Battery charging is always a prime concern for cruisers and people living on their boats. How can you have all of the gadgets and electronics you want, plus air conditioning, without having to run the generator to produce the power. This is a huge concern for many boat owners and also for the charter fleets where it is normal, today, to have a genset to power the boat and the air conditioning.
Integrel has an elegant solution. The British company, working with Nigel Calder and others, has come up with a generator that bolts on to a standard engine and can at normal cruising revs generate up to 9 kW of power. That is equivalent to the output from a good-size generator.
The charge from the generator runs through a controller that optimizes the charge rate for your battery bank and monitors the state of the bank so you always know how much energy you have left in the tank.
The key element to make this high output generator work and largest chunk of the expense lies in the lithium batteries used in the battery bank. Lithium batteries can accept a very high charge rate and can be recharged even when run flat. They are compact so you can build the system with a huge storage capacity. With a 9 kW charge and a huge capacity battery bank, you can generate all of the energy you will need for a day or two with only a hour or so of engine running time. If you are conservative in energy use, the battery reserves can last for days.
The system will operate all of your 12-volt on board systems and will also run a multi-unit air conditioning system, an electric cook top stove, a microwave, a hair dryer and will charge your hand-held power tool.
The Integrel System has won several prestigious awards, include the Dame at METS, IBI’s Boat Builders Award, the Freeman Pittman Award by Sail magazine, and, recently, the Innovation Award at IBEX. For more information: https://integrelsolutions.com/