Auxiliary generator questions

joe blow wrote:
Hi,

I have a somewhat technical question for the electrical gurus.

I have a 5500 ONAN house gen on my 2008 WW 5th wheel and do a moderate amount of dry camping in the desert.

I recently bought a yamaha 2000W inverter/gen 30A that I want to use for the cold nights to power the trailer lights (LED) and also energize the outlets for running two small LASKO heaters and charging phones overnight. Most of my friends do the same and it really saves propane and battery use, from cycling the heater all night.

Anyway, my question is this:

Is it possible to add a 30A plug/junction box that ties into the 50A house junction box, so I don't have to constantly unplug the 50A house cord to run the small generator?

Obviously both generators would never be run together, but I am concerned with either one back feeding into each other and ruining the small generator's inverter or my main house inverter.

Hopefully the question makes sense.

Thanks for the help

Joe

As stated I doubt your 2000 will run all night on a tank of gas. Most small electric heaters are 1000-1500 watts of RESISTANCE heat, meaning it translates directly to the load on the generator. Look at the rating of the generator, it is probably rated for less than 2000 watts CONTINUOUS, more like 1500-1700 with the 2000 being "inrush". You certainly could wire in a 30 amp plug in parallel with the 50 amp but you'd have to split it to both 50 amp legs, not a big deal and certainly doable if you know electricity.

Personally we do a LOT of dry camping in the desert but usually around others (racing and family riding) and I know I hate waking up to the sound of a generator in the middle of the night. No matter how quiet of an inverter generator you have sound travels really well in the desert. And if you're running the generator flat out to run heaters it will not be very quiet.

Why can't you just run the furnace at night and then charge batteries in the morning/evening with the 2000? That's what we do and have done it that way for years. Suggest more battery instead of running a gennie all night.