"ahmet erkan" wrote: > Dear Eric, > Running an engine at light load is inefficient to begin with. As > someone suggested increasing the > engine rpm to cool your cheap alternator makes the process further > inefficient. If you want to make > matters worse get your lovely Balmar regulator to reduce the load > too. But wait.....there is more.... > After you bulk charged your batteries inefficiently, you get to run > your engine for an extra six hours > at virtually no load and use your lovely miracle regulator to > automatically equilize your batteries. > Such a deal.............. > All I gotta say is if some of us are enamored with Balmar and > consider it the best thing since > the invention of sliced bread, good for you keep using it. The > others who prefer to invest the $300 > towards extra copper and high quality bearings in the alternator > don't need your magical regulator. --------------------------------- Start with a real alternator, drive it with a properly engineered belt drive, add a properly engineered regulator to match the alternator, and you won't need any of Professor Moon Beam's hocus-pocus.
Most diesels require idle operation to be in the 1,400-1,600 RPM to generate enough heat to prevent wet stacking which glazes cylinder walls and leads to an expensive engine rebuild. Leece-Neville offers several alternators suitable for the cruiser, one being the 4800/4805 family. These units are "HOT" rated, meaning the produce full output on a continuous basis without any thermal derate. These units only produce about 150A at full output, BUT the produce about 120A at 3,000 alternator output. The belt drive MUST be a dual belt drive to handle the torque required to drive the alternator. A 2:1 sheave ratio will allow the 120A alternator output at 1,500 engine RPM. To properly be able to accept the 120A output, the house battery should be a minimum of 600AH, 900AH would be better. Use the internal regulator set at 13.6V-13.8V or if you prefer an external regulator with the same setting. Neat, simple, won't boil your batteries, and will provide a bunch of house bank power when needed. If you consume 100AH, (That's 17% (100/600) of a 600AH bank), you will need to replace 125AH, which is just battery basics at work, and will require about one hour at engine idle. At today's fuel prices, not cheap, but just about the lowest cost way of using diesel power to generate 12VDC power. Have fun. Lew _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://liveaboardonline.com/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardonline.com/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
