On Thursday 27 May 2004 7:26 pm in rec.boats.cruising Jeff Morris wrote:

I have a follow-on question:
What will happen if I hook a Honda EU1000 to a Heart 2000 charger, which
would
like to charge at 100 Amps? Will it settle at some compromise charge
rate, or will it roll over and die?

100 amps at 12 volts is 1200 watts, but add some ineffiency and the load
will probably be about 1400 watts. This type of overload is nasty - it is
too small to blow a fuse or trip a breaker.

What happens will depend on the actual available power of the engine.
If the engine is only just good enough for 1000 watts it will slow down
and may eventually stall, but it will almost certainly overheat.

If the engine has power in reserve the generator becomes the weak point.
Once again a sustained overload will cause overheating, in this case
the enamel insulation in the windings will be damaged causing internal
shorts. This leads to the escape of the magic smoke, requiring expensive
repairs or consignment to the rubbish heap.