{"id":8091,"date":"2021-06-09T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-08T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.4wdsupacentre.com.au\/news\/?p=8091"},"modified":"2021-06-07T09:19:23","modified_gmt":"2021-06-06T23:19:23","slug":"what-you-need-to-know-before-choosing-a-caravan-generator-pt-2-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/what-you-need-to-know-before-choosing-a-caravan-generator-pt-2-2\/","title":{"rendered":"What You Need To Know Before Choosing A Caravan Generator Pt 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Welcome back to Adventure Kings\u2019 Guide to choosing a portable 240v generator<\/strong><\/a> for your caravan! Let\u2019s take an in-depth look at the true cost of a 2kva generator<\/strong><\/a> or a 3kva generator<\/strong><\/a>, what it\u2019ll cost you to run per hour and how to get the most use possible out of yours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RUNNING COSTS PER HOUR<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To work out running costs per hour of our 2000w inverter generator<\/strong><\/a> we brimmed the fuel tank up to the very top and set up a test to simulate roughly 30A of load on the generator. That represents a typical vanner\u2019s setup that would require powering for a couple of hours of an afternoon, running things like the three-way fridge (flat out to get it as cold as possible while the generator is on), lights and fans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course that 30A, while it sounds like a lot, barely puts a dint in what the 2000w generator can supply. In fact, with the economy mode set to on, the generator was barely above idle for our test. Using a precise fuel measuring jug we re-filled the 2kva generator<\/strong><\/a> to the brim after an hour, and found that it used near enough to bang-on 500ml of unleaded. Fuel prices obviously fluctuate, but let\u2019s call unleaded $1.50 a litre as a nice even figure. That gives us a running cost of about 75c an hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

GENERATOR SERVICE COSTS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To look at total cost of ownership we need to look at the cost of servicing the generator. A typical maintenance schedule for a 2000w inverter generator<\/strong><\/a> is as follows;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clean air filter element every three months or 50 hours<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Check and adjust spark plug, change engine oil and clean fuel tank and filter every six months or 100 hours<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Replace spark plug & valve clearance check every year or 200 hours<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clean combustion chamber every 300 hours<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s pretty low-key maintenance. It boils down to cleaning your portable generator<\/strong><\/a> air filter every three months, and having a service done every six months. Service costs of course vary depending on the labour rates a workshop charges, but around $80-$100 is a fair guide. You\u2019d definitely have change out of $200 for your yearly camping generator <\/strong><\/a>servicing costs, put it that way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ADDING DEEP-CYCLE BATTERIES TO YOUR POWER SYSTEM<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course if you haven\u2019t got one or two deep cycle batteries in your electrical system then you can only run your electrical accessories when you\u2019re running your portable camping generator<\/strong><\/a>, but the problem is then that you\u2019re just waiting power because you\u2019ll be running the 2000w generator<\/strong><\/a> at a mostly fixed speed, but only using a tiny fraction of the power it produces!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The much better way is to add a couple of AGM deep cycle batteries to your system to power your electrical accessories while your portable camping generator <\/strong><\/a>is switched off, and recharge them with a 240v battery charger while you\u2019re running your inverter generator for camping<\/strong><\/a> of an afternoon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BATTERY CHARGERS<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To replenish your batteries, you\u2019ve got a couple of options. The one that works hand-in-hand with a generator is a 240v battery charger. These are available in a number of different sizes, but generally speaking \u2013 as with all electrical camping gear, especially camping generators<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 the bigger, the better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s go back to our power requirement figure we talked about in part one of this series for a moment. We\u2019re looking to replenish lets say 70A of battery capacity in a 24hour period. Using a charger with a 5A charge rate connected to your portable camping generator <\/strong><\/a>means we\u2019d need to run  the 2kva generator<\/strong><\/a> for 14 hours to charge the battery back up \u2013 that\u2019s 6am in the morning til 8pm in the evening \u2013 and that\u2019s just not realistic! However a much better idea is to grab a 25A charger and connect it to the same 2000w inverter generator<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 it\u2019ll recharge those same 70A back into the battery in a little under three hours \u2013 that\u2019s a lot better sounding!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To test this, we over the course of two concurrent nights drained our 200A battery bank by approximately 50A, with it reading 12.28V once everything was switched off and the battery left to stablise. The first morning, we connected a 5a battery charger to our 2kva inverter generator<\/strong><\/a> and let it run for two hours before switching it off. We measured fuel usage at approximately 960ml across those two hours, and when everything was switched off again the battery voltage read 12.38V. Okay, not bad but not the full 12.8-13.0V we\u2019d be looking for to indicate a full battery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next day a 25A charger was connected for that same two hour period. Our batteries read 12.26V, showing we\u2019d drained them to a nearly identical level. On completion of the two hour test, we\u2019d used 1020ml of fuel but the voltage was sitting at a completely full 13.1V after stabilsation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHAT THIS SHOWS: While we used a tiny bit more fuel across that two hour period considering the generator was a little more loaded up, we\u2019d topped up our batteries to completely full again with the 25A charger. The 5A charger however only added 10A of capacity back into the batteries \u2013 about half-full. There\u2019s definitely a lot of merit in investing in a bigger 240V charger so you can run your portable camping generator<\/strong><\/a> for less time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 240v battery charger is an essential upgrade for any caravanner taking a portable 240v generator<\/strong><\/a> with them to go free-camping \u2013 and the bigger the battery charger, the better value you get \u2013 because you don\u2019t have to run your generator for as long to achieve the same battery recharging results!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Welcome back to Adventure Kings\u2019 Guide to choosing a portable 240v generator for your caravan! Let\u2019s take an in-depth look at the true cost of a 2kva generator or a 3kva generator, what it\u2019ll cost you to run per hour and how to get the most use possible out of yours. RUNNING COSTS PER HOUR…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":123456,"featured_media":8092,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8091"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/123456"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8091"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8094,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8091\/revisions\/8094"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.emgcloud.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}