Honda Generator
What Honda generator is the best one to get for my travel trailer? I would really only be using it to charge my batteries every other day.
Forum Discussion
Almot wrote:
ah64id - of course, generator is not charging the battery, it's running the charger that is charging the battery. Didn't know that anybody needed explaining that.
I said you where probably aware, but the wording in your statement was misleading.
Almot wrote:
No, generator is not as efficient for charging as shore power. When load goes down - by the end of charging cycle - with shore power you only use what is needed.
In terms of charging yes it's just as effective, in terms of total energy required to make the AC power to charge the batteries then no it isn't.. but sorta like saying semi-trucks are a less efficient choice than a train, it's very true but trains don't go everywhere.. just like shore power.
The batteries don't care where the converter gets it's power, its all the same once it's turned into DC.
Funny thing about electricity, you always only use what you need. If the converter needs 1A of 115VAC power it's only going to use 3A of 115VAC power, regardless of the source.
Almot wrote:
OTH, fuel consumption of generator doesn't drop proportionally to reduced power. When power drops 4 times, fuel consumption only drops 2 times. When power drops below 1/4 - in those last slow 10-15% of SOC - I am not even sure that fuel consumption would drop any further. Less fumes - don't know, smells the same to me. It may draw 5A current but would still need 0.07 GPH. And I can even tell you more - it will still use a fuel when there is no load :)...
I know fuel burn goes down as I have gotten about 15 hours out of a tank on my EU2000, that's approx 2/3 the burn rate of 1/4 load and there was a slight load on the gen.
Almot wrote:
As to those 59-53 Db numbers - they are manufacturers numbers, everybody likes repeating them, but I wouldn't trust them too much. For Eu2000 at 25ft it's usually in the mid-60s or low 70s with minimal or no load and "Eco" On.
I will take a screen shot on my next camping trip, but mine are not that loud as a single and I don't recall as a pair with the A/C on.
