Is 3.5kw Generator OK for a 16,000btu AC?

[Highlander40]

With a properly sized house bank and charger , 2 to 3 hrs should be enough to recharge.
running the bank down below 50% costs a lot in terms of battery life.

While you charge, run the AC and any other power suckers like TV etc.
After the movie shut the thing down and enjoy a quiet evening.

[FSMike]

[QUOTE=cat man do

Cold air and comfort for a few grand starts looking very good and as you get older, you realise that a few grand for these comforts occasionally is something that we should not deny ourselves while life is so short, especially if you can afford to.[/QUOTE]

catmando - I don't want you to deny yourself anything. I hope you won't deny this 65 year old his quiet anchorage.

[skipmac]

I know my hearing is not so good these days but when I was younger it was excellent. Since I was in the music business I had it checked and was excellent all the way to 18 kHz. Even in those days I could not even hear a generator on another boat in an anchorage unless it was very calm or the boat was anchored right next to me.

If there was any breeze at all the sound of the wind, waves lapping against the hull and surf on the beach were enough to mask any noise except loud music and loud talking. To me a bunch of rowdy drunks on deck were a lot more intrusive than the burble of the AC water pump or the genset exhaust.

[jkleins]

Originally Posted by skipmac

I know my hearing is not so good these days but when I was younger it was excellent. Since I was in the music business I had it checked and was excellent all the way to 18 kHz. Even in those days I could not even hear a generator on another boat in an anchorage unless it was very calm or the boat was anchored right next to me.

If there was any breeze at all the sound of the wind, waves lapping against the hull and surf on the beach were enough to mask any noise except loud music and loud talking. To me a bunch of rowdy drunks on deck were a lot more intrusive than the burble of the AC water pump or the genset exhaust.

Man, I am glad you said that. I was thinking I was going deaf. I can hear them in RV's in a quiet park if they are not protected and close by but I can't remember ever hearing one on a boat in an anchorage. I suspect I have been lucky or maybe just anti-social.

Jim

[iiii]

[QUOTE= if you're that tied to the comforts of land living why not just stay there?[/QUOTE]

It seems so many of the younger cruisers are trying to take their shore life with them. What a shame!
We keep hearing of more and more cruisers being attack in various areas of the world and blame it on the poor locals. If you sail into thier countries and take you A/C, washer/dryer, big RIB, etc., etc., your just shoving in thier face that you are better than them. How the hell do you exppect them to act.
Cruising used to be about visiting new places and seeing how they lived thier lives.
Sorry for the rant, just an old cruiser who is not all that happy with the younger generation.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by iiii

It seems so many of the younger cruisers are trying to take their shore life with them. What a shame!
We keep hearing of more and more cruisers being attack in various areas of the world and blame it on the poor locals. If you sail into thier countries and take you A/C, washer/dryer, big RIB, etc., etc., your just shoving in thier face that you are better than them. How the hell do you exppect them to act.
Cruising used to be about visiting new places and seeing how they lived thier lives.
Sorry for the rant, just an old cruiser who is not all that happy with the younger generation.

Hate to belabor a point, but a C&C Landfall 38 by itself in Haiti, Guatemala or similar Caribbean destination would represent more than many families there would make in a lifetime. For someone that makes a few hundred dollars a year it matters little if a visiting yacht has a new RIB and AC or not. You are still a rich gringo on a fancy yacht cruising the islands without having to work day to day just to put food in your mouth. So unless you want to cruise in an old, unpainted, wood sloop with cotton rags for sails and no engine, stove or amenities at all, you will appear fabulously wealthy to most of the local population.

Of course there is the issue of respect and how one meets and treats the locals and deals with the relative wealth difference but that's a whole nother thread.

[bobfnbw]

It gets old hearing about how some think they should dictate how life should be to others.

Live here in the south for a bit and see if you will want A/C or not. I totally agree that everyone should be mindfull of the effect they have on others. Loud is loud, weather due to engines running, music, laughter, or a jetski.

But to say that someone can't have that no matter what, or to get out of "THEIR" anchorage because someone needs or wants to run a genset for a few hours, is plain stupid. first of all, no one will listen to you anyway. 2nd, it just makes you sound like a old ogre, and last, if you don't like the sounds there, move, or ask them to cut it out.
Maybe they are running the gen set to replenish batteries badly needed. Maybe they are just rude. There are all types. But in the end, we have a right to go where we can to be alone.. even it that means moving.

And yeah in Haiti, a C&C landfall is a rich mans boat. Does that given them the right to "act" like criminals?

