Generator for Casita trailer

[David Tilston]

Recharging would be an issue. You would need a couple of hundred watts of solar, and a sunny day. A large alternator on your TV, with a #8, or larger power wire would recharge it over a couple of hours of driving.

[honda03842]

Jason, it sounds like you have a 5000 btu AC unit. We have one and used it for a few hours when it got up to 86F and high humidity. It easily cooled us down.

Glad to hear you AC unit ran on a 1000 watt generator. We have the similar $130 generator but never tried it on the AC. Amazing a $100 AC and a $130 generator for cooling.

As a testimony we and others have used that little generator for 5 years, mostly for emergencies but also for our Labrador trip, and it's still running. Hard to beat that price. I plan to try the generator on our AC this summer.

Thanks relating your experience.

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by deryk

I also have a 5000btu ac in my ParkLiner and it says its pulling a little over 500 watts running...

Originally Posted by David Tilston

I am surprised it is that low of a draw.

I was a bit surprised too, so I looked at the physics:
1000 BTU/hr is 293 W, so 5000 BTU/hr is 1465 W. An air conditioner doesn't make heat, it just moves it, and these numbers suggest a coefficient of performance (heat moved per unit of energy used) of about 3 (1465/500), which seems plausible to me - it's one-tenth or so of theoretical perfection, and consistent with the reports that I've seen of real equipment performance.

Running a small air conditioner from a battery does not look sustainable on solar, but for a brief run once per travel day, if driving each day provides an effective recharge, it looks like it may be practical. Truckers are now doing this routinely, with a much longer run time, although they use large batteries and have substantial charging systems.

[SilverGhost]

I was shopping in Costso the other day and they have this unit with a Yamaha MZ engine for $549 ($599 but $50 instant rebate)











Jason

[deryk]

I picked up a Yamaha ef 2400... used it over the weekend to keep my batteries topped offfrom the furnace. Worked great and real quiet

[Mark Ittleman]

Yes, I have a bigfoot 25rq also, and am shopping for generators; how often do you use yours and about how many hours do you have on your Yamaha generator? Where do you keep the generator?

thanks.

Mark

[cpaharley2008]

Welcome to FGRV, Mark, please go here and tell us something about yourself Hi, I am.... - Fiberglass RV

[DeadEyeDan]

Originally Posted by DeadEyeDan

Our Casita has a 9000 BTU Roof Top A/C(pretty sure). It is a 2005. We just returned from the Quartszite Gathering and almost all the generators I saw there were 2000's.

Update. Since we now have an Escape 19 (2010), I hooked up the Honda 2000 to see how it would handle the A/C.

Not sure off hand the specs on it, but it is much easier on the generator than the one in the Casita, even with the Casita having an extra capacitor.

Not sure if it is a smaller unit, newer or a combination of the two, but the generator would hesitate noticably on the Casita when the compressor kicked in, and not even stutter on the Escape.

[deryk]

Mark I keep my Yamaha in the ParkLiner door way. I think I might have 20 some hours on it.

[Borrego Dave]

Originally Posted by DeadEyeDan

Update. Since we now have an Escape 19 (2010), I hooked up the Honda 2000 to see how it would handle the A/C.

Not sure off hand the specs on it, but it is much easier on the generator than the one in the Casita, even with the Casita having an extra capacitor.

Not sure if it is a smaller unit, newer or a combination of the two, but the generator would hesitate noticably on the Casita when the compressor kicked in, and not even stutter on the Escape.

I have an '06 SD with a 9000 series roof AC and wasn't sure if my Honda 2000 would run it. Well, during a hot desert summer night power outage after the winds blew some power poles down I got the chance to find out. Nothing like having bug out space. Anyway, it did a great job, 8 hours fifteen minutes on a full tank of gas. The genny only went to half power as the AC cycled on and off. Much inpressed as the microwave will run the rpm's up to max. DeadEye, I'm not sure of my specs also but when it's 90* - 95* at night and the AC is working so well in the egg.....you just have to smile, life is good

[DeadEyeDan]

Originally Posted by Borrego Dave

I have an '06 SD with a 9000 series roof AC and wasn't sure if my Honda 2000 would run it. Well, during a hot desert summer night power outage after the winds blew some power poles down I got the chance to find out. Nothing like having bug out space. Anyway, it did a great job, 8 hours fifteen minutes on a full tank of gas. The genny only went to half power as the AC cycled on and off. Much inpressed as the microwave will run the rpm's up to max. DeadEye, I'm not sure of my specs also but when it's 90* - 95* at night and the AC is working so well in the egg.....you just have to smile, life is good

Impressive. The Honda is a good generator.

[deryk]

I went a little larger as a backup at my moms if they lost power like from hurricane sandy last year. Just to rub her fridge. But when I fire up my ac and microwave the Yamaha barely is above idle.