Next question: best 6-8kw generator for use several hours daily?

[Mikado]

Westerbeke gen - after 001.jpg Views: 783 Size: 321.8 KB ID: 96440" style="margin: 2px" />I have had Onan, Kohler in the past with good success, but my current and favorite generator is Westerbeke 7.6 btd. It is designed for easy maintenance access, super quiet, burns just over a quart of diesel per hour and at 395 lbs @ 20'X19"X27" size I had multiple options for installation location. Parts are easy to come by and a remote panel found on ebay makes starting and monitoring at the helm a pleasure.

Regardless what your final choice is, if your sailboat engine is diesel I would not under any circumstances go with a gas genie.

Good luck,

Jeff

[a64pilot]

I'm a little confused. If you can leave a generator on land then maybe you can get a power drop, Your own shore power?
If so that beats everything.
If I understand correctly what's driving this is finances? If so I think your best off with getting as efficient as possible with you electrical needs and go with as much low volt as possible. If you can't afford LED's for everything, how about a couple of oil lamps? Once you get as efficient as possible with electrical consumption, you may find the big alternator and some solar to be enough.
Gensets cost a lot to buy, install, run and maintain.


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[melissiti]

Ah ok just to clarify: we have mains power on our current mooring, but that won't be an option once we've left. Therefore, I'm thinking a combination of a Honda/equivalent petrol(gasoline) gen, plus eke as much power as we can out of our boat's existing engine, plus solar in the summer months. We're going to have to cruise back & forth for water point visits etc anyway, so might as well get as much from that as poss, as well as top-ups. And once in a while I'm sure a local marina or residential mooring site will let us plug in for some kind of nominal fee. Thanks again, everybody

[downunder]

Here is the link to the Flying Cloud DC generatot thread.

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...tor-70703.html

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by melissiti

Ah ok just to clarify: we have mains power on our current mooring, but that won't be an option once we've left. Therefore, I'm thinking a combination of a Honda/equivalent petrol(gasoline) gen, plus eke as much power as we can out of our boat's existing engine, plus solar in the summer months. We're going to have to cruise back & forth for water point visits etc anyway, so might as well get as much from that as poss, as well as top-ups. And once in a while I'm sure a local marina or residential mooring site will let us plug in for some kind of nominal fee. Thanks again, everybody

I think your plan is a sensible one and you'll make it work


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[Mirage Gecko]

I own a Honda 2000 I and love it .I also have a Fischer Panda 6.5 KVA unit fitted to our boat.They are both quiet.....relatively.
Never actually seen the canals in England but read plenty of books on the subject and seen quite a few documentaries and films as we are vaguely considering buying a boat there or continental Europe in the future.
Would you really be allowed to have a generator of any sort roaring away on land day in day out.
Personally I would have thought that to be far too intrusive to others around you.
Chris

[melissiti]

Hahaha yeah it is intrusive, but in winter people without residential moorings have the choice of either genset or built-in boat engine - and the generators are usually significantly quieter. One thing I'll have to do to the engine bay is soundproof it to the max, so I don't die of guilt every time the batteries need charging! We need to be able to put any separate gen on the boat & buzz off on demand, but there should be no issue with it sitting on the bank when in use, as long as we don't take the mickey with that. Feeling pretty positive we've got a viable plan of action now, though, thanks again guys!

[jamestholtzinge]

I have a 6.5 K Universal diesel generator in my engine room. I could not afford it to put enough diesel in it to keep my Norcold Freezer/refrigerator. I installed two 130 W solar panel in and a KISS wind generator. I usually don't need my generator on until after the sun and wind go down in the evening. I also added a Honda 2000i inverter/generator $999.99 8 months ago. It holds a gallon of gas and runs 8 hours on Econ. Approx. $ .30 to .40 an hour. My diesel was closer to a $.90 to $1.00 an hour, now I run my gas generator 1 to 3 hours a night for TV. I have a Satellite Dome with direct TV, a freezer, and a refrigerator.

[Mirage Gecko]

Originally Posted by melissiti

Hahaha yeah it is intrusive, but in winter people without residential moorings have the choice of either genset or built-in boat engine - and the generators are usually significantly quieter. One thing I'll have to do to the engine bay is soundproof it to the max, so I don't die of guilt every time the batteries need charging! We need to be able to put any separate gen on the boat & buzz off on demand, but there should be no issue with it sitting on the bank when in use, as long as we don't take the mickey with that. Feeling pretty positive we've got a viable plan of action now, though, thanks again guys!

Melissiti
Apologies in advance if this comes out too aggressive or negative but I am curious.
I have retread this thread and it has gone from the requirement for the best 6/8KW genie to your answer above which as I read it suggests you only need to charge your batteries so your boat ,with modified alternator or not,engine is your best option for that.
No 6 to 8 KW genie is going to be easy to put on and off the boat on demand without plenty of arms and legs or mechanical means.
However from a purely selfish point of view I would really like to know if you have checked with the local authorities and its OK to run generator on shore .It could have a bearing on our future plans as I would not like to be cruising around areas with multiple generators running at all hours.
Chris

[ericoh88]

melissiti

if you are still shopping for gensets, take a looks at betamarine uk, they have 4kva 2 cylinder 3,000 rpm very well priced. Westerbeke have the 1,500 rpm 3 cylinder genset too.

