Alternator + Inverter vs Generator

[anjou]

As Nick knows, ive been pondering this question for months now, and its not helped by me just not understanding electricity. Its like trying to knit fog or talk to the dead, its all witchcraft.

So, I had a meeting today with Charles Stirling -Stirling Power.
Great guy, full of expletives and plain talking. He clearly knows his stuff and has his own strong views on the preference of systems.

In fairness to Nick, who advised me to go the Trojan and inverter route, I did the math and didnt think I could afford it, but Charles advised the exact same.

Charles has a 60' in the Carib and uses a gen on board and he said the maintenence cost and unreliability is a huge issue, not to mention the capital investment to get a realy decent gen to start with. You only get what you pay for. If your going to have a 6-8Kva set, it realy should be water cooled for longevity and to recover some energy, and that costs even more money.

SO, he advised me (sorry Nick, I wasnt doubting you, just scared of the cost) to go for Trojans, 600-1000Ah, a 2500w inverter/charger and a 210amp alternator-battery charger.

I can always add in a solar panel or turbine later if I have more cash.

My needs are going to be different to sailing cruisers or weekend warriors in the warmer lattitudes, so more Ah storage and faster charging mean I only need to run the engine once every 3-4 days if im moored up, and if im underway, then im skinning the cat both ways.

[ctsbillc]

I think is a boat comes with a generator, all is well and good, but I've got to agree installing one is an expensive proposition, and a heavy one.

The down side of the alternator aproach is efficiency, the Lundel alternator is a pretty basic thing and only gets 65% efficiency, and the batteries only give about 65% efficiency too, so you will burn more diesel, and eat up engine hours.

Running the engine like this you will NEVER get to the price of installing a diesel generator though, no mater how much you run it, so it is a good approach.

Solar is getting cheaper, and supplementing your big alternator with solar panels is a nice approach.

Bill