You views on Portable petrol/diesel generators (1 Viewer)

[hallii]

Are generators anti-social? Without a doubt.

There is no generator that is quiet, they may be more or less noisy but never quiet.

They also stink, fumes lay low and do not disperse in still conditions.

Whilst on a Spanish wildcamp I noticed a M/H, who had been running a genny, with two flat rear tyres in the morning, my Dutch neighbour informed me that someone had taken a dislike to the noise and winked!

I suppose it was better than cutting the cable as someone did in France.

Best bet is shove the thing in you rear locker, then you can listen to it at night and gas yourself with the fumes.

I go camping for some peace and quiet, if anyone runs a genny near me I move off, at 3.00 am, driving by closely with my hand on the twin tone horns.

Hallii

 

[vwalan]

there is time and place for all. i carry a diesel genny ,its man enough for inverter welding through it .very noisey but a god send when you need it. also have friends with so called quiet hondas .not very quiet and they do drone. if you really need power they work well but i prefer solar .its not cheap but works silently. they are different .try working welding through a battery .not good.
some may never need extra power .most of us that winter camp and dont use ehu need something .december and january its hard to keep batteries up even on the med.
now its great .endless power .not excessive but enough to keep a few things working for nothing . if you need a genny get one but think before you lose friends ,it does happen .seen fights break out over a genny.
cheers alan

 

[Happy Hippy]

Well, I fulltime all year round in the UK and never use campsites so never have the benefit of EHU. I don't have a generator, all my leccy comes from solar panels on the roof. It is indeed tough in the winter, but nevertheless I manage. In fact, if I didn't use the computer, my solar panels would easily provide more than I need for all my other leccy use combined, so effectively the difference for me is that in the summer I can use the lappy as much as I like, but in winter I have to ration my use severely, even so I still usually manage to check my emails and a few forums a couple of times a day even in the worst months December/January with the short days and the sun lower in the sky.

The thing is to reduce your leccy requirements by not wasting it on things you don't need. I wouldn't dream of using my battery for cooking, heating, boiling water, hair drying, etc. I don't even use leccy for lighting except just for a moment when I need to see better, like for cooking, washing up or having a pee, the rest of the time I use a candle. I don't have (or want!!) a TV, can't stand the things, so my only non-essential leccy use is the computer.

One of the joys of never using campsites, over and above the obvious financial consideration, is that I never find myself parked up next to noisy smelly gennies

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[smudger]

i full time in my rv..and being a wheelchair user, i need power to charge my chair..so i have the following....three 135.amp leisure batterys, an alden solar panel which tracts the sun..a telair 70 amp charger, very silent,,which runs on gas...i run tv.etc.and lites ,up to 7/8 hrs, when sun has gone, before charger kicks in automaticly. and thats only for about ten minutes...and as back up, a 7.5,whats its name ,onan genny,and as an adittional,back up to that, just in case. i have a kippor,just to charge the chair... all lites are 12 volt.and all apliances are the same ,except for washing machine and microwave..i have two eberspacher heaters, one in front and one in bedroom,which are very cost effective. and very warm..all in all....expensive outlay..but,its done once and thats the end of it,plenty of comfort,no worries,and no hassle....regards smudger...........

 

[Braunston]

Hi,

We have been running the same engine on our narrow-boat to charge the batteries for the last 17 years and its still running fine, that's both running on tick-over or just above while stationary, or while cruising which again is only just above tick-over, it is still using the same car based alternator, and the only thing we have changed are the batteries 3 times over the 17 years, the batteries have been in all various states of charge over the same period and we only buy the cheapest lead acid batteries, hope that helps.

We have used a cheap B&Q (£50) generator from time to time for charging the batteries sufficient enough to start the engine when the batteries have gone very flat over several months without use, but as soon as its started we revert to the engines own alternator,

 

[barryd]

I agree with Happy Hippy. If your clever with your usage do you really need extra power?

I have one 110AH battery and no solar and no generator. In the summer I rairly go on EHU and wild camp or use Aires. I can do this indefinately without a genny or solar.

Heres how.

LED bulbs and keep the minimum of lights on.

No Invertors whatsoever and certainly no hair driers.

I charge the laptop in the cab 12v socket (Engine battery) whilst driving and use it on its own battery. When that runs out I plug in the maplin 12v adaptor into the CAB (engine) battery. Phones, Ipods etc etc are all charged when driving, I have em all lined up and swap them over once they are charged.

We have two tv's. I know this sounds daft but I had one already and was given the other. One is a big 240v flat screen for occasional use on hookup. The other is a 12v dvd/tv flip top laptop style player. Its quite small but uses hardly any power at all it even has its own battery which will last 2hrs but I dont bother with it. Once the sat dome is tuned in it uses no power and I switch the tuner off at bed time.

Everything else is gas powered apart from the water pump but we also use a 20 litre plastic gerry can with a tap for filling kettles and the like to A. Save water so we can stay wilding longer and B. I suppose it saves using the pump.

We dont use the blown air when not on ehu. Dont think you need it anyway the Carver gas fire we have is like a furnace.

