On Tue, 14 Oct 2003 17:31:49 -0700, "Lloyd Sumpter"
wrote:

This one I find just bizarre. You burn fuel to generate heat to generate
mechanical energy to generate electrical energy to generate...heat!

==========================

From the stand point of engineering efficiency, you're absolutely
right. In actual practice however, it turns out to be very convenient
as long as you already have the generator for other purposes. In the
south eastern US it is almost mandatory to have air conditioning on a
larger boat just to make it habitable, and it is very desirable in any
climate to be able to charge your batteries without running the main
engines. On a larger power boat the fuel burned by the generator is
trivial compared to everything else.