Whenever
we anchor out we encounter three specific things that take away from
the experience. These include a lack of air conditioning because it
draws too much power, a lack of hot water because you only get that
after the engine has been running for a while and an inability to keep
the batteries charged mainly because our fridge and freezer suck down
the batteries. This last item includes the constant need to monitor the
batteries because they only stay charged for about 20 hours, which is a
real pain in the butt.
We
replaced the house bank for our batteries, increasing them from
100a/hrs each (x4) to 125a/hrs (x6) which now gives us a total of
750a/hrs or 375 usable a/hrs (up from 200). This was part of a package
plan where we also increased the size of our solar generation from 170w
to 450w. This should all help to keep the batteries above that 50%
discharge point but it doesn't address the lack of air conditioning or
hot water. For that we needed an AC generator.
We
looked at several and found that only one would fit in the space we
wanted to use, directly beneath the cockpit floor just aft of the aft
stateroom. This was the NextGen 5.5kw. It was priced nice at around
$7900 plus installation but it had several drawbacks. It runs at a
higher speed, 2800rpm's, than some others which equates to more noise
and a shorter life. We finally settled on a Northern Lights 6kw which
runs at 1800 rpm's and has a sound enclosure. It didn't fit in our
space so we had to bump out the wall a few inches into the bunk area of
the aft stateroom. I don't think it'll have a big affect on how our
guests sleep though.
We had Hinckley Yachts in Whitehall, Maryland do the installation. They opened up the two access panels in the cockpit lockers and made a removable panel in the stateroom. They also mounted the genset on a slide out tray so I can pull it all the way out into the stateroom for access to three sides for maintenance. Finally, we added a remote oil changer that's also plumbed into the engine. Flip a switch and pump out the old oil, flip another switch and refill it. Simple and clean.
Now we'll have enough power to run our air conditioning at anchor and running the genset will also make hot water because the water heater runs on AC. The batteries will charge up faster and we won't hafta add hours to the engine trying to charge them.The first picture shows the genset shortly after it was delivered sitting on a pallet in the shop. The sound enclosure is on with several panels removed. The second picture shows the genset mounted on the shelf pulled out into the aft stateroom. Third
