Hybridhunter wrote:
It was a very well written article!
As for the 2000i, I was debating buying one again as a spare generator, because it really bothered me being left without power for our AC. Also, I could then lend it to my dad to twin them to run his AC. After in excess of 50 overloads just get get his WFCO charging, and more than a dozen to get my PD (on float), and my AC, (4.6 amps), I decided a Honda 2000 is the way to go for me. Especially now that the CPE costs $560 taxes in, or $925 for the Honda delivered to the border.
FWIW - My father in law owns a Honda 2000, and it never had any issues, and he is much less careful with his generator.
I agree, the Honda is very forgiving. 2000 watts for 30 minutes. That may be what you need for what you are doing.
I came home from camping on Monday, unhitched and unplugged at about 2pm. The fridge is still on propane. Water heater is off. Slide out was opened. Today, at about 10am, I went out and metered the two batteries which are in parallel and are BCI group size 29. The voltage was 12.6. I turned on 3 of the 12 volt camper light fixtures which illuminates 4 bulbs. Ran them for 6 hours. Repeat voltage was 12.37. I set up 1 of my Champion 2000 watt inverter generators and plugged it with all the circuit breakers off. My panel is at the door, so this is an easy task. Using a Kill-a-Watt to measure the volt-amps I obtained a reading of 1015va. This lasted for several seconds and then dropped to 815va and numbers continued to drop over time as the batteries charged. My WFCO is rated for 950 Watts. Using some simple math... 1600watts (I am going to go out on a limb here and say that the Champion inverter generator probably should say volt-amp as does the Honda in their manual). So, 1600va * 0.60 (power factor)= 960 watts. 10 more watts than the rating of the WFC0. I do not know the power factor or rating of your Progressive Dynamics converter. You do state that you run your batteries down. I think you are maxing your converter and thus maxing the Champion Inverter generator. The Honda, like I said will run at its max 2000va rating for 30 minutes. The Champion, 5 seconds. Of course, as time goes in terms of production or programming, I do not know if this has changed. Your issue appears to be charging your batteries. What condition are they in? Lead acid batteries are damaged by deep discharges. Are they real deep cycle batteries? Not combination or starting batteries.... If you take a deep cycle battery down to near death, you are damaging them. Anyhow, just throwing some stuff out. Good luck.