As more of us baby boomers get to retirement age, I think the achorages will get more crowded and loud. Either accept it, or look for places they don't go.

That is my plan.

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by FSMike

catmando - I don't want you to deny yourself anything. I hope you won't deny this 65 year old his quiet anchorage.

Not me mate

You will find I am the guy who parks at the far end of an anchorage or the next bay around in the shallows as far away from the "crowd" as possible.

You see I like my peace and quiet, and go out there to get away from the herd, not to clump up together like sheep.

[Charlie]

Getting back to topic . . . . I have a Next Gen 3.5kw unit same as BTrayor. I like the unit it works well starts quickly even after sitting for months. It is fairly easy to maintain and the parts for maintenance are not supper expensive. I have a 450 Amp hour battery bank. When I run it down to 50% I have two Iota 55amp inverter chargers. I run those which I believe draw about 13 amps at 108v ac. When I charge my batteries it takes about 45 minutes to an hour to charge my bank. Sorry but I have no experience with Air Conditioning.

[cat man do]

Originally Posted by jdoe71

When we go sailing, I want to feel part of the world and its natural environments, not walled off in some icebox cocoon. For that, I would stay home. Getting off soapbox now.

Good for you

I expect you to now get rid of the engine from the boat and dinghy and sell the car (cant use that dino juice) and to turn off the computer, tv ,lights and anything else that uses electricity (coal).

When staying in a hotel or walking through a shopping mall I will expect you to turn off your a/c and ask management to turn off power to the rest of the complex as well

After all you

cannot in all conscience do things that I know are greedy and selfish and ignore the realities of the planet and the needs/wants of the masses of other people living on it and yet to come.

[btrayfors]

Charlie...

Thanks for that post. I forgot to say that the Iota chargers work very well with the NextGen, even with it's dirty output. I have a DLS-55/IQ4 dedicated to my windlass battery bank (two T-105's), and it works just fine with the NextGen.

Today, I tried a new tack, and it seemed to work well. When I started the NextGen and let it warm up a bit, I switched on the Iota for the windlass batteries and an old ConstaVolt charger for the 675AH house batteries to put some load on the generator. The Victron was OFF. That was enough to "clean up" the output, because when I then switched the Victron MultiPlus ON it decided the AC power was OK, and it began doing it's thing.

Bill

[Charlie]

Bill

Saw your letter in Cruising World. Hit the nail on the head. I forgot to say that I have the DLS/IQ4 as well.

Charlie

[Mule]

I stopped in with my owners manuel to an old friends business. He is an onan dealer, and has worked on them all, he is hands on, not a salesman. I ask since this 3.5 has 5.5 generator head on the engine that is only capibiable of pushing said generator only to 3.5kw, isn't it true you will ba able to expect 3.5 out of it continuious insofar the generator is oversized. He said yes there should not be a voltage drop as there is when a generator heats up because of running at or near max output.

[OceanPlanet]

I thought to chime in here regarding the AC generator/air conditioning/noise/cruising philosophy issues.

The improvements in batteries such as Odyssey thin-plate and especially LiFePO4 (Genasun, RaceCell, Mastervolt, Valence, etc.), along with the highly efficient inverters available, has really opened up more options.

For cruising with air conditioning and other AC loads, another way to approach all these issues is to use a DC genset (like the new Polar Power Volvo-powered units) along with high-efficiency batteries to dramatically shorten the charging times.

With the genset running at optimum efficiency (always charging at full power, once warmed up) the overall fuel consumption is greatly reduced along with emissions/noise/charging times.

Yes, with fast DC charging you will most likely go with a higher-voltage charging/battery system to avoid very large breakers and wiring. However, stepping down to 12V house loads (if you need to) from a 24V or 48V bank is no longer a big deal, using DC/DC converters such as Victron's, nor is running all your AC loads with inverters (also Victron, etc.).

With a properly designed system, you could run your AC loads all night (or at least most of it) without the generator turning on until the morning. Your anchorage friends will love you...;-)

Yes, the initial costs of the system may be higher but over the long haul with the increased battery cycle life of LiFePO4, less fuel used, and simply a more pleasurable experience (genset off most of the time) makes it worth considering. The whole game changes when you can charge your batteries at 10kW (with a 10kW genset).

Ahem...did I mention that the LiFePO4 batteries would weigh roughly 1/4-1/3 of the weight of lead/gel/agm for the same useable AH's?

Bruce

[Chief Engineer]

Generators are white noise to me....

I would rather listen to that than slapping halyards, steel drum music, or drunks