View Single Post
Old 02-25-2014, 09:43 AM   #11
Aquabelle
Guru
 
Aquabelle's Avatar
 
City: East Coast, Australia
Join Date: Jun 2012
Posts: 935
Bear in mind that the rated output of a charger is its max, typically at 20C. It isn't smart to run these things at max output for hours and modern quality chargers often provide a de-rate feature. So getting 130A out may require a charger with a rating of more like 150-160A.

Not sure why you wouldn't want an inverter? Saves starting the genny for brief AC uses. If you are in the market for a new charger, why not consider a Victron or MasterVolt inverter/charger? Both make models that would give you your 130A.

I agree with your idea of keeping your current charger: it will help to properly load your genset as well as speeding up overall charging times/reducing genset run times.

The idea of putting really big alternators on a genset already properly sized for its AC end plus small (20A?) charging alternator has been discussed elsewhere: not a good idea.

SOC essential in my view. If you go Victron or MasterVolt, get one from them...there are models which give you remote control/monitoring of the charger (or charger/inverter) as well as SOC.

If you want to keep your Norcold but have concerns about its efficiency (and it will be your biggest pwr user when on the hook), consider putting a computer fan (small, brushless, quiet, negligible amp draw & literally only a few $) beside the Norcold's compressor to improve air circ/ventilation. You could get a 10-15% reduction in running amp draw from this alone.
Aquabelle is offline   Reply With Quote