I love the idea of solar smkettner, but the former owner just put in new batteries the week before we bought her. Unfortunately he just bought 2 regular 8D batteries for the house system instead of going for some quality deep cycles. I'd hate to toss them and start all over again to do it right or add another one or two 8D's when I know that's not the best way to go for solar. Probably jump on solar when these batteries are nearing their end.
Looks like carrying a little Honda genset is the best idea so far. At least then I know we can make coffee in the morning without the neighbors wanting to plug our muffler pipe with a potato :)
I see there are a ton of those cheap Chinese gensets doing the Honda lookalike thing in our local online ads. Don't suppose anyone has had a good experience with any particular brand? I'm guessing you don't get great quality or parts availability when you're buying a brand new inverter generator for $350?
jplante4: ONE cylinder? Holy cow, what's the size of that cylinder?
