Reddit reviews Honda EU2000I 2000 Watt Portable Generator with Inverter

Don't try to bring one of these. The airport doesn't like it when passengers use them.

Well, not sure about what the setup is, but the red and black thing is a Honda generator.

Yeah, no. It wouldn't even work in an ICE car with that inverter. But we have one of those grills on the deck of our condo. It's actually a great grill! If you want to do it right, get one of these with it. Honda EU2000I 2000 Watt Inverter Generator https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005ND19AE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_TlLbzbT7M0P02

That generator is loud. Which means your gonna be kind of an asshole if you use it in a campground or festival sort of setting.

Better is an inverter generator. The Yamaha and Honda models are the gold standards. They are very quiet (58 db vs 74 db for the one you listed). They are also very light. I can easily pick my Yahama up and carry it..wherever.

However to run A/C you're likely going to need to buy two and chain them together which is pricey.

A good middle ground is this Champion inverter generator. It runs at 2800 watts which is probably enough for your A/C. It's much heavier, but has wheels so it's not too hard to get around.

I own both the Champion and the Yamaha. Since our trailer has a smaller A/C unit we generally carry just the single Yamaha with us, but that just barely can get us cold. Still for the occasional night away from shore power it's great.

When we're going boon-docking we carry the Champion which easily runs our trailer. I had the Champion first and it's been reliable, except that the pull coord became unthreaded. I didn't realize how easy that was to fix so I bought the Yamaha in a fit of desperation. To do it again I would have bought two Yamaha's up front. Way more $$, but still better in the end.

That unit recommends 15A at 230V. You're looking at big ass air conditioner, beyond your normal window units.

But let's fudge some math and see!

This site says that 12k btu air conditioners consume between 991 and 1333 watts. Assuming HSPF and SEER are the same thing, you have a SEER of 12.5 on the split unit, putting power consumption near the bottom. We'll just assume that your air conditioner consumes 1000W on average.

We'll fudge your fridge at consuming 100W on average and your electronics, lights, and everything else consuming 30W on average (more if you have a hefty gaming laptop and use it heavily)

This site says the overall average is 4 hours a day of full sun for solar production. That seems like a bit of a low number but since we don't know where you are on a map or how your panels are oriented, we'll go with it.

With 1980W of panels, you get 7920Whr of juice a day on average if you make sure you get yourself some good sun exposure.

Your fridge and lights alone consume 3120Whr of juice a day on average.
If the air conditioner runs for, say, 5 hours a day, your air conditioner will consume 5000Whr of juice a day.

This puts your expected total usage at 8120Whr a day, leaving you at a 200W defecit in our little numbers calculation. And once you start talking about heating, those numbers will get much worse the colder it gets as you'll be expected to be in suboptimal solar conditions.

Assuming you take it extremely easy on the heating and cooling, or drop down to a lower power air conditioner, such a setup would work, but you'd be regularly cutting it close on particularly warm or hot days.

the good news, however, is that a 2000W generator with a few gallons of gas can easily charge your system back up to a good state on the occasional extra hot or extra cold days.

Overall, I'd say such a system could run well 95% of the time if you added an extra solar panel or two, but you'd be depending on shore power or a generator quite a bit otherwise.

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        Now lets look at battery capacity. I'm going to just fudge things and say you want enough battery power to run for a full day. 8120Wh of usage will require 676Ah at 12V to run your system for a day. So with your 600Ah LiPo battery system, I'd think you're at a minimum level of acceptable battery power. Personally I'd prefer to see 2-3 days worth of juice just in case of cloudy days.
        

monster is pretty decent, doesnt break like most i've tried. you can always get one of these https://www.amazon.com/Honda-EU2000I-Super-Inverter-Generator/dp/B005ND19AE

Thanks! I've always wanted to go off grid, probably the first time I remember looking at land for it I was around 14 or so. I like raising animals, growing things and working with my hands. Moving to Alaska was my husband's idea, but I love it out here.

We have a 400 watt solar system that we use pretty exclusivly in summer. In winter we run a super efficient and quiet generator.

I would imagine 40 lbs of generator and gas could probably get you a lot farther. Either way, I'm sure the engineers balanced the options and made the choice that worked.

It looks like the generator is this one: it's 45 lbs and says it'll run 3.2 to 8 hours on 1 gallon of gas depending on the load, up to 2000 watts! Gas is crazy energy dense! I can't wait for batteries to get better.

Honda EU2000I 2000 Watt Super Quiet Inverter Generator https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005ND19AE/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_ygMlxbB0CTB8A

>Drivers who worry about getting stuck with a drained battery can buy a tool that provides a quick boost with enough power for several miles.

Wouldn't really call this quick

It's easier not to have to do the AC/DC power conversion.

They make these for fire and rescue personnel. And these for landscapers and construction guys.

If you don't want to go that route (you have to have adapter cords to work with your cordless tools) then I can personally vouch for having/using a small generator exactly like this one which is about the size of a large toolbox, weighs about as much as a five gallon bucket of water, and very portable.

There's no electricity on the land. Battery-powered tools were used for the whole build, and the miter saw was plugged into this generator