I just spent a week off grid. I have a 2000W Honda. Our 5'er has some LED's in the living area and reg 12v lights elsewhere. We run an XM Boombox (quietly), the 5'er stereo sometimes, of course the water pump. Along with all the other hidden things like the fridge power panel, and other misc 12v draws we only run the gen at night for 2-3 hrs. Sometimes less or not at all. We run it for the hairdryer and to recharge the batteries. I don't have a volt meter and really have no idea how far down the batteries are drawn. But we have never had any trouble doing what we do. I did the same thing in our last TT. Same gen only I had 2 Costco 6V batteries. Our 5'er came with 2 12V Interstate batteries and I'm using them till they drop.
With all that being said if I had solar I would probably never have to run the gen except for the hairdryer. Assuming I had the right amount of solar wattage.
FWIW we were out 9 nights w/o 120v power. We ran the gen on average 2 hrs per night. It idles on low until the hairdryer is turned on and runs full for maybe a 1-2 mins, then drops back to idle. I filled the gen before leaving and took a 2 gal gas can. I have apr 1/2 gal left in the can and I'm not sure about what's still in the gen. But I would say 1/3 gal. So all in all I used about 2 gals of gas for the 9 days we were out. @3.79 gal = $7.58.
I would still like some kind of solar setup to keep the batteries at full charge, but we still need the gen for other things so that's why we got it. In hind site I would've bought the Yamaha 2400 but I did a lot of business with the local Honda dealer for 12+ years and got a decent deal on the Honda gen. I can't run the AC but we never hardly need it in Oregon. If we go to a hot area we just make sure we are hooked up to elec.
I would never be w/o a gen. If something, although probably unlikely, happens to the solar or the batteries you always have power with the gen.
