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Old 10-31-2012, 04:18 AM   #19
RickB
Scraping Paint
 
City: Fort Lauderdale
Vessel Model: CHB 48 Zodiac YL 4.2
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 3,804
Quote:
Originally Posted by O C Diver View Post
Rick, since you clearly have a limited knowledge of "commercial" generators, let me explain it to you.
I'll try one more time. A marine alternator operates at a synchronous speed precisely as I stated. It runs at that speed regardless of load. It will run at 900, 1200, 1800, 3600 or whatever rpm it was made to operate to produce (in those cases) 60Hz alternating current. It will turn that rpm at 25kW or 2.5kW output.

When the unit is operated for long periods at 2.5kW the engine suffers serious problems due to underloading. This is a fact of marine generator operation and those of us who live and work with these devices on a daily basis rather than pretend on the internet are fully aware of the costs and problems created by low loading of generators.

When it comes to marine diesel generators, there is no such thing as a "commercial" vs some other type. We have DGs installed in our yachts which range in output from10 to 250kW and everything in between. Some of these yachts operate privately and some operate commercially ... the generators are all the same and work the same and even cost the same and fail the same way for the same reasons.

Low loading of generators is a different issue than the perception of low loading of propulsion engines that dominates the threads on forums such as this one.
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