Professional BoatBuilder - December-January 2018

32 PROFESSIONAL BOATBUILDER

MATERIALS

F

or the past couple of years I have

been part of a project experiment-

ing with massively powerful alter-

nator-type devices.  e device I have

now will generate up to 9 kilowatts

(kW). To put this in perspective, that

would be 750 amps at 12V.  ere’s not

much point in having this kind of

generating capability if you have

nowhere to dump and store the

energy, so the corollary to our gener-

ating-capacity research has been bat-

tery testing.

 e ideal we have been aiming for is

a system capable of generating and

storing su cient energy to run a boat’s

house systems for 24 or more hours

during normal propulsion-engine run

times. In the case of my family’s Malo

46 (14m) sailboat, Nada, normal engine

run times would be the time it takes me

to set or pull up the anchor, or to get on

and o a dock. For boats with air-con-

ditioning, the objective is to be able to

run it overnight without having to start

a generator, and then the next day to be

able to replenish the used energy dur-

ing normal boat operations, again with-

out requiring a stand-alone generator.

It’s an ambitious goal.

ELECTRICAL

SYSTEMS

Supercharged energy systems have arrived. Here’s what

you need to know to ensure safe and reliable installations as

onboard systems transition to the new technology.

Text and photographs

by Nigel Calder

(except where noted)

Above—A new high-powered alternator

is installed. While advances in these

devices promise a massive power boost,

it’s challenging to  nd batteries capable

of handling these alternators’ high-rate

charging capacity. Batteries must also

be lightweight and compact for the

marine market.

Pushing Batteries to the Limit

Batteries170-ADFinal.indd 32 10/31/17 12:19 PM