Next question: best 6-8kw generator for use several hours daily?

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by BviKetch

I am interested in your comment about a "school bus alternator" as an alternative to a genset. We recently removed our 5Kw genset (totally shot). We now have a wind turbine that meets about 50% of our charging need and we use our engine alternator for the rest. I understand that engine alternators are not suited for this and also that running our engine at idle with no load will result in Bore Polishing. Are you suggesting that a "school bus alternator" would work a lot better? And would that put enough additional load on the engine to reduce problems with Bore Polishing? We still have an electric stove that we plan on replacing with propane, but would the school bus alternator and a high capacity inverter be able to keep up with an electric stove (+/- 2400 watts)? Not having to install a propane system and a new stove would save a lot of money.
Thanks for your thoughts.

School bus type alternators (Leece-Neville et al) are made for bulk power production, and will stand up to continuous high output, high temp operation. They are bigger than car alternators so will charge faster (assuming proper external regulation) and load up your engine better.

You probably still don't want to run your main engine a lot with no other load, unless your engine is quite small. So, just check your dock lines and put it in gear while you're charging.

[darylat8750]

Originally Posted by melissiti

Cool, cheers - yeah, looks like a much smaller genset for backup & boat engine as main power source (on the many British rubbish-for-solar days that there are) is going to be our best bet. We won't need the genie on while cruising, no wind power for narrowboats, and the old towpaths (built alongside the canals in the 19th century so these boats could be towed by humans or horses, before there was any such thing as a built-in engine on them) are no longer fully functional - so we need to run the engine to move at all lol! And we'll need a proper cruise around once a week for supplies etc, so we can use that to charge up nicely as well as stretch the engine's legs. My primary reason for preferring a genset as main non-renewable power source, over the boat's own engine, was really noise concern. But I guess thoroughly soundproofing our engine bay makes that less of an issue Thanks for the smaller petrol(gas) genie recommendations!

It will take a MONSTER battery bank to go a week between charges. If you are thinking charge what you use each day (staying between 50-80%)and completely topping off the batteries once a week you are on the right path.

[Amapola]

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