kiwi]

What price is too much for peace of mind and peacefulness? My wife and I don't want to hear a honda suitcase or worry about batteries or ruin a diesel using it as a generator or drill new holes that drain water into my boat to mount visually unappealing solar panels (Little Charmer is a classic beauty). Simple as that. The way I see it, I buy two ethanol cartridges for a year of worry free intelligent charging. That's $160 bucks Canadian. I spend $200 on a diesel fill-up every 6-8 hours of engine runtime. And happy wife, happy life and, as the old Irish Spring commerial says it "I like it too:. Actually, love my Efoy!

Now i am genuinely confused! I understood that these fuel cell things ran on high purity Methanol which is highly toxic and can be absorbed through the skin to fatal levels.
You say you run your Little Charmer on Ethanol which can be diluted and drunk by humans with no ill effects whatsoever.( or so i am told!)
What is the truth here?

 

[Mistroma]

Now i am genuinely confused! I understood that these fuel cell things ran on high purity Methanol which is highly toxic and can be absorbed through the skin to fatal levels.
You say you run your Little Charmer on Ethanol which can be diluted and drunk by humans with no ill effects whatsoever.( or so i am told!)
What is the truth here?

I'm guessing it is a typo and should be methanol.

It sounds as if CamanoBob has a power boat (approx. £125 for 6-8 hours running, around 25-35 litres per hour). I could be well out in my guess but don't think it can be a sailing boat. I can see why EFOY seems to be cheap in relation to main engine fuel use. It is also likely that time on the boat is limited.

I have not looked at EFOY for many years now as solar was a no-brainer for my type of use. I think that my running cost was likely to be around £400 per annum for approx. 68 litres. It would actually have been a lot higher but I only needed to cover the shortfall from existing solar.

Pro:

• Quiet in use
• It could keep the batteries at 100% all the time
• Should be able to reduce battery bank size so potential saving in capital cost
• Uses less fuel than a petrol generator

Con:

• Smallest unit only rated for <60 days use per year
• Output will have dropped below 75% after only 2 summers
• Need to plan fuel purchase well in advance
• Very high capital cost
• High financial risk due to questionable lifespan

Difficulty with fuel purchase, need to run for 200 days per year, limited lifespan, high purchase and running cost were main reasons I didn't go with EFOY. Solar is a no-brainer for my pattern of use.

However, if I wasn't on a sailing boat in the Mediterranean for 6-7 months each year it might make more sense.

Not going to be 6-7 months this year?

 

[MarkCX]

Maybe if there were a little more competition it would help drive the price down considerably. Efoy seem to have pretty much sewn up the leisure market.
I would love to have one for the British winter when my solar can’t keep up, but way too expensive for me.

 

[pvb]

Maybe if there were a little more competition it would help drive the price down considerably. Efoy seem to have pretty much sewn up the leisure market.
I would love to have one for the British winter when my solar can’t keep up, but way too expensive for me.

The leisure market for fuel cells is likely to be tiny, and wouldn't easily support a new entrant. SFC, who own Efoy, are a global leader in fuel cells, most of which are sold to people who don't care about the cost, such as military, exploration, public authorities, oil & gas explorers, etc.

 

[Gwylan]

I learn't about a different way of charging batteries over on YouTube using Efoy fuel cells.

The look like they would solve all my power issues. I am not a fan of wind power, willing to look at solar and, to date, hydro generation has been the favorite. While the fuel cell is eye wateringly expensive it is cheaper than the Watt and Sea solution that I have been looking at. The advantage is that you do not need to be underway to generate power and as I am on a swing mooring, can top up the batteries as and when it is needed.

I'm also looking at ultrasonic antifouling and this would deliver as much power as that system needs without the generation or storage headaches.

Is anybody currently using the system? If so what is your experience?

Looked at them quite seriously. Did not go any further.

Because
The unit is expensive
The cell has a finite life that needs to be amortised.
Makes the energy more expensive
You have to buy fuel from them or lose the warranty
The units run best when running continuously.
Might need a bigger battery bank to cope with that

Still a out £5k I suppose.

 

[MarkCX]

The leisure market for fuel cells is likely to be tiny, and wouldn't easily support a new entrant

Yes, I agree fairly tiny. However the same could be said for lithium batteries or solar panels, at first they were expensive and fairly niche, most people were happy to do without. Solar panels are now fairly ubiquitous and even pricey lithium batteries are starting to gain traction as prices are (slowly) falling. The same with diesel heaters like Eberspacher etc. Chinese versions are now so inexpensive, they’re finding their way into many more boats, campers etc. than they would have done otherwise. I’m not saying I’m ready to trust a Chinese copy fuel cell just yet, but the advantages of a clean, quiet and portable power source for off-grid use, that doesn’t depend on the vagaries of UK weather, mean that there could be a bigger market than people think. Falling prices would probably result in increased market demand.

 

[Beneteau381]

My 40w of solar panels cost me a bit over £100 to install. Don't think I'll be swapping

And my 250 watts keeps me self sufficient at anchor in Portugal

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Maybe if there were a little more competition it would help drive the price down considerably. Efoy seem to have pretty much sewn up the leisure market.
I would love to have one for the British winter when my solar can’t keep up, but way too expensive for me.

I've already addressed this, but the current generation of fuel cells depend on precious metal catalysts. They are in direct competition for materials with catalytic exhaust systems. The high price is at least partly down to this.

Cheaper and more flexible catalytic membranes are being developed, but are still not close to being market ready.

In other words, don't hold your breath waiting for lower prices!

Incidentally, the big market for fuel cells would be mobile phones and other portable devices.