- Sep 25, 2016
- 1,258
- Boat Info
- 300 Sundancer 1994, trailered tri-axle LoadRite roller
- Engines
- Mercruiser 5.7 260HP Alpha One Gen II, twin
I'm in a similar situation, older boat that never had a generator. There is two parts to this mostly economics. A new marine generator is going to be $12-15k and while nice, you need to be able to afford it and it will ad some value to the boat but you'll not likely get it back on sale. Used half that as mentioned, but you have to find a decent one, then what do you get? Likely high hours already since it is some kind of take out from another boat. And again as mentioned any generator running at anchor in calm air will have a high CO risk. Get CO monitors if not already installed, even the main engines can lead to CO issues.
I have not started yet but my plan is this; for that $6K I can get a good sized inverter/charger 6000W ($1,200) . And a good size LifePo4 Lithium battery bank (48v 200ah) ($1,000) with a battery management system ($250). That will let me run anything I want to. Even the AC for a short period like to cool the cabin a little before turning in at night. So far that's about $3k installed. Zero noise, zero CO. This is where I am going to start.
I don't want solar panels all over the boat. So to augment shore side charging I will add later as a second phase an extra 48v PMA, Permanent Magnet Alternator ($300). PMAs have no internal brushes or regulators just plain wires so no Ignition Protected issues in a gas boat. The PMA will feed into an MPPT (charge controller - $900) next to the Inverter. Whenever my main engine is running it will charge the batteries back up. And/or I can run the AC off the engines before anchoring and really cool the cabin down. So all in I hope to be around $4500.
I plan to start this project this summer and will post how it works.
After having this basic idea my research lead to this where I admittedly got a lot more details. So it being done but I cant see there costs.
https://www.morganscloud.com/2019/02/13/nigel-calders-generator-replacement-machine-part-1-what-you-need-to-know/
https://integrelsolutions.com/
I have not started yet but my plan is this; for that $6K I can get a good sized inverter/charger 6000W ($1,200) . And a good size LifePo4 Lithium battery bank (48v 200ah) ($1,000) with a battery management system ($250). That will let me run anything I want to. Even the AC for a short period like to cool the cabin a little before turning in at night. So far that's about $3k installed. Zero noise, zero CO. This is where I am going to start.
I don't want solar panels all over the boat. So to augment shore side charging I will add later as a second phase an extra 48v PMA, Permanent Magnet Alternator ($300). PMAs have no internal brushes or regulators just plain wires so no Ignition Protected issues in a gas boat. The PMA will feed into an MPPT (charge controller - $900) next to the Inverter. Whenever my main engine is running it will charge the batteries back up. And/or I can run the AC off the engines before anchoring and really cool the cabin down. So all in I hope to be around $4500.
I plan to start this project this summer and will post how it works.
After having this basic idea my research lead to this where I admittedly got a lot more details. So it being done but I cant see there costs.
https://www.morganscloud.com/2019/02/13/nigel-calders-generator-replacement-machine-part-1-what-you-need-to-know/
https://integrelsolutions.com/
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