Generator Global co$t.

I have no dog in this fight ,(no need) but it would be interesting to see the range of total costs folks think their noisemaker operation is costing.

This would be fuel PM , repairs and of course rebuild/replacement when it finally dies.

My guess would be $5 to $10 per hour in all up costs.

Your view?

Easily $5 to $10 US per hour. Normal maintenance costs: $5 per hour fuel, 38 cents per hour oil and filter. Repairs last five years fuel solenoid $155, heat exchanger repair $120' new heat exchanger $820, new raw water pump $310, air sound muffler $120, exhaust elbow $380, remanufactured ac end $3500, new coolant tank $450.

During this five year period we put perhaps 1300 hours on the generator. Generator is now 30 years old with 4100 hours.

Fuel 1/3gph at 3.00/gal $1.00/hr
Parts and repairs in 1900hrs: About $1000
Oil changes $25.00, about 8: $200.00
Rebuild: Probably won't need it.

1200/1900=0.63, +$1.00/hr for fuel: Operating cost $1.63/hr

Benefit: AC in hot eastern summers. Heat in cold eastern winters. Dive air comp, hot water, batt charge on hook, etc.

Well worth it.

My guess would be $7 per hour if you use it more and $10 if you use it less. The $7 figure represents an 8kw genset running at an average 75% load burning $3 per hour of fuel for 500 hours per year. With a life expectancy between 7k and10k hours, this would give you a maintenance and replacement cost of about $28k and $40 over 14 to 20 years at todays dollars. $10 per hour is the same 8kw genset averaging 75% load at $3 per hour for fuel for 200 hours per year. With a life expectancy of 4k hours, this would give you a maintenance and replacement cost of about $28k for 20 years at todays dollars. Maybe a generator will last more than 20 years and parts will be readily available at reasonable prices, but I'm not planning on it.

Ted

~$3.50/hour max. I use a generator life span of 7500 hours then buy a new one.

3/4 gallon per hour $4/gallon ($5,625), 38 oil/fuel filter changes (every 200 hours) $1520, injectors 3 times $1,500, misc $4000. Cost of a replacement generator $13,000. Total for 7500 hours = $25,650 or $3.42/hour

As there is absolutely no way to determine average user's cost to own any single component on a boat (every installation is different, all age-related costs cannot be compared, replacement cost varies by size, location, amount of DYI, usage varies by owner, etc.) , I'm tempted to say "who cares-you're trying to pick the fly **** out of the pepper". But, the above-posted numbers are probably as good as the limited sample size implies. And, as some brilliant add guy once stated, compared to the benefits of ownership, "Cost? Priceless!". If you want to practice bleeding before you go boating, dump the generator overboard, and drink warm beer.

If you want to REALLY make your knees buckle, honestly compare the cost of ownership per engine hour of your boat after ALL expenses (purchase, repair, fuel, fixed costs) are subtracted from your proceeds after you finally sell it, divided by engine hours you've accumulated over your ownership. YIKES. But again, "Cost? Priceless".

As with all such "how much does it cost" conversations, YMMV. There's no such thing as "the average boat".

Regards,

Pete

Not enough to matter. You'll spend more money fixing it becaus it wasn't used enough.

This review is an addition to the how much will it cost to have a boat , and the 10% guesstimate , for wannabees.

If your that worried about it. Get out of the game cause you shouldn't be in it.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Trawler

What would it cost in food spoilage, trips to replenish supplies, lousy food alternatives, general inconvenience, disturbed drinking habits, etc, if we did not have gensets to power our greatest power need, fridge and freezer?

Ski in NC said:

Fuel 1/3gph at 3.00/gal $1.00/hr
Parts and repairs in 1900hrs: About $1000
Oil changes $25.00, about 8: $200.00
Rebuild: Probably won't need it.

1200/1900=0.63, +$1.00/hr for fuel: Operating cost $1.63/hr

Benefit: AC in hot eastern summers. Heat in cold eastern winters. Dive air comp, hot water, batt charge on hook, etc.

Well worth it.

Click to expand...

Mine are about the same as Ski's, except my fuel use at full load I believe is .7 gph probably .4 or .5 in normal use. In over 1500 hours only oil and filters and a preheat relay, had the cooler cleaned and tested, less than $30.00 and new impeller every 2 years. Need to service the exhaust elbow this year, BCD 8.0 Westerbeke.

I bought a boat with twin engines and a generator, and I intend to use them. My twins are very efficient and I made sure when I was looking at boats that was the case. Being in the south, I will use my generator in order to keep cool. One should consider cost to run prior to purchase, because afterwards it's too late.

