AdkChris
Senior Member
Thanks to Isaias and JCP&L I have had a chance to exercise my home generator for a few days. Listening to the engine pound away at 3600 RPM, at low power output and high noise output, for hours on end got me thinking about inverter generators that only run fast enough to meet the immediate power demand. They are so much quieter! That got me thinking about our Prius and how smoothly it switches between all gas engine, mixed engine & battery and all battery propulsion.
Why can’t we have a much more tightly integrated inverter generator and house battery system on a boat? Instead of using a generator or the house batteries what if we could use the generator and the house batteries at the same time. With the house batteries for surge capacity you could have a much smaller generator sized for average load not maximum conceivable and smaller house batteries since the generator would run more often. Most of the time the generator would be carrying the house load with surplus power charging the house batteries, occasionally the house batteries would help the generator over a surge in demand until the engine could speed up. When the house batteries were charged and the house power demand declined the generator would automatically shut off letting the house batteries supply all the power. When the house batteries discharged or the house demand increased the generator would automatically restart. This system would require a fraction of the processing power in your smart phone but would greatly reduce all the duplicate transformers, power transistors and rectifiers in the inverters and chargers many people seem to have on their boats. Best of all it seems this would be quieter, lighter, less bulky, more fuel efficient and QUIETER.
Are these systems already out there or is there a reason this could never work?
Why can’t we have a much more tightly integrated inverter generator and house battery system on a boat? Instead of using a generator or the house batteries what if we could use the generator and the house batteries at the same time. With the house batteries for surge capacity you could have a much smaller generator sized for average load not maximum conceivable and smaller house batteries since the generator would run more often. Most of the time the generator would be carrying the house load with surplus power charging the house batteries, occasionally the house batteries would help the generator over a surge in demand until the engine could speed up. When the house batteries were charged and the house power demand declined the generator would automatically shut off letting the house batteries supply all the power. When the house batteries discharged or the house demand increased the generator would automatically restart. This system would require a fraction of the processing power in your smart phone but would greatly reduce all the duplicate transformers, power transistors and rectifiers in the inverters and chargers many people seem to have on their boats. Best of all it seems this would be quieter, lighter, less bulky, more fuel efficient and QUIETER.
Are these systems already out there or is there a reason this could never work?
