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Generator wattage for charger


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What generator wattage would be sufficient to run a average 30a battery charger through a shoreline socket arrangement.?

 

Virtually any geny will power that, I've not seen any generators under 600w for sale and that would be sufficient.

Edited by Delta9
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Hi there

 

Re your battery Charger @30 amps you normally need 1kw for each 30 amp of charge so I would suggest a 20i Honda generator

reliable and cheep to run.

 

 

Hope this Helps

 

John

 

My 80A charger works fine on a Honda Eu20i. Your sum suggests I would need 2.6 Kw of generator power.

 

Evena pessimistic calculation would suggest that an Eu10i would cope fine.

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My 80A charger works fine on a Honda Eu20i. Your sum suggests I would need 2.6 Kw of generator power.

 

Evena pessimistic calculation would suggest that an Eu10i would cope fine.

What charger is that? The smaller cheaper ones can have a horrible power factor that needs more inverter genny power capability, where as some of the big name ones have active power factor correction that's a lot kinder to inverter gennys. Also seems the gennys above 1kW seem a lot more capable with chargers.

 

So charger current x 30 may be the bare miniumum with a smaller cheaper charger on a ~1kW or less genny.

 

Whereas charger current x 20 would work fine with a bigger more expensive active PFC charger on a ~1.5Kw or more genny.

 

So unless the OP is really constrained by genny weight, size and cost, it could be better to go for a 1.5kW genny or more.

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

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What charger is that? The smaller cheaper ones can have a horrible power factor that needs more inverter genny power capability, where as some of the big name ones have active power factor correction that's a lot kinder to inverter gennys. Also seems the gennys above 1kW seem a lot more capable with chargers.

 

So charger current x 30 may be the bare miniumum with a smaller cheaper charger on a ~1kW or less genny.

 

Whereas charger current x 20 would work fine with a bigger more expensive active PFC charger on a ~1.5Kw or more genny.

 

So unless the OP is really constrained by genny weight, size and cost, it could be better to go for a 1.5kW genny or more.

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

 

Which realistically is a 2kw job to give 1.5 continuously.

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My 80A charger works fine on a Honda Eu20i. Your sum suggests I would need 2.6 Kw of generator power.

 

Evena pessimistic calculation would suggest that an Eu10i would cope fine.

 

Sterling Pro Combi S 2500W

 

It's advertised as a 70A charger but, after a replacement part, mine charges at 80A.

 

I think the Honda EU20i is a 1.6Kw generator.

 

I wonder if anyone here has a Honda EU10i or similar combined with a 25A to 40A charger - Can they cope?

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FWIW my Sterling 1250CED 50 amp charger very occasionally trips a 10 amp MCB on consumer unit whilst on shore or genny power.

 

Will swap immersion and charger breakers to put latter on 16 amp MCB, but it shows a nasty old surge on power up.

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Sterling Pro Combi S 2500W

 

It's advertised as a 70A charger but, after a replacement part, mine charges at 80A.

 

I think the Honda EU20i is a 1.6Kw generator.

 

I wonder if anyone here has a Honda EU10i or similar combined with a 25A to 40A charger - Can they cope?

 

I run a 40A charger on a EU10i fine. I also have a 50A charger that it will just about run.

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If you're using the shore power socket (I'm assuming the vessel has a 240v circuit installed), then perhaps erring towards the bigger generator might allow for other 240v demands whilst charging the batteries, just a thought.

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Mastervolt ivo smart 40-3 and a jenelec 50A psu (not 3 stage) I picked up off eBay ( if that's the right expression for the saga to get hold of it)

Looks like the Mastervolt has active PFC (power factor 0.98) and I'd expect the same for the Jenelec. Not surprised the EU10i struggles with the 50A Jenelec, say 14.8V x 50A x 1.3 (if 75% efficient) = ~1kW.

 

Someone else reported problems with a 50A Sterling Pro Combi Q, which has PFC, but if it's passive with a lower power factor it'll load the genny more:

 

http://www.canalworld.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=51680

 

So looks like genny output needs to be 20-30x charger output depending on whether charger has PFC and whether active or not, and also genny max/VA output vs rated watts output.

 

An idea I had the other night was to buy a high power PC supply with active PFC and good efficiency, then use an array of those 10A DC-DC CC converters to boost the 12V outputs to batt charging voltages. :)

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/181047886467

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/290842227219

 

cheers, Pete.

~smpt~

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