When Size Does Matter

Sizing Refrigeration Sizing the GenSet

W hether looking at refrigeration

for the first time or as an up-
grade to your existing operation, an
engineered system will keep you fishing—not
B uying a genset before knowing
your refrigeration needs is like buy-
ing a fishing permit without know-
ing the area, the gear, or the type of fish it’s
“If a fisherman doesn’t ask the right ques-
tions they’ll find a less expensive one that won’t
do the job.”
In assessing total load consider both the
working on equipment—and save you money. good for. But, hey, you have a permit. hotel load—power for galley, deck lights, wa-
When refrigeration is in your future, always Getting the generator first will dictate ter heater, TV—and the refrigeration. First ques-
plan your system before buying the genset, what you can—or can’t—do. Maybe you tion the power folks ask is about your refrigera-
or chances are you’ll end up underpowered, can’t refrigerate at all, or maybe you’ll have tion, so if you haven’t gone there yet they’ll
underproducing, or buying another one. to turn other things off when refrigerating just have to send you back. Need to know what
Large electric motors need a huge amount to manage the load and prevent brownouts. you’re powering.
of amperage momentarily when starting—an But, hey, you got a generator.
inrush current 5–8 times greater than running Simple Load Analysis:
current. You’ll have problems if a generator’s ❚ What are you doing for refrigeration?
All kW Are Not Created Equal ❚ How big’s the motor?
not designed to accommodate inrush, and rem-
Buying a genset based solely on the ❚ What’s the motor code?
edies to undersized gensets can be expensive:
nameplate kW rating overlooks crucial fac- ❚ What’s your hotel load going to be?
Adding a soft-starter to reduce inrush could cost
tors—the boat’s total load, and the heavy ❚ Do you have running lights—what kind,
thousands, or a new generator means replac-
load demanded on starting the refrigera- how many, how big?
ing wiring and panels all up the line too.
tion motor.
“You can’t change physics,” MER Equip- The trick is sizing a generator big enough
The Vision Thing
ment General Manager Mike Hoyt likes to say. to run the refrigeration but small enough to
Refrigeration folks ask questions to find out
”Too often fishermen call and say they need run the house load when not running the sys-
just what your vision is, in order to calculate
20 kW. Don’t trust the nameplate. Just because tem. MER recommends a generator one or two
required refrigeration tonnage and the power
it says 20 kW doesn’t mean it does what you sizes bigger to get motor-starting ability. If fig-
needed to run it.
want it to do—not all 20 kW act the same.” uring you need 20 kW, Hoyt suggests a 25 kW
MER shoots down old Rules of Thumb so you have room for growth and don’t run it
❚ What does your market require?
that might say a 15 HP refrigeration system to the limit. “Invariably they’ll want to add
❚ What do you want to do—freeze? chill?
❚ What’s the product you want to end needs a 30 kW generator to run it. something else.” AC power’s tempting on a
up with? “Because of technology changes those boat. The bigger generator also has a better
❚ How much product—pounds per day, rules don’t really apply,” says owner Bob Allen, efficiency rating—saving fuel, running cool—
pounds per hour? How cold, how fast? suggesting fishermen do their homework or and a longer life, but you want to size appro-
❚ Where do you want to do it? Where priately to keep a load on it.
ask the experts “so they don’t buy one too
does it fit on the boat? What’s your How much power and what size genset
big or too small.”
hold like—configuration, insulation
Most problems occur either in choosing you need invariably comes back to how
quality? Where’s your processing area?
undersized or single-phase generators when much product you want to produce—the
AND THEN,
❚ How much refrigeration would you not appropriate for refrigeration. Check how vision thing—and that determines refrigeration
need to do that? How much power your boat’s wired. It’s more efficient to run size first. Work from that premise: First check
would you need to run it? 3-phase on motors larger than 5 HP—winches, your markets. What do you want to accomplish?
anchor windlass, big bilge pumps, refrig- What equipment do you need to do it? What and
Either chilling a water volume and prod- eration compressors—and most refrigeration how much power do you need to run it?
uct weight, or freezing a specific number of systems are 3-phase.
pounds, down to a desired temperature in Hoyt says you can always buy a cheap- INTEGRATED MARINE SYSTEMS
a specified amount of time will determine er generator. The more expensive gensets— recommends following these guidelines
required refrigeration tonnage. Here’s where more copper, more efficient, more fuel along a sequential path to get the
Reality comes in to challenge—and perhaps economy — are not requiring the same right genset for the right refrigeration
revise—the Vision, to find a solution both prac- amount of horsepower to produce the same system—both must work together for
tical and affordable to your operation. amount of kilowatts. your operation to succeed.
 Tech Tips—Voltage Dip & Other Variables