We rarely stay in one place more than 2, 3 or max 4 nights. I find an hour or so driving and the battery is charged again. Now and again we will go on a CL or municiple but we dont really need to. I do however suspect it probably does the battery good to have a good 24 hour EHU charge.

In the winter we tend to stay in the UK and wild camp or more often than not use CL's, many of which have hookup anyway so Im not sure if we would last wilding in Winter.

So you can do it and even with just one battery. I reckon if I was fulltiming though I would fit an extra battery and perhaps a solar panel and if the powers getting down just book onto a cheap site for 24 hours. I think the genny just sounds like a pain in the A*se and not necessary if your careful.

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[Peter James]

With reference to charging using the vehicle alternator:

An alternator is designed to recharge the battery after only slight discharging such as engine starting; the alternator is not designed for charging heavily discharged (dead) batteries. It's primary purpose is to provide power for the vehicle electrics.

Relying on the alternator to charge a heavily discharged battery can overload the alternator and cause damage, nor can it ever fully recharge a battery, only a proper charger can do that.

Using the engine/alternator to recharge is also very inefficient, I certainly wouldn't employ it unless it were a real emergency.

Well I am at a loss to understand how the alternator on a portable genny is more suited to providing power (for charging batteries) than the alternator on the vehicle. Whats the difference?

I can see that leaving the engine on tickover to charge the batteries on tickover was inefficient on old vehicles. But the new diesels with electoric engine management are more efficient than the old ones on tickover as you can hear from how much more smoothly they run. And alternators have got bigger. Even the standard alternator on the current Sevel vans, the most widely used by motorhomers. is 160 amp, wheras the early transits had less than half that output, those with dynamos would even discharge the battery on tickover as the low speed output was so small. So using the engine on tickover to charge the battery on ticlover is not as innefficient as it was. And hundreds of Ice Cream men with the same engines as ours prove that running the engine for long periods on tickover is not harmful.

I can see that a portable genny may be produce more electricity for less fuel than the van engine on tickover. But is the saving enough to justify the cost of buying and carrying the separate generator? Clearly the Ice Cream Companys Fleet Engineers don't think so, even when they need so much more usage than us it means running their van engines all day and every day.

 

[scotjimland]

Well I am at a loss to understand how the alternator on a portable genny is more suited to providing power (for charging batteries) than the alternator on the vehicle. Whats the difference?

.

A vehicle alternator, irrespective of size, only puts out 13. 8 v .. this can never fully charge a leisure battery, to do that you need a proper charger, preferably a multi stage that can not only charge but keep the battery in good shape.

Adaptive 4-stage charge characteristics are : bulk – absorption – float – storage .

Google multi stage chargers if you want to know more of the theory .

When you use the genny it is charging via the on board charger.. but again it will depend on the type of charger.. not all vans have decent multi stage chargers but they will have a higher voltage output than an alternator.

As I previously said, alternators are designed to provide power for vehicle electrics, not for battery charging.

 

[kennygd]

I carry a genny mainly becuase when I started full timing I though it was the thing to do, rarely use it, have not used it for 4 months, would have been best to invest in solar panels, what I can't understand is, I have a big motorhome and I only have one 12v socket in the lounge area, no other 12v sockets apart from the two in the cab area but they will run off the engine battery.:thumb:
kennygd

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[barryd]

I carry a genny mainly becuase when I started full timing I though it was the thing to do, rarely use it, have not used it for 4 months, would have been best to invest in solar panels, what I can't understand is, I have a big motorhome and I only have one 12v socket in the lounge area, no other 12v sockets apart from the two in the cab area but they will run off the engine battery.:thumb:
kennygd

I dont understand this either. I have one 12v socket in a cupboard off the leisure battery and then just the cab cig lighter socket. We manage but a few more would be better. We have 2 240v sockets though which are hardly ever used. I guess motorhome manufacturers assume that most people will be on EHU and this worries me. if I upgrade to a newer van then it will probably be more power hungry. It must be easy to fit a few well placed 12v sockets around the van and can hardly cost anything so why dont they? Yes I know I could do them myself but I would probably electricute myself or worse break the van.

 

[oldun]

far too noisy - should be banned from campsites.

If you need electricity that badly then use a ehu and not annoy othewrs close by.

 

[Ant&Debs]

Generators Are Wonderful

I just love this subject coming we have on one side the anti generator brigade who say the way forward is solar Power/and more batterys than a bloody milk float.

Then the generator best thing since sliced hovis.

We i am prepaired to throw my hat into the ring.

I have brought a Generator and its a Bigun 6KVa weights 95 kg will power most things including milton keynes! However I also belong to USA Forum Sites and read about them solving the age old problem of noise. a nice guy over sent me a pic of his Kipor 3500 with an extra muffler fitted. As far as i am concerned I need one , I brought one and I dam well going to use it but obviously in a sensible way.

And to all those people who stand there feeling big by saying we will throw bread on the roof of a van running a generator or other stupid things.

Just remember it may be your kids that are running around screaming riding scootors kicking ball on to other peoples pitches or as i feel the lowest of the low DOG OWNERS who coming out of their caravan/motorhome walk away from theres then let there dog shit all over other pitches and then cant be bothered to pick it up .

