Advanced Alternator Regulator

To finish the alternator modification I have added to the house battery system an advanced alternator regulator made by Sterling Power Products  I chose the ProD model.

Unit on the right.  The left is the MPPT

The first thing to do was to connect 2 wires to the inside of the alternator.  Only one of these wires is used but it need to be determined which.

These wires go to the brushes in the alternator.

Cap back on and wires out of a convenient hole.

With the alternator running normally its necessary to identify which type of alternator sensing you have.  Mine is a Negative sensing.

Once the right wire is found simply snip the unused one off.

This explains what they do but in a nutshell it changes the charge profile of the original regulator in the alternator without modifying it. It will fail safe to the alternators own regulator if it encounters any number of possible problems protecting the alternator and batteries from themselves as it makes the alternator & batteries and connecting cables work much harder for longer.  The full manual is here. http://www.shop.sterling-power.com/acatalog/pdar.pdf

The additional load on the alternator started to cause the belt to slip on engine start up as the ProD loaded the alternator.  I could have added more tension to the belt but this just adds extra loading the the engine front bearing and the alternator bearing. To overcome this I applied some Belt Dressing which has done the trick.

While out this week the engine clocked up 200 hours.

It's very noticeable how much quieter the engine is becoming as time goes on, and since the alternator modification how much smoother it feels.  I can offer no explanation for this tough.

I have decided to change the central heating boiler and have ordered a Hurricane CH25

The Mikuni MX60 has been and continues to be great, its done sterling service for 2 winters but I want the greater flexibility the Hurricane offers with its zoning, hot water only and the added feature of being able, with the use of an additional heat exchanger, use the the engines waste heat to heat the radiators.

More on this soon.

Another modification on the horizon:-   I have ordered a new propeller.  The current one is 21 x 16 and I shall be replacing it with a 21 x 21.  I should get this in a few weeks and have a slot booked on a local crane day but I might try to do it in the water.  I looking into the feasibility of this.

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