Jim Wright of Marathon Electric—manufacturer of LIMA-brand Today’s newer, better insulation on the windings allows generators
generators—says that when limited-capacity generators are hit with very to run at higher temperatures by using less copper and steel to get the
large inrush current the voltage decays very rapidly until the motor same nameplate kilowatt rating. Less active material may result in a greater
reaches running RPM, then goes back up, akin to cruise control. voltage dip for a given starting load.
“The real trick in motor starting is to get the motor to accelerate in Wright explains that insulation systems allow the windings to carry
speed up to this point,” says Senior Product Engineer Wright, explaining more current—so there’s more heat but not more guts to the genera-
that the genset should be sized for this full peak current-inrush capability. tor. It’s just running harder.
With the motor’s rotor initially at a standstill, momentarily the mo- As load increases the hotter it gets. Nameplate temperature rise at
tor requires additional power to start—typically drawing 5–8 times its a given load is the running temperature above ambient. A generator
rated full-load current. Wright says the motor’s power demand will exceeding the permitted load will waste fuel, wear rapidly, fail prema-
decrease—but not much—until reaching 80% rated RPM, when it goes turely. For every 10°C above rated operating temperature the insulation’s
down radically. life expectancy cuts in half; running 20°C hotter cuts it to 25%. Name-
Precisely evaluating motor-starting capability depends on the mo- plates sometimes ignore temperature rise, but running at high tempera-
tor characteristics. To calculate power requirements MER owner Bob tures or right to the limit can reduce generator life.
Allen looks to the nameplate data off the refrigeration motor tag: HP Where the total load dictates generator size, the largest motor that
and NEMA starting code letter, or locked-rotor amps. These National it starts (and when) will determine generator type—whether chiller or
Electrical Manufacturers Association NEMA codes classify motors by the freezer, what the motor’s turning doesn’t matter. Newage AVK SEG sug-
ratio of locked-rotor kVA (kilovolt amperage) per HP. Different motors of gests the electronically regulated precision voltage control (standard
equal horsepower may well have different starting codes, depending on voltage-regulated) together with the PMG (permanent magnet gen-
the purpose of the motor. erator) for better motor-starting ability, the best of both worlds. Newage
MER General Manager Mike Hoyt also says that generator manu- AVK SEG, a.k.a. Stamford, offers a number of options as well as version-
facturer ratings are not consistent, so “you kind of have to rely on the specific designs for marine applications.
genset guys” to figure out the equivalent starting kVA of a motor from Most often Seattle’s MER sells the self-regulated (motor-starting),
its NEMA code or lock-rotor amps. or LIMA MAC-style (Motor Application Characteristics), for its higher
“Voltage change is one of the functions of the size of the unit,” says copper/steel content and better starter ability. Designed 1:1—1 kW starts
Wright, and economically sizing a generator to the load is to “decide 1 HP—motor starters generate extra amperage with higher ability to
how much transient voltage dip you can tolerate.” Simply put: The gen- take the load. Standard voltage-regulated generators are limited to 2–3
erator has to produce X amount of kVA to get the motor started. If you kW per HP starting capacity.
want to limit depth of the dip, have to use a bigger generator. If it can Think about your refrigeration needs and options first. At IMS, we
go deep, use a smaller one. work together with generator companies to build a system adequate to
Hoyt sizes most generators so when the largest motor goes on-line the task and sufficiently powered to run the show—refrigerating the
voltage droop does not exceed 30%: “If greater than 30% the generator’s catch while keeping the lights on too.
too small.” He says a large voltage dip that separates magnetically-held
motor contactors can make them chatter or the lights go dim.

Acknowledgements
We thank the following for their generous time & technical support:
Bob Allen & Mike Hoyt, MER Equipment, 1.800.777.0714; www.merequipment.com
Jim Wright, Marathon Electric, 1.715.675.3359 (Wis.); www.marathonelectric.com
Gary O’Malley, Newage AVK SEG, 1.800.367.2764 (Minn.); www.newage-avkseg.com
Tom Magwire, Norton Sound Seafood Products, 907.274.2248 (Anchorage office)
Grant F. Seran, Marine Specialist, 360.379.1291, seran@waypt.com

1.800.999.0765
Editor: Jana M. Suchy

P.O. Box 2028 775 Haines Place

Port Townsend, Wash. USA 98368
Tel: 360.385.0077
Fax: 360.385.3410
“Making Marine Refrigeration Simple”
www.IMSpacific.com