power generation upfit

[SofiaB]

I purchased a Honda 2200 dual fuel petrol and propane and it is for sale. Never started, ready to go. Long propane lines with shutoff valve and hour meter. It won’t fit in my locker and don’t want it on deck. Will sell and ship from Ohio.

[john61ct]

Originally Posted by coopec43

Their new link is:
https://www.meps.com/wp-content/uplo...kwseapower.pdf

That's the data sheet I meant, very vague if not confusing.

I think it would be great for those with direct experience of MEPS to start a separate thread dedicated to their product line.

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

My cockpit is large, so I put a cover on the Honda and lash it to the front of the pedestal.
While I feel it is likely safe to put it in a locker because it does have a fuel shutoff and a vent, I’m a little uncomfortable with gasoline in a locker.
Fuel storage is of course on deck. I don’t understand why people are so reticent to carry gasoline?

I would really like to better understand why you don't just run your Next-gen because I would have thought that would be more ideal.


I am not opposed to gasoline but rather to the requirement to store it on deck and handle and decant it on board, problems that get worse with quantity. The Honda generators have greater CO emissions than the Kubota in the Next-gen, one more thing to watch for, and there's more handling involved in getting the Honda out on deck, connecting it, fueling it, and starting it.


What is it you don't like about the Next-gen? Noise? Limited useful life? Something else?

[Scott Berg]

Actually the SeaPower is much more than a power head on a belt. They use an inverter like control circuit that provides a pure 60hz sine wave at variable RPM
with higher current but stable voltage and freq as RPM's increase. I installed a few in the 90's and they are still going strong. Great support from the manufacturer. For a trawler they are wonderful as the engine is usually running anyway. These days we tend to fit large alternators, battery banks, and Victron inverter(s) but they there is nothing wrong with the MEPS solution.

Originally Posted by coopec43

Well a chap by the name of GordMay has this to say:

"Sea Power" (a DC alternator mounted on your propulsion engine) was/is manufactured by Mobile Electric Power Solution, Inc. (MEPS).
CEO Bill Chambers is very helpful.

Mobile Electric Power Solutions, Inc. (MEPS)
2714 West Kingsley Road, Suite A-2, Garland, TX 75041
PO Box 550248 Dallas, TX 75355-0248
Telephone: +1-972-864-1015
Fax: +1-972-271-0635
Web ➥ http://www.meps.com/New_Site/Documen...ochure-kVA.pdf


So John you are right.

(Their new link is:
https://www.meps.com/wp-content/uplo...kwseapower.pdf )

[john61ct]

Originally Posted by Scott Berg

Actually the SeaPower is much more than a power head on a belt. They use an inverter like control circuit that provides a pure 60hz sine wave at variable RPM

with higher current but stable voltage and freq as RPM's increase. I installed a few in the 90's and they are still going strong. Great support from the manufacturer. For a trawler they are wonderful as the engine is usually running anyway. These days we tend to fit large alternators, battery banks, and Victron inverter(s) but they there is nothing wrong with the MEPS solution.

Usually the term "generator" includes two main bits, the engine and the power head.

The latter is usually AC and often these days includes inverter tech for clean stable output.

My point is that their website makes no mention of the fact that their "generator" does not include a motor, but attaches to the user's propulsion engine.

As I said, clarification of these issues, and a discussion on their product's pro's and con's, really deserves a dedicated spin-off thread.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Jammer

I would really like to better understand why you don't just run your Next-gen because I would have thought that would be more ideal.


I am not opposed to gasoline but rather to the requirement to store it on deck and handle and decant it on board, problems that get worse with quantity. The Honda generators have greater CO emissions than the Kubota in the Next-gen, one more thing to watch for, and there's more handling involved in getting the Honda out on deck, connecting it, fueling it, and starting it.


What is it you don't like about the Next-gen? Noise? Limited useful life? Something else?

It has to do with a limited life and ease of service and money frankly. The Nex-gen is in the Lazarette, to change its oil every 100 hours means I have to empty the Lazarette and remove the cover and get myself down there, and change the oil, inspect the zinc etc.
Then I figure the thing has maybe a 5,000 hour life? If I’m running it just to do small loads, I believe it’s wasted hours, it’s a lot of work and maybe about $5,500 to replace.
The Honda is $1,000 all in, to change its oil every 100 hours just open the fill point and lean it over and that’s it, buy the flexible tube that screws into the hole and you don’t spill a drop and it’s easy to fill once you learn to keep a plastic bottle marked to the Honda’s capacity.
Replacement amounts to a phone call and a few days wait and a new one shows up in a box, and I have done a little research, it seems if the oil is changed frequently, they last up to a claimed 5,000 hours.

If I don’t need the extra power the Nex-gen has over the Honda, to me it seems to make more sense to run the Honda instead.
But if it’s raining and or I need 20 or 25 amps, I crank the Nex-Gen.

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

It has to do with a limited life and ease of service and money frankly. The Nex-gen is in the Lazarette, to change its oil every 100 hours means I have to empty the Lazarette and remove the cover and get myself down there, and change the oil, inspect the zinc etc.
Then I figure the thing has maybe a 5,000 hour life? If I’m running it just to do small loads, I believe it’s wasted hours, it’s a lot of work and maybe about $5,500 to replace.

