Houseboat generator exhaust thoughts
 

When a friend of mine runs his gas generator on his houseboat, the fumes sometimes are somewhat overwhelming. It exhaust on the side at the rear. I was wondering if it is possible to connect a 20'-30' hose at the exit point, stretch it out along the water surface with floats, and anchor the end away from the HB, but on the surface.
Will this work? Or will the horizontal running hose length be too much? How about the ability of the gen to push the exhaust and cooling water thru the hose?

Opinions?
Thanks

I think that he should contact the mfr of the generator and the houseboat and tell them that he is concerned about the presence of CO on his boat. They might be willing to solve the problem for him. I'm thinking vertical stack up the side.

Convert it to diesel. That's the only surefire fix.

Rental houseboats on Lake Cumberland are installing a new style of CO scrubber on the exhausts of their gensets. I took my own CO detector and I can vouch that we never showed over a "4" on the detector (previous years I have seen numbers as high as "60" from the rear porch area.

Tall stacks are indeed another option that is gaining a following. CO falls, however, so the exhaust gases should be hot to make them rise and disperse harmlessly. This means that you should NOT use a water separator after a waterlift or other water injected muffler cause the exhaust gas will be too cool to rise properly. You'll have to go with a true dry stack for it to work right (but you can use a stainless automotive muffler for silencing which works nicely). You'll just need to make sure you don't use rubber hose joints on a dry exhaust cause thry'll burn out and then you've got the CO problem again.

I would also suggesting contacting the manufacturer. This is a big topic right now and I believe there is a big lawsuit about this going on right now. Just sitting on a swim platform could kill you. It has almost happened at LOTO. A guy was sitting on a swim platform of a cruiser and passed out and fell in the lake. Thankfully, someone was right there to pull the guy out. I think the manufacturer would be more than happy to talk with you about it.

CO poisoning on houseboats is nothing to be taken lightly. There have been several deaths associated with it in the past few years, and warnings have gone out about letting children play in the area around the swim platform when the genset is running. Some close friends of mine had a brush with CO poisoning a few years ago on their houseboat. They had just finished dinner, and several members of their party became ill. Their first thought was CO, but they had just installed a new CO detector, and it was not sounding an alarm. They figured it was food poisoning, until one of the party whom had not eaten began feeling ill. They took another look at the CO detector, and realized that they had not removed a protective tape across the front of it. When they pulled this off it began sounding! They spent the night at the local emergency room. Scary stuff!

It makes you wonder how many people have gone to bed thinking their headache was from too much sun and partying, never to wake up. My advice would be to have your houseboat checked out by a pro to make sure it is in compliance, and then install SEVERAL CO detectors if you frequently run your genset. This is nothing to fool around with.

Link to an article in the local paper a few years ago: http://www.courier-journal.com/local...01211boat.html

Mcollinstn, what difference would diesel make? Don't they generate CO as well?

At the place where I hang a bit the people who have gensets installed on the boat run what looks to be a pool vacume hose from the exhaust and extend it to the front of the boat away from where they are sitting. Seems to work OK.

Are you sure the fumes are from the exhaust outside the boat? If it's a Kohler, it may be a more dangerous issue than you thing. Article below refers to 4 deaths at LOTO a few years ago.

Kohler replacing select marine generator exhausts

KOHLER, Wis. – In an effort to provide maximum boating safety, Kohler Co. will replace, at no charge, the black iron wet exhaust pipe assembly with a stainless steel exhaust tube on specified Kohler marine generator sets manufactured from 1950 to 1989, according to the July issue of NAMS (National Association of Marine Surveyors) News. In March, it was reported that a St. Louis Circuit Court jury issued a $25-million punitive damage verdict against generator manufacturer Kohler Co. over the deaths of four people in 1999 from carbon monoxide poisoning aboard a boat. It was reportedly determined that the deaths were due to a leak in the generator's exhaust tube. (See Boating Industry Online article Kohler to pay $25 million in punitive damages.)The affected marine generator sets, equipped with L600 or L654 gasoline engines, were built under the following model numbers: 2R, 2A, 2.5R, 2.5A, 3.5R, 3.5A, 4R, 4A, 5R, 5A, 6.5R, 6.5A, 7.5R, 7.5A, the association newsletter reported. Carbon monoxide poisoning may result from failure of the black iron wet exhaust pipe used on these identified generator sets.Kohler Co. is working with its distributors and dealers, and others involved in the marine service industry to locate these marine generator set models, according to NAMS. The specified marine generators were used in a variety of boat applications.Boat owners who believe they have one of the affected generator models should contact an authorized Kohler distributor or dealer or should contact Kohler toll-free in the U.S. at 866-866-4933, or outside the U.S. at 920-803-4986, the association reported******rmation also is available at the Kohler Power Systems Web site: www.kohlerpowersystems.com.

