T&T: Battery Charging

[Paul Brannon]

I have run a Honda 2000EU as an emergency backup and can run my old Trace 
2500 inverter in charge mode with the max charge amps set at 60 some odd 
amps.  I am sure that it will be able to run the Trucharge 40.  Keep in mind 
that the continuous duty rating of the Honda 2000 is only 1600 watts.

Paul
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Key Stage" <khstage at yahoo.com>
To: <trawlers-and-trawlering at lists.samurai.com>
Sent: Friday, December 14, 2007 1:10 PM
Subject: T&T: Battery Charging


>I am in a bit of a quandry about my batteries.  Here in Maine, we are in 
>the midst of a cold and snowy winter.  My Lord Nelson Victory Tug is on the 
>hard and "winterized".  The yard has no electrical power, so I thought that 
>once a month or so I would simply hook up my external power to a portable 
>generator and let the Xantrex Tru-Charge 40 do its thing with my two Group 
>27 AGM house batteries as well as the Group 27 AGM starting battery.  Maybe 
>even heat up the cabin with a space heater drawing 850 watts or so from 
>time to time as well until the Spring thaw.  But, I cannot seem to figure 
>out Ohm's Law to intelligently choose how big a portable generator I would 
>need.  The TruCharge 40 sends out 14.5 V at 40 amps.  Since watts equals 
>volts times amps, do I only need 580 watts input (14.5 times 40), or do I 
>need to figure 120 volts times 40 amps for a power requirement of 4800 
>watts?  I would not use the space heater at the same time as the battery 
>charger, so in essence,
> what is the minimum power output from a portable generator that I would 
> need to charge my three batteries once a month over the winter?  I have 
> been eyeing the Honda EU2000, but I am afraid it might be too small?  Many 
> thanks, and my apologies for my electrical ignorance!
>
> Key
> TITAN, lying on the hard in Rockland, ME
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