PS I find throwing a brick on the roof of a caravan may have a better effect that a stale french bagette

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[Peter James]

A vehicle alternator, irrespective of size, only puts out 13. 8 v .. this can never fully charge a leisure battery,..................... As I previously said, alternators are designed to provide power for vehicle electrics, not for battery charging.

So the vehicle main battery could never get fully charged either?

 

[Maurice & Val]

I needed more power to run my laptop as it's my work/source of income when out and about. It's a Kipor IG770 from feebay (if you're a seller) or ebay (if you're a buyer) JMO.
Anyway turned out it was being sold by a company just 2 miles from where we were staying at the time so went and heard it working first.
Seemed fine in the car park, not too noisy, not too big, about the size of the Honda's but at a fraction of the price.
Got it home, switched it on and within 10 minutes decided it was not for us. For generating power it does the job fine, ran everything we plugged in to it. It's not that noisy, but still makes a noise nonetheless and just sits there disturbing our preferred silence.
So with no peace and quiet when it's on that's not what we go away for so it has to go.
Will be investigating solar panels and probably get one of those sometime.

 

[leon]

having a generator is one thing that i dont think you really need as for me one reason for going away is to get away from mod-cons. but it can be good as a back up is needed.

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[chatter]

I needed more power to run my laptop as it's my work/source of income when out and about. It's a Kipor IG770 from feebay (if you're a seller) or ebay (if you're a buyer) JMO.
Anyway turned out it was being sold by a company just 2 miles from where we were staying at the time so went and heard it working first.
Seemed fine in the car park, not too noisy, not too big, about the size of the Honda's but at a fraction of the price.
Got it home, switched it on and within 10 minutes decided it was not for us. For generating power it does the job fine, ran everything we plugged in to it. It's not that noisy, but still makes a noise nonetheless and just sits there disturbing our preferred silence.
So with no peace and quiet when it's on that's not what we go away for so it has to go.
Will be investigating solar panels and probably get one of those sometime.

now i would be tempted to keep it as you never know when it might be needed, last year in the land of the winter sun people got a shock, plenty of snow and really cold, site electrics going down infact villages and towns without power for a few days unless they had a generator, too much snow covered solar panels making them useless and at one stage as soon as you cleared them they were covered again if infact you could get up to them to brush them off. If it doesnt weigh too much its always there as backup if needed.

 

[Maurice & Val]

now i would be tempted to keep it as you never know when it might be needed, last year in the land of the winter sun people got a shock, plenty of snow and really cold, site electrics going down infact villages and towns without power for a few days unless they had a generator, too much snow covered solar panels making them useless and at one stage as soon as you cleared them they were covered again if infact you could get up to them to brush them off. If it doesnt weigh too much its always there as backup if needed.

We've managed until now without it. Just seemed a good idea at the time to get one - just in case as I need access to my pc for work when out and about (customers won't wait 5-6 days for delivery, especially the Americans, they want it immediately) So constant power is essential which restricts us to sites with hookups. Didn't think of the snow problem though. Perhaps a nice wind turbine on a 50 ft pole would do instead.

 

[champers]

We've managed until now without it. Just seemed a good idea at the time to get one - just in case as I need access to my pc for work when out and about (customers won't wait 5-6 days for delivery, especially the Americans, they want it immediately) So constant power is essential which restricts us to sites with hookups. Didn't think of the snow problem though. Perhaps a nice wind turbine on a 50 ft pole would do instead.

When at Stratford one of the funsters already had a turbine type item on their m/h (sorry dont recall your name), and all thru the w/e John kept saying yep thats the way gonna look into that.... free power , not sure if he really meant it but we had intended to buy a gennie that w/e but havent as of yet

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[Jaws]

Having fallen foul of inconsiderate genny users I am always acutely aware of the noise ( and smells ) they can cause

I never run a genny after 10pm or before 0830, only run it for a couple of hours absolute max ( more usually 20 minutes or so maybe to speed up water heating or some such if we are in a hurry )

I do find carrying one useful although this year I am going to bite the bullet for the several weeks round the EU trip we make and leave it at home..

Reason being I have now invested in a pair of medium sized solar panels ( giving a total of 160w which should be MORE than enough ! ) and a new pair of 110Ah batteries

On the old pair of 85Ah batteries and a small 30w solar panel we could usually last 3 or 4 days without issue, so with the new set up ( and a small, 300w inverter for electric bike chargers etc ) I believe we are now independent of mains requirements

 

[Ralph-n-Bev]

We haven't needed to use a Genny since Ralph fitted our solar panel on the roof and swapped the 2 leisure batteries for some Trojan ones , that we were very, very kindly given.
Thats why we sold the 2kw Honda and bought the 1kw one.
It might be a different matter in the depths of winter though , as the diesel heating drains the batteries, and we like to be toasty warm.
We dont use a microwave though and i only use my GHD'S when we have hook up , making do with some straighteners that you plug into a lighter socket, and everything that can be changed to LED's is .
Nothing worse than a Smokey noisy stinky Genny to spoil the peace. :Angry:
Bev