A friend on a beneteau 475, been using westerbeke 8kva 2 cyclinder 3,600 rpm for the last 12 years. the elbow corroded so many times and is going to disintegrate anytime. that part in no longer available from westerbeke lol. He could run 2 air cond to load up the genny. Often he runs them for small loads without much care. He loves his genset.

funny incident, my friend was relating one incident, a boater complained that his Honda stop putting out power. came out to check, the honda dropped off from the stern scoop lol!

Compared to the Honda i2000, it is the convenience of flipping a switch without going out for the whole fanfare. how are you going to run the genset while sailing? I have seen on mod that had a custom bracket to level the genny at sea.

if i strike lottery, i will get a NL for sure. for now I have to contend with the old faithful, single cylinder 3,600 rpm that just keeps chugging along. enough to keep the boat cool, charge the batteries, make water, run the washing machine, microwave all at different times.

[melissiti]

Originally Posted by Mirage Gecko

Melissiti

Apologies in advance if this comes out too aggressive or negative but I am curious.

I have retread this thread and it has gone from the requirement for the best 6/8KW genie to your answer above which as I read it suggests you only need to charge your batteries so your boat ,with modified alternator or not,engine is your best option for that.

No 6 to 8 KW genie is going to be easy to put on and off the boat on demand without plenty of arms and legs or mechanical means.

However from a purely selfish point of view I would really like to know if you have checked with the local authorities and its OK to run generator on shore .It could have a bearing on our future plans as I would not like to be cruising around areas with multiple generators running at all hours.

Chris

Hi Chris,

No, not aggressive, quite an understandable concern! The answer is that many liveaboards (who don't have a mains hook-up) do run their engines/genies most days in winter, although that drops a lot in summer. We're all pretty cautious about what time of day though - no one keeps anything thumping along later than 8 in the evening or earlier than 10 in the morning, and I've never heard anyone run anything longer than 3hrs at a time. There are parts of the canals and rivers which are less densely populated, too, where there's more peace and quiet! Cruising inland UK waterways is a very different kettle of fish to being at sea, people either fall in love with the experience or avoid it like the plague! I'd say hire a narrowboat for some exploring before you commit to anything more permanent

[Mirage Gecko]

Originally Posted by melissiti

Hi Chris,

No, not aggressive, quite an understandable concern! The answer is that many liveaboards (who don't have a mains hook-up) do run their engines/genies most days in winter, although that drops a lot in summer. We're all pretty cautious about what time of day though - no one keeps anything thumping along later than 8 in the evening or earlier than 10 in the morning, and I've never heard anyone run anything longer than 3hrs at a time. There are parts of the canals and rivers which are less densely populated, too, where there's more peace and quiet! Cruising inland UK waterways is a very different kettle of fish to being at sea, people either fall in love with the experience or avoid it like the plague! I'd say hire a narrowboat for some exploring before you commit to anything more permanent

Thanks we did intend to hire or charter first as a suck it and see thing in the next couple of years after we tick off a few more of things we want to do back here in OZ.

[melissiti]

Originally Posted by ericoh88

melissiti

if you are still shopping for gensets, take a looks at betamarine uk, they have 4kva 2 cylinder 3,000 rpm very well priced. Westerbeke have the 1,500 rpm 3 cylinder genset too.

A friend on a beneteau 475, been using westerbeke 8kva 2 cyclinder 3,600 rpm for the last 12 years. the elbow corroded so many times and is going to disintegrate anytime. that part in no longer available from westerbeke lol. He could run 2 air cond to load up the genny. Often he runs them for small loads without much care. He loves his genset.

funny incident, my friend was relating one incident, a boater complained that his Honda stop putting out power. came out to check, the honda dropped off from the stern scoop lol!

Compared to the Honda i2000, it is the convenience of flipping a switch without going out for the whole fanfare. how are you going to run the genset while sailing? I have seen on mod that had a custom bracket to level the genny at sea.

if i strike lottery, i will get a NL for sure. for now I have to contend with the old faithful, single cylinder 3,600 rpm that just keeps chugging along. enough to keep the boat cool, charge the batteries, make water, run the washing machine, microwave all at different times.

Cool, cheers - yeah, looks like a much smaller genset for backup & boat engine as main power source (on the many British rubbish-for-solar days that there are) is going to be our best bet. We won't need the genie on while cruising, no wind power for narrowboats, and the old towpaths (built alongside the canals in the 19th century so these boats could be towed by humans or horses, before there was any such thing as a built-in engine on them) are no longer fully functional - so we need to run the engine to move at all lol! And we'll need a proper cruise around once a week for supplies etc, so we can use that to charge up nicely as well as stretch the engine's legs. My primary reason for preferring a genset as main non-renewable power source, over the boat's own engine, was really noise concern. But I guess thoroughly soundproofing our engine bay makes that less of an issue Thanks for the smaller petrol(gas) genie recommendations!

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, jamestholtzinge.

[BviKetch]

I am interested in your comment about a "school bus alternator" as an alternative to a genset. We recently removed our 5Kw genset (totally shot). We now have a wind turbine that meets about 50% of our charging need and we use our engine alternator for the rest. I understand that engine alternators are not suited for this and also that running our engine at idle with no load will result in Bore Polishing. Are you suggesting that a "school bus alternator" would work a lot better? And would that put enough additional load on the engine to reduce problems with Bore Polishing? We still have an electric stove that we plan on replacing with propane, but would the school bus alternator and a high capacity inverter be able to keep up with an electric stove (+/- 2400 watts)? Not having to install a propane system and a new stove would save a lot of money.
Thanks for your thoughts.