"Paul Hovnanian P.E." wrote

Actually, the alternator will put out whatever the battery and loads
require. Unless you are charging a huge battery bank and/or have 200 A
load connected to it, it won't put out that much. Given the electrical
(and mechanical) losses, the input HP will be whatever are needed to
provide the electrical output. The larger alternator will have lower
electrical losses, but higher mechanical. All in all, this unit won't
present a mechanical load significantly different than a smaller
alternator.

That's just it. There will definitely be a heavy load on it. When it
cranks up every morning it will be seeing a 900AH battery bank ready to take
the first 225 amps in bulk mode.

This unit must be matched to the appropriate regulator. If you didn't
get one with the alternator, the deal may not have been that good.

It has the regulator built in. Pretty interesting one too. Even has a
battery voltage sense connection. However the regulator does not have a way
to change from bulk to absorption to float modes and there is no
equalization. The shore power charger can handle the equalization and with
my normal use pattern of 50% to 85% charge will rarely need float except at
the dock but it would be nice to have optomized bulk and absorption ability.

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com