Finally, something new in on board power generation. Triskel Marine has come up with an alternator capable of producing up to 9kw of power off your main engine. They refer to it as a “9kw engine mounted generator.”
The amazing thing about this new system is that it is next generation “smart,” taking full advantage of up to date computing power and technology. I personally have gotten great results over the years by adding Balmar external voltage regulators to alternators. I have always preferred external regulation over adding larger alternators to solve the problem of charging larger battery banks. So I get that smarter power generation is better than just bigger, but this new system looks like it is both.
The new Integrel system goes way beyond just regulating a normal alternator. It includes state of the art alternator, charging controller, and the inverter charger. There are a lot of great products out there but often they are not optimized because of the way they are integrated into the boats whole electrical system. The Integrel system seems to have solved that problem by providing all the parts of the system needed to create plenty of reliable AC and DC power for your boat without leaving out any critical pieces of the puzzle.
That all sounds good, but here is the real kicker that is going to make this stand out from all that has come before it. The “smart” part of the system is that it knows the optimal power curve of your particular main engine. It uses the excess, or unused power your engine is capable of producing, and converts that into electrical power for your boat. The old external regulators could only see what your batteries needed, this new type of regulation also sees what your engine needs to be at optimal efficiency. Putting more load on your main engine could literally lengthen its life. I have seen more engines in bad shape from continuously being under loaded. To save fuel, and to have a pleasant quite ride, many boaters run at RPM’s way below what the engine was designed for.
The Integrel system is designed to eliminate the need for a generator all together. In the Pacific Northwest in particular, where we do not need air conditioning, generators on boats are usually run with a very small percentage of the load they are capable of producing. This means you are burning a lot of fuel for a small amount of power. A generator capable of producing 30 amps continuously may only be charging batteries, a load of maybe only 5 amps of AC. And even worse being very hard on the generators engine by almost never putting even a mid range load on it. If you hardly use your generator now, it still must be maintained. Even if you only put on a few hours a year, heat exchangers still clog, and the oil must be changed to remove built up condensation.
Over all from my first look at this new system I am very impressed. I look forward to seeing a system installed and working.
https://www.integrelmarine.com/#intro
