Generator pros and cons
Over the years I've had two generators and they both served me well. The first was a 2kW Honda portable. It was super quiet, always started easily, a nice addition to our first fifthwheel and also ...
Forum Discussion
theoldwizard1 wrote:
Concur ! Anyone with solar who boondocks a lot, needs a generator. The sun does not shine every day.
Just finished a 15 day hunting/fishing trip, to the Sierra and then over to Casper WY. We're running 230w of battery bank, and 400w of solar. Many would consider that a bit of overkill on the solar versus battery, but it works great for us even in partly cloudy weather. At the end of 10 days we had been getting near full charges and were running the space heater a lot, most every night.
Then WY had a front blow in, socked in solid cloudy, rainy, even foggy. The solar didn't contribute much for 2 days, and on the 3rd day I broke out the Honda 2k and ran it for a few hours. The battery bank was still above 50% (they are brand new), but not knowing how long we would be under clouds, the prudent thing to do was to burn some gasoline. Popped some popcorn while it ran, and was proud of myself for digging out the gen on my own timetable, rather than getting poked in the ribs during the cold night.
First time we've ran the Honda since I installed the solar, other than exercising it at home. Having the solar now, I would buy a cheaper generator if I had to replace the Honda, because it just sits too much. Based on the real-life example above, I would not want to be without some kind of generator.
