Camping generator.... enough with 950W?

[carlosbeldia]

Hi there. I have just have had a baby, so right now I'm needing an electric generator for going camping. I can get a very little one for about AUD 135, but it only generates 950W. Today I tried it and really can mantain a 900W driller with no problem, but getting a little noisy. Have anyone of you a similar generator? I'm thinking on connect a 25w bulb, a 100w fan, a 400w laptop and maybe any battery charger for cell or camera, not going over 700w, I hope.

[5teve]

i hope that was a typo with the 400w laptop!

It should be fine for what you have stated.. the thing to watch out for on the cheaper gensets is that they dont produce true AC be worth seeing if the things to intend running are bothered by the type of output it gives.

do a search on pure sine wave generators and that may give you some hints...

Steve

[Blknight.aus]

if its a 2 stroke unit they are only really good for powering "dumb" electrical loads like brushed motors in drills, transformer powered electronics (read old school) small electric motors (fans) and small heating elements or lights. they suffer from some very nasty voltage variations under load.

IMHO your better of buying dedicated 12v items and using them from a decent 12v supply and using the genset to top off your batteries off of an old school transformer type battery charger if needed.

[big guy]

What ever you do, get a sine wave gennie.

I blew my old Toshiba up by hooking it into a Yamaha gennie which my mate swears by. As said above, only hook up dumb electrical appliances.

I do believe you can get a in line filter for charging your laptop though or just run off your car to charge it.
Personally, I would save up a bit more, get a 2kw unit to run proper tools, many tools have a high start up current and the small ones will definately struggle.

[mark2]

I have a 1000w GMC four stroke. For the money ($99) it works well. I wouldnt be game to run my laptop off it (I use a car charger instead) but its fine for fluro lights, flood lights, battery charging, small power tools, bar fridge etc. It will run my angle grinder but I have to give the governer rod a blip at the same time I hit the grinder switch or it will stall on startup. It will even run a small circular saw when the motor has warmed up.

[richard4u2]

with laptops/notebooks how come you dont run them on their battery and charge the battery when you are finished

[Blknight.aus]

usually because the power supply on most laptops is now a switched mode power supply and they dont like freaky wave forms and voltage dips being shoved at the front end of them.