Cost me 8k to have a 17kw LP standby gen with autoswitch installed 3 years ago. Best insurance for never having a power outage ever.

quote:

Originally posted by Edmond:

quote:

Originally posted by smlsig:
It would have been much better off to use a dedicated whole house generator like this..

https://www.generac.com/all-pr...-switch-wifi-enabled

Did you do one for your home?

I think that's what I will need to do for hurricane season when I buy my own house.

Seems the cost isn't too bad according to the link.

I owned a custom home construction company for 37 years (until I retired last year) and installed about 100 of these.
We primarily used Generac but there are other good brands as well like Koehler. The key is using an experienced installer and doing the necessary maintenance.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
Jimmy are the generators on yachts the same ones you go to home Depot and buy or are they designed to be used on a boat inside of am enclosure?

Why yes, all those fancy boats and RVs use a $700 generator from Home Depot.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
Jimmy are the generators on yachts the same ones you go to home Depot and buy or are they designed to be used on a boat inside of am enclosure?

Yes and no, most of the ones I deal with nowadays are all 1800rpm/diesel. The smaller gas generators are very similar but water cooled due to the requirements of where they're installed. The smaller fisher panda's and westerbeke's use(D) a briggs and straton based engine, ran 3600 rpms and were very similar. They'd just buy the motors and retrofit it for marine use. You'd see them on outboard center consoles and small Sea Ray type boats (28-38'). The higher rpm engines are in fact noiser, like what you'd see in your HD generators. Both the engine and the exhaust. Enclosures help a bit, but the exhaust more so......A lot of the big center consoles swithed to diesel generators and a separate diesel tank just for the generator. I just haven't been running any of those type of boats in several years.

Most of the yachts I run are diesel generators, 1800 rpm, 10kw-120 KW generally, the ones under 40kw generally use a Kubota, yanmar, or Isuzu diesel and marinize it. Are close to the diesel generators you see on trailers.

There are cheap generators that are quiet from Home Depot. Mine was under $200 and 67 decibles.. 2KW peak output.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jimmy123x,

quote:

Originally posted by nosticks:
The RV industry has been using generator exhaust extensions for years. Here is an example:
https://www.amazon.com/Camco-4...xhaust/dp/B000BUU5XG

Ok, but that's not a long length of what looks like 1" piping.

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:

Most of the yachts I run are diesel generators, 1800 hp, ...

Auto correct got you, right? Should be 1,800rpm?

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:

Most of the yachts I run are diesel generators, 1800 hp, ...

Auto correct got you, right? Should be 1,800rpm?

Has to be. Generators run at 1800 (higher end) or 3,600 (lower end) due to frequency (60hz). 1800hp = about 1.3MW

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:

Most of the yachts I run are diesel generators, 1800 hp, ...

Auto correct got you, right? Should be 1,800rpm?

Yes, I corrected it. It should be 1800 rpms. 1800 rpms or 3600 rpms gets you 60 cycles (hertz), they also run the same generators slower (they're built that way by ONAN/KOHLER etc.) 1500 rpms or 3000 rpms to get 50 cycles for the European boats (but you lose 20% of the KW's). A lot of European yachts are here. Ones built specifically for 60 cycle electric...….others with 50 cycle equipment, 50 hertz generators, and an Atlas frequency converter for the shore power.

There was a Kohler 1800 rpm 12 kw GAS generator back in the day based on the Ford 2.0 4 cylinder motor and was an excellent gas generator, but you don't see them anymore. Last one I managed was in a 1997 Silverton motoryacht that moved on 3 years ago, can't get parts for them anymore, anywhere.

I've been around several much larger generators on islands in the Exumas, Bahamas, with 3406 CAT engines and 400KW or larger, but just got the tour of the islands generator building at a few islands, never touched them.

The main engines on the yachts I run range from twin 400hp diesels to twin 2600HP 16v2000 MTU's, but generally 800HP-2600HP several times a week. A newish 60' Sportfish will have generally 1600-1900 HP C32 cats, a 70' Sportfish will have 1900hp C32's or 2600hp MTU's......and a 60' motoryacht will have 2-1150HP C18 cats, 90' motoryacht 2-1900HP C32 cats. (2 engines per boat, both engines run at the same time, same rpm). Generally Cummins, CAT, MAN, MTU, Volvo with a few others thrown in. The engine rooms are generally pretty well insulated with sound deadening and stuff and the generators are generally mounted in the engine room with the main engines......but say you anchor for the night or during the day, you have the generator running 24/7 but the main engines off.

But generally the small Fisher Panda's (junk) and Westerbeke and such small gas marine generators 4-8kw's use Briggs and straton or similar engines that are marinized and are louder than the diesel ones both in engine noise and exhaust noise, mainly because they run at 3600 rpms, but they're not terrible.....you can hear them run, but can talk over them at a normal voice volume. Even without a sound shield, if they have a good water cooled muffler, they're not that loud.....sound shields do help a bit in noise reduction but only about 20% from what I've seen.

quote:

Originally posted by slosig:

Go to karmanator.com, select Tube it!

Or use this link: http://www.karmanator.com/tubeit.pl

Something is either up with the site or I have rabies, as I could not get it to work?

quote:

Originally posted by Excam_Man:

quote:

Originally posted by slosig:

Go to karmanator.com, select Tube it!

Or use this link: http://www.karmanator.com/tubeit.pl

Something is either up with the site or I have rabies, as I could not get it to work?

You need to use the YouTube link. Your original link is a Google link. If you are in you tube app and cut and paste the direct link from there it will work.

Follow up question:

The ultra-quiet Honda and Yamaha generators use DC generators and inverters to make AC power. Would their engines have to run at a particular speed?

quote:

Originally posted by trapper189:
Follow up question:

The ultra-quiet Honda and Yamaha generators use DC generators and inverters to make AC power. Would their engines have to run at a particular speed?

Inverter generators are different. They run at changing RPM's to meet demand as the inverter electronically changes the output to 120 volts AC (or 240v on the larger ones). Think more like the alternator on your car. The faster it's spinning the more amperage it puts out, the voltage regulator changes it to always put out the proper voltage. So the inverter generators run a lower or higher RPM to match demand. Traditional generators run at a constant rpm (usually 1800/3600 rpms) and the governor gives it more throttle to keep rpm's the same and match demand. But yes, they're very quiet, even at full demand, and one can get one of these regular constant rpm's fairly close in sound levels with a good muffler, similar to what Yamaha and Honda have done with theirs.

Link to original video: https://youtu.be/nbWRb45n49w

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:

You need to use the YouTube link. Your original link is a Google link. If you are in you tube app and cut and paste the direct link from there it will work.

Ok, I got it now.
After failing with Google's link, I deleted everything before the http and it still failed.
After reading your post I went poking around on YouTube and found where they keep the link.

Thanks for the help guys!

Looks pretty dumb to me. Spent a lot of money. With just a little more money could have bought a proper generator with a properly designed enclosure.