Interesting.


I would be somewhat surprised if the average life or TBO or whatever on those is only 5,000 hours.



I note that the Northern Lights generators, while larger, have a 200 hour oil change interval, and are widely considered to last as long as the boat with proper maintenance.

[a64pilot]

They also have a full flow oil filter, hold much more oil and run at 1800 RPM as opposed to 2850, weigh several times as much, cost several times as much and are about twice as big.
Weights and sizes etc are pure speculation.

3500 W for 200 lbs isn’t bad, but it does come with drawbacks, there ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.

[KTP]

It does sound like the EU2200 is as close to a free lunch as one can get though. We plan on carrying one to help out occasionally on our EP sailboat, which will have a really big battery bank (20kWh at least). I already realize that solar is not always going to be able to bring it back to full.

[a64pilot]

Is 20 KWH really all that big? My dive scooter was 1KWH.

If it’s a big bank, your going to want a big generator and a big charger.
Unless of course you just day Sail it, but if your planning on cruising you may want to plan on charging a little while you motor slowly along.

[coopec43]

I argued a diesel generator would be better than a petrol Honda but then added you would need petrol for the outboard anyway. But maybe you don't?


https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/ePropuls...frcectupt=true

[a64pilot]

I have watched enough electric dinghies to know I don’t want that.
The other day we were in Black Point. The island with the Iguana’s was three miles away, to get there with the big boat was five or six because you had to go around a lot of shallow water.
We took the dinghy, 15 min ride, if we had an electric dinghy we would have to have taken the big boat.
We are now in Chicken Harbor (George Town), from our anchorage it’s a little over a mile to the dinghy dock each way, if we had an electric dinghy we would have to anchor close into town, where if there is any boats broken into, it’s close to town.
Every day I watch the people with the little dinghy with their little motors work their way to the dinghy dock, many wear their wet weather gear because they are getting soaked in 80 degree weather, likely they are soaked with sweat as opposed to salt water.

No, life with a bigger RIB and a 20 HP motor is just so much nicer, drier and easier.
Another thread was discussing bikes, I’d like to see someone carry two folding bicycles and themselves in a dinghy with an electric outboard.

Then of course there is the problem with charging the things, which I believe most likely means running a gas generator and if so, what’s the point?

[SailFastTri]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I have watched enough electric dinghies to know I don’t want that.
The other day we were in Black Point. The island with the Iguana’s was three miles away, to get there with the big boat was five or six because you had to go around a lot of shallow water.
We took the dinghy, 15 min ride, if we had an electric dinghy we would have to have taken the big boat.
We are now in Chicken Harbor (George Town), from our anchorage it’s a little over a mile to the dinghy dock each way, if we had an electric dinghy we would have to anchor close into town, where if there is any boats broken into, it’s close to town.
Every day I watch the people with the little dinghy with their little motors work their way to the dinghy dock, many wear their wet weather gear because they are getting soaked in 80 degree weather, likely they are soaked with sweat as opposed to salt water.

No, life with a bigger RIB and a 20 HP motor is just so much nicer, drier and easier.
Another thread was discussing bikes, I’d like to see someone carry two folding bicycles and themselves in a dinghy with an electric outboard.

Then of course there is the problem with charging the things, which I believe most likely means running a gas generator and if so, what’s the point?

Your last paragraph is the key issue to me. Unless you have acres of solar panels and wind (or don’t mind running a generator hours at a time) most boats consider amps to be a scarce commodity. I gave up dinghy planing for a lighter weight Suzuki 2.5 a few years ago. The portability is worth the trade off and has nothing to do with dinghy carrying capacity.
As for generation I currently have 200w (rated) of solar and carry a Yamaha 2kw portable gas generator as backup. Rarely use the Yamaha, and this year I’m upping my solar panels to total 360 rated watts.
Imho- the more solar the better. It’s quiet, clean and needs little or no attention once installed.

[a64pilot]

We have a kilowatt of Solar, and usually before noon on a sunny day we are in absorption voltage, meaning that the battery can’t accept all that the Solar can make, we usually turn on the inverter and make ice then with our countertop ice maker, but you could charge a dinghy battery, but likely you will have to do it every day, cause a kilowatt of power, is a lot and those batteries are a kilowatt/hour batteries, so I bet it’s more likely that they are charged by generator.

I will either buy a 2 hp two stroke Yamaha down here or a 2.5 Suzuki when we get back, partially as a spare, but also for when we are places like Vero Beach for instance where planning is not an option and you just don’t have a use for a big motor.
I want a spare, cause with the electronics in any motor now days, you not just filing points and going on anymore, you will need parts.

[KTP]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

Is 20 KWH really all that big? My dive scooter was 1KWH.

If it’s a big bank, your going to want a big generator and a big charger.
Unless of course you just day Sail it, but if your planning on cruising you may want to plan on charging a little while you motor slowly along.

Nah 20kWh isn't that big actually. Size and weight on LFP means we could go to 50kWh but the cost needs to drop a bit. I am hoping eventually (next few years) LFP drops the way solar panels did.

We have a 3000 watt charger so yeah it would take awhile to charge a 50kWh bank.