Generator Cost Per Hour

JaxDad wrote:

maillemaker wrote:

I’m still trying to figure out why you would need to run a generator (seemingly) non stop for the entire weekend?

Any camping trip in the south where you didn't have hookups. For example, August a year ago we went up to TN to see the eclipse. Our genny didn't work that weekend (split fuel line) so fortunately the RV park owners let us park near a building where we could run an extension cord over. But we would have been in the RV nearly the whole weekend and running the AC, which means running the generator.

Except the Orginal Poster "RedLionCookie" is in Dallastown, PA and the Red Lions are a Red Lion PA (a few miles to the east) High school Football team and that weekend they were playing in Hanover PA (40 miles away) where the weather was in the low 70's during the day and mid-50's overnight.

Oh, and the OP specifically stated it was a 2000 watt Champion genset, so it *might* have a running output of 1,600 (?) watts, I doubt that ran an A/C for very long, a few seconds maybe.

You have me pinned down. I live in Dallastown and teach at Red Lion. However, I wasn't at a high school football game, I was in State College for the PSU/OSU game. I did state it was a 2000 watt champion. What I didn't tell you was I actually ran 2 in parallel. :-O

Didn't run the AC but did run lots of other energy sucking devices! Did I need to run straight through like that, no, but I chose to out of convenience. I hooked up an external gravity fed tank and let er rip!

The point of this thread when I started this was to get some feedback on how many hours people are putting on their generator vs. cost. I'm not concerned with maintenance and fuel as they all require that.

I bought a 2000 watt generator for $420. If it last me 1000 hours the same Honda generator would need to run 2000 hours on a strictly initial cost analysis.

The questions that come to mind;
How many hours are you really going to run a generator?
Will the Honda run twice as long as the Champion?
If you only use your generator at the time of day when it doesn't offend anyone is the noise difference between the Champion and the Honda really that big a deal?

And last of all strictly based on hours used at what point do you feel like you got yours moneys worth? If my $420 generator quit working after 1 weekend of running 42 hours I wouldn't consider that a deal. If it runs for 1042 hours and then quits I won't be disappointed.

To go along with that, the way some of you sparingly use your generator I would have a really hard time justifying buying the most expensive thing I could find, just because it's a little quieter.