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Old 12-12-2014, 03:07 PM   #10
DavidM
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City: Litchfield, Ct
Join Date: Aug 2012
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Running a big refrigerator and freezer (big boat, right!) and other AC loads- hair dryer, microwave, coffee maker, etc will take some decent amphours from your 400 AH bank. Yes, I assume that the PO expected to run the generator every day, more about this below.

So make sure that your 24 V shore power charger is big enough to charge quickly, at least 100 amps at 24V. Otherwise you will have to run the genset for quite a while to replace those amphours.

Insofar as engine alternators being 24V, you could replace one engine's 12V alternator (I presume that is what they have) with a high output 24V alternator and external regulator and dedicate it to charging your 24V battery bank while underway. You will have to rewire your remaining engine's 12V alternator to charge the other one's starting battery, but that is not much of a problem. You will lose some redundancy, but with two engines and two alternators, a big house battery bank, a generator with a separate (I presume) starting battery, you will still have plenty of redundancy.

Good luck on your purchase. As others have said, don't let the small stuff block the deal.

David
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