Many questions and the best I can answer:
1. My battery bank is 410ah plus dedicated starter.
2. I currently use a 30 amp
charger but plan to
experiment with a 70 amp which the Honda 2000 can handle.
3. The outside night temp in my A/C test started at 88F and dropped to 82F in the morning. South FL is hot in late June.
4. The Honda 2000 runs in Eco mode so when the A/C cycles off the Honda slows to idle.
5. A 3 week
cruise is hard to predict but the Honda
fuel consumption is about one gallon per 4 hrs under full load. Hot water takes less then 30 minutes for my 6 gal hot water tank. A/C running for 4hrs with
compressor on full time takes one gallon of gas.
Batteries at 75% discharge takes about 3-4 hours to recharge with my 30 amp charger but the Honda
rpm and load is quite low in Eco mode, do not know the fuel
consumption. Clearly the dominate fuel consumption is use of the A/C.
6. The
project was designed for anchorage
power. The Honda wet exhaust outlet is on the starboard side 8" above the water line and a heavy heal on that side might submerge the outlet and create too much back pressure on the Honda exhaust.
7. The container sound box measures about W=20", H=21", L=30" or 7.3 cubic feet, the rest of the
hardware takes little space.
8. Hours to install were many primarily spent on custom building the sound box in pieces to be re-assembled in the very tight
cockpit stern lazarette and the many hours designing and brazing the wet exhaust
muffler. It was a 3 month project on the weekends and a lot of trial and error.
9. I do not know the specific ABYC standards for storage of gasoline but I store the 5 gallon gas tank for the Honda in the stern swim platform storage area for the
Catalina 375 which is a completely segregated area from the rest of the boat and designed by
Catalina for fuel container storage. When cruising I store extra 5 gal cans tied to the fore
deck along with extra
diesel fuel.
I am also looking at the
propane conversion kits available for the Honda to us as a fuel which could also be stored in this same stern compartment area in lieu of gasoline. A 20#
propane tank is about the same energy fuel for 5 gallons of gasoline. This conversion would be simple to make to my design.
Rod