pianotuna wrote:
You have made it too simple. He has no inverter. Running the generator to watch TV is wasteful in the extreme.
valhalla360 wrote:
Keep it simple:
Take the 7000w generator and just run it for an hour or so each day to charge the batteries. (make your coffee and do any other high draw electrical stuff at the same time)
Depending on how many lights and how long you watch TV, you may need a second deep cycle battery wired in but probably not.
That should keep your weekend usage to maybe 1 gallon. You already have the generator so minimal upgrade cost.
My bad. I missed that he didn't have an inverter. Any option that doesn't involve several hours of generator run time is going to call for an inverter to run the TV or other AC loads (that means a solar setup will still need to incorporate an inverter). Even with a small 2000w generator, it's pretty wasteful to power a 50w TV.
Of course, a small inverter to run the TV is cheap and easy. We have a $30 one that plugs into a cigarette lighter that runs the TV just fine and there is one right next to the TV.
Then again if it's only an hour or two of TV, time the generator charging the batteries to line up with TV watching.
