I wanted to play with some toys at home. I incurred a 13.6 amp-hour deficit on a fresh
battery (About 24 hours of medium summertime loads). I have a Link 10 that tracks all this.
I recharged with my Honda 1000. I don't know how long it'll run on a
light load. This whole excercise was run on Eco-Throttle, and the
generator basically idled, except when I vacuumed the floor (2A, 120v Red Devil vac). Even then, it barely sped up. While running the vacuum, the charging current didn't drop. From 50 feet away I could barely hear the
generator. (It wouldn't register above ambient sound on a sound meter.)
The object of recharging was to drive the 13.6 back down to zero (The Link 10 also monitors this). I quit after running the
generator for 3.5 hours. After 2 hours, and every 1/2 hour after that, I recorded the amp-hours and the charging current going back into the
battery and then plotted the results.
<img src=http://www.fiberglassrv.com/board/uploads/3eb6d7a381efcRecharge.jpg/>
The so-what of all this? After getting all but about 2 of the amp-hours back (2 hours) it was going to be long struggle to get to zero. I take away from this that running the generator for 2 hours would bring me 97 percent of the way back. Time to quit.
If I ran the generator every other day, I expect the time to almost double (to a 2 amp-hour deficit) since the charging current would (probably) ramp up also. There was still gas in the generator at 3.5 hours so I expect 4 hours to be reachable. With the Link 10, I'd just run it down to 2 amp-hours and shut the generator off.
Hoo boy! Get this boy a life!