Who cares, when you're dead you're dead, at $0.00 per hour.

Next world changing topic!!

What would it cost in food spoilage, trips to replenish supplies, lousy food alternatives, general inconvenience, disturbed drinking habits, etc, if we did not have gensets to power our greatest power need, fridge and freezer?
__________________
BruceK
Island Gypsy 36 Europa "Doriana"
Sydney Australi


Two solutions are OTS.

A Propane reefer uses a 20# bottle every month for silent living.

A custom box reefer can easily go 3-4 days between 2 hour main engine use

Eutetic plates may be "Old School: but for a cruiser they are a simple answer.

Greetings,
Mr. FF. Propane fridge is a good idea but our insurance company does not allow any appliances with a pilot light. Our oven has a pilot light but is turned off whenever we're under way.

jungpeter said:

..............
If you want to REALLY make your knees buckle, honestly compare the cost of ownership per engine hour of your boat after ALL expenses (purchase, repair, fuel, fixed costs) are subtracted from your proceeds after you finally sell it, divided by engine hours you've accumulated over your ownership. YIKES. But again, "Cost? Priceless".


Pete

Click to expand...

I like to think of the most accurate cost of use for a boat to be sum of all costs divided by number of days used. I would calculate this number if I wanted to give up boating. I agree, the result is priceless, so my goal is simply to stay within my means.

As for the generator. Let's say the genny costs $5/hr to run and you run it for 3 hours a day. Is $15/day worth keeping the 'house' running? You pay utilities in a land dwelling. Look at the genny like a utility bill.

Ski in NC said:

Fuel 1/3gph at 3.00/gal $1.00/hr
Parts and repairs in 1900hrs: About $1000
Oil changes $25.00, about 8: $200.00
Rebuild: Probably won't need it.

1200/1900=0.63, +$1.00/hr for fuel: Operating cost $1.63/hr

Benefit: AC in hot eastern summers. Heat in cold eastern winters. Dive air comp, hot water, batt charge on hook, etc.

Well worth it.

Click to expand...

Once again Ski nails it.

Low hour little used units will suffer on cost per hour even though being minimal cost on an annual basis. Oil, filters, impellers, belts and hoses could easily equate to $5/hr when running only 25 hours per year.

Well 5 daughters, each with a college education and a wedding. The cost per hour of hand wringing and waiting up at night might cause some to get a vasectomy at age 18. But like boating, life's rewards are more than a cost per hour calculation after the fact.

When I ran the numbers for our boat we needed on average 42 KW per day for the various loads including charging air conditioning refrigeration etc...Do we always need this, no but it was an eye opener when considering alternative power.

From fpl that's under 5$ per day. With a 20kw genny it's a little over 2 gallons of diesel per day and between 4 and 8 oil changes per year depending on load plus whatever your time is worth. Given the better views on the boat I would say it's priceless.


Via iPhone.

"Mr. FF. Propane fridge is a good idea but our insurance company does not allow any appliances with a pilot light."

Most propane fridges are 3 way , underway you could use 12V direct for keep alive or invert it to 120V for real fridge use.

When stopped you could turn on the unit as you now do with the stove.

Ignorance is Bliss , perhaps in the vast world of insurance carriers there are better informed folks?

What ever the cost if it lets you hang on the hook rather than paying for a dock and plugging in its worth it.

I think this is a valuable thing to know about your boat because it can assist in planning in a variety of ways.

We're in year 12 of being on our trawler nearly full time. We used to anchor about 50% of the time - that's down to about 10-25% these days because of our need to visit marinas. I put all the costs together for anchoring about 6-7 years ago and figured that it cost us about $25/day to anchor. Almost all of that cost is generator cost although I did allocate some for ground tackle depreciation. If we just anchor overnight, the cost is minimal since we rarely run our generator in that case. But when we're anchored for more than a night, the $25/day figure has been pretty consistent.

So having that data makes marina go/no-go decisions easier at times. $25 * 30 days is $750. So a marina monthly rate of about $700 becomes a no-brainer decision assuming it's a place we want to stay for a month (with $50 left for electric power consumption).

Even if a marina has a higher monthly rate, knowing this info makes the decision a lot easier. Let's say the monthly rate is $23/foot which isn't a low rate. For us, that turns into $1,219 + electric. But in reality, it's costing only $1,219 - $750 = $469 plus electric for the full month since we're not going to get away from that $750/month cost in general, anyway.