The best bet is to never run it when sleeping. Otherwise the hose out the back may work as long as it is not too long as it will have trouble pushing the gas and water out which will overheat the unit. A dry stack is OK but is ugly and can get very hot which may burn someone thinking it is a grab handle or melt the area around it. Your best, best bet is propane as it is not toxic. In most cases you can convert a gas motor to propane (we did this with a van in 1978 when gas was going up) and it worked fine.

A good topic to bring up on boatered too.

Most of the Houseboat manufacturers have a retrofit for this problem. When I was with Sumerset Hosueboats we were the fist company to come out with the dry-stack system, we also refit most of the boats at cost. (no labor charge) Contact the houseboat company and see if they have a kit and will do it for him. This is something a professional should do!!! Do not mess with CO and generators. Most of the CO poisoning cases were from when the exhaust exits under the rear swim deck and people would swim either under or close to it for extended periods of time. Do not run the geneerator if people are back there or at night. Our last house boat had the dry-stack system and we ran the generator all day and night with no problems.

Gasoline motors generate high levels of CO.

Against common perception, propane motors generate similar, if not higher, levels of CO than a gas motor. (theoretically, a properly tuned propane motor will produce 40% less CO than a gas motor, but I have rarely seen one stay in tune very long). The motors develop leaks in their flow diaphragms and start running a little rich, pouring out massive amounts of CO. We battle this constantly in our shop with forklifts and regularly hear the CO detectors screaming. LPG (Propane) is used in industrial applications primarily because 1) it doesn't produce many oxides of nitrogen when burned 2) it is not a fuel that must be "handled" like liquid diesel and liquid gasoline, which OSHA virtually forbids the handling of liquid flammables in all but an approved fueling area which most small mfrs do not have.

Diesel put out 15% of the CO as a gas motor. In addition, diesel also puts out some stuff in the exhaust that will make you vomit if exposed to high levels of it. A person will wake up puking if a diesel genset cracks a manifold and fills the boat up with exhaust. This is far better than never waking up. (plus you get DOUBLE the runtime on a given fuel tank over a gas genset).

I've hung my CO detector 12" to one side of my diesel genset exhaust, and 2" above water level. Boat was docked in its slip, no wind. Ran for 30 minutes. Detector showed a 6. OSHA will let you sniff a 6 for eight hours.

My Nissan propane towmotor will fill my entire loading area to a 40 in ten minutes. My Caterpillar towmotor will show a 130 in ten minutes. Any reading over 80 results in an instant alarm, while lower readings are time-weighted. The 40 reading will alarm in about twenty minutes.

My Ford 1/2 ton can run for 30 minutes and get an 8, but that is fuel injection and catalytic converters and no-load idling. My SL500 Mercedes can run for 30 minutes and I still read a 0. My Cat powered topkick will show a 4 after 30 minutes.

Just food for thought.

Thanks for the info guys. Interesting...

Damn it!!! I was convinced that I was going to buy a Generator of my 38 Special!!! But, Now what??

I've had a bad feeling about runn the generator while we were swimming off the back of the boat while the little one slept in the cabin. Heck I've had nightmare's about these things!!!

Now I don't know what to do!!! Maybe I'll go back to my "bunch of batteries" idea!!

Fun,

I still think a portable Honda is a good idea. Set it on a mat on the bow when you have swimmers, and anchor from the rear. Wind will keep your bow and genset downwind of your swimmers.

If you got a lot of wind, it will disperse the fumes anyhow, so you can anchor any way you wish then.

CO detectors a must.
Be aware that household CO detectors are designed to be turned ON and left ON. If they are unplugged for any length of time, it affects the internals and they can start working weird or not at all. That is why all of the household ones come with internal batteries to keep the guts from shutting down (they don't work as an alarm when the juice is off, but the internal batt keeps the "element" heated up or whatever till the juice comes back on).

Marine CO detectors are designed to be turned off and on.

Honestly, I use Nighthawk household style with internal batteries that I have fitted with a "silent" switch. I silence the unit when I unplug it cause otherwise it starts chirping to alert you that it is on the battery and it wants to make sure you get the juice back to it. I use the silent mode whenever I have them unplugged. I like them cause they use time-weighting and have a digital readout in ppm.

I also have 12volt marine CO detectors on all my boats.

That crap will kill you if you're not respectful of it.