generator

If you need 220v for the Geo pump then you want to make sure the gen you pick has 220v. Using the same gen for camping will only give you 1/2 of 220v gen's rating. A 5,000 watt 220v gen will only give you 2,500 watts on the 110v side. These gen's are normally very noisy for camping. You would need 220v at home for an elec range, clothes dryer, elec water heater and maybe a water pump.

You can't run everything without a large gen. Camping with a gen is good lesson in power management. I have to watch what's running even with a 3,000 watt gen. I can run the AC and microwave at the same time but I have to make sure the fridge and the water heater are on gas. Most of the time without AC and using propane for the fridge and water heater I never run into any problems.

I had 3 trailer plugged into the gen once. We each had coffee makers going and all was well, until my niece turned on a hair dryer. Any thing with a heating element is going to eat up capacity quickly.

Try to keep a camping gen in the 60 db range. You'll be happier and so will the neighbors.

I, too, have two generators, a small, light, quiet 1800 watt inverter generator primarily for camping, and a big, heavy, noisy 5500 watt standard generator for the house and the annual outage caused by storms, and paid for by the frozen food we didn't have to throw away after the last such event.

The little one will power everything in my camper except the AC, which the big one would handle with ease. But the big one isn't going camping with us because frankly, I have no way to get it to camp. It is too heavy to put in the back of my TV, and other campers would riot at the racket.

If you want to have just one, and use it for both, it is going to cost you big bucks, because it will have to be both light and quiet as well as powerful, and now you are looking at the sort of contradiction that always costs lots of money, and generally leaves you with delicate and temperamental machines, that cost much more to run and maintain. My two cost me less than $900 together. The closest I could get for a single unit was over $2,000. The $1100 savings will pay for a lot of camping trips.

Since running the house is probably going to require the most power you have to decide what thinks in the house are the must have items for you. Then consider what it's going to require to take that size generator with you on the road (easy lifting, noise, etc.).

Using some power management I can run everything in my trailer with my Yamaha 2400ishc. The 3500 watt generator I have at home to run heating or A/C, frig, lights, microwave, television, computers, etc. is just to heavy to bring camping and a bit more noisy so I opted for a second generator (the Yamaha) to take with us when we travel.

I treat my house just like camping off the power grid when the 120VAC power goes off...

I have two of those 1800WATTS Small COMPUTER UPS Systems... These has internal batteries that usually keeps everything going after the power goes for a good 30minutes to an hour so that you can safely shut down things.
ADDED NOTE: Just checked the my two UPS units. They are POWERWARE 2700W 120VAC model 5125. I have more emergency power than I realized...



These small UPS unit also has external 12VDC battery terminals on them. I am planning to move my somewhat depleted GP24 12VDC batteries from my trailer when I replace my trailer batteries soon to the outside of my house near my radio room/computer room and feed the UPS unit along with several other 12VDC radio items inside the radio room. I will have around 255AHs 12VDC battery capacity feeding my radio room.

From my 1800 UPS Unit I can run a couple of temp 120VAC extension cords to our home entertainment area and a couple of other useful places to mount some CFL fluorescent bulbs. I can also run my fridge from the source as well for a couple of hours each day to keep everything frozen in the fridge.

I have been doing this method for some some time already but never had more deep cycle batteries installed on the house side. It is no big hassle for us to have a couple of long extension cords running thru the house.

Doing this method of living off the batteries I will only need to run my 2KW Honda generator only three hours a day to keep my battery bank recharged. On my trailer hookup the 255AHs capacity will run us rather fine all day long with the normal 1-2AMPS "parasitic drains" and a heavy usage of 20AMPS or so between 8PM and 11PM running the home entertainment items and other 120VAC thing want to have running. The 255AHs batteries then will last just fine until 8AM the next morning when we we usually run the 2KW Honda generator to re-charge the battery bank when camping off the power grid. Doing this for the house when the power goes off is no different for us.

A great PLAN B to have available. We survived the two previous hurricane seasons just fine with one outage over a week long. The only problem we encountered was to locate some gasoline for the generator as the whole area around us was without power. Finally found a gas station running on emergency power.

Roy Ken

Our house has geo thermo heat I don't know what it would take to run that.
We have a fireplace in our house that would heat the house?

Does any one use one of the northerntool generators, I believe its the north star generator with the Honda motor?

Depends on how much power you need at home. I have a 2000W Honda that does what I need for camping. I could use it if the power went out to run the fridge and my pellet stove at the same time. Gotta remember to have ample gas to run the gen when the power goes out as gas stations won't be open either. As a rule we never lose power but maybe once in 10-15 yrs. And it only lasted last time about 3-4 hrs.

v2k1966 wrote:
What would be the best deal for a generator for our RV and also be able to use at the house if the power would go off?

power at the house is a BIG load usually, or you have to decide not to use something. Furnace and A/C (and water heater if electric like mine) are the big consumers

there are worksheets from many of the gen makers to help add that all up.

to be able to move it, you will want an external unit.
The big ones aren't very quiet.