PNW_Steve wrote:
... it sounds like supplemental power may be useful even when in a park with hookups.
In transient-oriented parks in Mexico there are usually no meters, they charge flat rate instead. In more permanent parks there could be either flat rate again, or meters.
Most of your other questions you have already answered yourself. $2,000 will buy you 2,000 hours of generator time, this is ~500 days. If you drycamp 100 days a year, you will return your solar investment in 5 years, this isn't too bad. The scenario described by Mexicowanderer - when you camp in the shade and therefore can't use a solar - doesn't happen too often in Mexico. Unless you build your own 12ft high palapa on a permanent camp, you'll be hard pressed to find any shade on most camps.
What - I think - has been overlooked, is that solar is good for finishing the charge, while generator is not. When you run a genny 4 hours, the last 1-1.5 hours you are basically listening to it for nothing, because batteries accept very low current by then. Instead, you can run a genny 2 hours in the morning (if at all), and then solar would provide low current all afternoon, finishing the charge silently. Silence and clean air is a comfort, difficult to measure in dollars.
