Power Hungry Air Conditioning

[ssullivan]

Since this thread bubbled up to the top, I wanted to answer neil's question:

*I have 2 CruisAir units (each 10,000 btu)
*I have several other items that run at the same time - 100AMP/hr (DC) batt chgr, Hot water heater, and various small loads like a TV.
*Genset is just a cheap China diesel. It's a 5KW no-name brand that was made in China. It's junk.. no doubt about it. But it runs just fine. If I get a year out of it, it's still far cheaper than $10,000 for a marine genset, nevermind installation costs.

The genset is deck mounted, which is not ideal (looks wise), but is necessary to comply with ABYC standards.

I save even more money by plugging my shore power cord right into the Genset to power the boat. No xfer switches, no changes to the electrical system at all. (Make sure your grounds are correct doing this!)