Generator

[palmprincipe]

I figured this would be a great group to ask for input. After 5 days without electricity due to Sandy, I have decided to buy a back up generator for my home. I don't want to go to Home Depot to buy a large, noisy, gas guzzling generator. I don't need much power as I only want to run my fridge, cable modem and router, and a couplle of laptops. We have natural gas so cooking and hot water are not an issue. We also have a fireplace in the family room so heat is not an issue either. Looks like 2000w should do it. After a little research, the Honda EU series caught my eye because they are efficent (1.1 gal for 4 hours at full load) and relatively quiet (59db or less). The 2000 even has the option to connect 2 togther to increase power if needed. The big problem after the storm here in NJ was finding gas for your generator and I have no desire to store 55 gal in my garage! The other issue is noise. I am in a community of 80 by 110 foot lots so we are close. One neighbor ran his all day and night and it drove us crazy. The Honda's are not cheap (about $1000) but I think the efficency and low noise is worth it. One added plus is that it is small enough to take car camping if we ever wanted to do so. So, any other suggestions? As always, thanks in advance.

[PS600REVX]

Go with the 2000 Honda. Yamaha is about the only other one even comparable and def great for camping. There is a place in TX that will deliver It to your door for $949 no tax or shipping. The name escapes me but I can find our if you are at all interested. That's where I got mine.

[Gail & Steve Collins]

The Honda eu2000i has long been the gold standard for camping generators for all the reasons that you have cited and more. The only downside to them is the fact that one alone really won't power the air conditioner in a RV. It will however handle most anything else one might find in a typical travel trailer. And, running the microwave oven and mama's hair dryer at the same time may over load it as well.

I brought our eu20001 out of storage and set it up for use during Sandy. Luckily, we dodged the bullet up here this time around, but our area took it on the chin last year for Irene. If we had needed it, it would have allowed us to be pretty comfortable for quite a while as I have 11 gallons of gasoline here.

The quiet factor alone is huge. We run ours in eco mode which means it just idles along unless you turn on something that uses a bit of wattage and then it revs up to meet the demand and then back to idle when done. We've had neighbors at FCP more than one site away with inexpensive, noisy generators that are so loud that they blot out the sound from the Honda when standing right next to it!

One other point about the Honda's: They utilize clean inverter technology which means that you can safely run sensitive electronic gear directly off the output. We've run desktop computers, satellite TV receivers, and a lot more on our little red friend.

[BEN]

You gotta love those inverter type camping generators. I happen to have a Yamaha 2400 inverter that works great. It runs the A/C in my travel trailer but not much else. For a place like Fish Creek where you only have a few hours to run a generator anyway. A smaller one would be perfect for topping off the batteries and stuff like that. I drives me crazy to see, more like hear, people with the garden tractor style 8500 watt, generators at a campground. Thats just rude. If it was made mandatory to have a low db emitting generator, then maybe we could run them longer. Just a thought.