bill h
coastal reconquista
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"How Loud is Too Loud"
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I think we should also ask, "How Long is Too Long?"
A loud generator that only runs long enough to give a battery its morning charge at a good rate up to 80% SOC, or to microwave or brew coffee, is easy to tolerate. A loud generator that runs for hours and hours is much more annoying.
It seems that many owners of loud gennies don't have inverters, and run the gennie any time they want the TV on.
And, many have too small a charger or go to 100% SOC every day.
NOTE: Any incorrect spelling is intentional to prevent those annoying popups.
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jeepbluetj
California
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bill h wrote:"How Loud is Too Loud"
___________________________________________________________________________
I think we should also ask, "How Long is Too Long?"
....
Data from my same horrific generator-filled Silver Strand trip....
How 'bout from 10AM to 8PM (and a little beyond) EVERY DAY! Not one, not two, but quite a few rigs ran the genset every second it was "generator hours". The rig parked 2 feet from my back bumper was one of these. It had to have sucked down 30 gallons of gas in 3 days. Why? seriously, Why? For the $100 the gas cost you could buy a pretty dang good battery.
Also, those yellow champion gensets are really loud when they're 5' from your rig, and run all day.
If anybody _needed_ AC, they needed their head examined. It was nice and cool and breezy - it's a beach.. I've never actually turned the AC on in my rig except to test it when I bought it.
Do y'all get the idea I'm never going to Silver Strand again? It was downright awful.
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beemerphile1
I'm only 56, I'm not yet a
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"How Loud is Too Loud"
bill h wrote:
I think we should also ask, "How Long is Too Long?"
A loud generator that only runs long enough to give a battery its morning charge at a good rate up to 80% SOC, or to microwave or brew coffee, is easy to tolerate. A loud generator that runs for hours and hours is much more annoying.
It seems that many owners of loud gennies don't have inverters, and run the gennie any time they want the TV on.
And, many have too small a charger or go to 100% SOC every day.
Can I camp next to you Bill?
We went to a festival last fall where over 200 rigs were parked in a field with no hookups. The temperatures were cool and we ran our furnace each night. We ran our generator (Onan Microquiet) a couple hours each day to charge the batteries, make coffee, and run the vacuum.
BUT, not everyone did the same! Some had those noisy contractor generators running all day long! The constant drone of 100 lawn mowers drove me nuts and made me even more irritable than normal.
Why do they need to run those things constantly? It still makes me cringe to think about the noise. We may not go back just for that reason. We have a 400 watt inverter that handles all our needs except ac and microwave.
Tim
If you aren't paranoid, you aren't paying attention! 
2006 Weekend Warrior FK1900 towed by 1998 Ford E150 4.6L = 8 MPG
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bill h
coastal reconquista
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beemerphile1 wrote:
Can I camp next to you Bill?
We are usually solar, so it's often pretty quiet. We fire up the little red guy for the microwave to thaw food, now and then, so it's pretty quiet.
Last winter, we had a fuel cell on loan for Beta testing. It made about as much noise as a water heater. Sitting outside at the fire, we often had it right next to us to drown out the loud gens. At least until they got tired of television and shut it off.
Kinda like a white noise generator for sleeping in noisy places.
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Sprdtyf350
USA
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I don't understand why people run them to watch TV. We recently went to Watkins Glen for the Indy race. Everytime the guy next to us wanted to watch TV he had to start the generator. I watched the Nascar race while there. The race took almost 6 hours. We were using a 300 watt inverter and it barely touched the battery. His generator wasn't that loud but the constant drone does get kind of old.
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1983 Honda Goldwing Aspencade, 2 1975 Yamaha RD350's 1986 Honda XL600, and 3 Yamaha Enduros
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bill h
coastal reconquista
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Sprdtyf350 wrote:I don't understand why people run them to watch TV.
1. Perhaps they don't know about inverters.
2. Perhaps they would rather spend the money on gas than an inverter.
3. Perhaps their television doesn't work well with the inverter they tried. That happened to me once.
4. Perhaps it doesn't matter, because the TV is loud enough to drown it out.
5. Perhaps they need to run it a lot, anyway, because they are using an inadequate charger. Or they feel the need to get to 100% SOC daily.
6. Or, perhaps their clock is 120 volt AC and they really need to know what time it is.
Quote:His generator wasn't that loud but the constant drone does get kind of old.
Any gen can get old if run forever. Heck, my own Little Red Guy gets on my nerves when I run it long enough to do a complete recharge to 100% SOC.
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TyroneandGladys
Chandler AZ
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Oldtymeflyr wrote:Why do people go camping, is it for the thrill of hearing a noisy generator?
Go solar.
Might be going to the lake in Arizona and wanting to run the AC highs 105+ and lows at night high 80s low 90s
Tyrone & Gladys
26" 1986 Coachmen
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sapoc
Burlington, Ontario, Canada
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I saw this working at a show last year and was thoroughly impressed! EFOY Fuel Cell Virtually silent and can run for weeks on one container of methanol. The only by-product is CO2 and water.
More expensive than a genny and solar. Produces more power than solar... rain, shine, shade, etc...
Regards
Phil
Work interferes with our camping!
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pnichols
Santa Cruz Mountains
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Phil,
You have it right noticing fuel cells for use in the RV world. I've been watching this technology for awhile. IMHO, a fuel cell that automatically turns ON or OFF anytime day or night, rain or shine, to maintain one's coach battery bank is the "ultimate", trumping solar easily. I believe folks in the marine world have been using them for quite some time now. It's also my guess that fuel cells are probably making inroads into the progressive Australian RV world way ahead of the U.S..
The producers need to get their price point down under $2K, though. If I move from generator charging of our AGM batteries at all (because they charge so fast), I'll probably jump directly to a fuel cell.
Phil, 2005 E450 Itasca 324V Spirit
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pianotuna
Regina, SK, Canada
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Hi pnicols,
It is not the cost of the fuel cell initially. It is lifespan and fuel costs. Right now the technology asks for very pure fuel. That's well fine and dandy, but it makes them costly to operate. They are not "silent" either apparently, so why not just use a small automatic and/or remote start generator? That should meet almost everyone's needs.
If they would build an RV with electric drive motors and a fuel cell to power them, I'd be interested.
Regards, Don
Kustom Koach Class C 28'5" 256 watts solar, 875 amp hours in two battery banks 12 volt batteries 2500 watt inverter.
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