Thread: How big would my generator need to be?

2500w at 240v nominal is about 10.4a

in reality any genny with a peak output over 2400w (10A) and a sustained output of over 1800w will do the job. Ive got 3 washing machines.

my twin tub If Im careful I can run on a 600w inverter
my single tub runs on a scorpina 800w genny
the front loader if it tries to run its internal heater or run in dryer mode makes my old school 2500w genny sing for its supper.

I strongly suggest that you would be advised to set your runs to endd at powered van parks, While I carry a genny I usually only ever use it to power up repair gear and I still get asked about how long Im going to have it running for when I have it run ip and usually I've only got it going fot 15-20 minutes at a time.

Thanks for that.
Our caravan is on a rural block of land and does not move. We would rather not run the genny for long, just an hour every couple of evenings to charge the batteries and do some laundry. The air con will have to remain a pipe dream.

that being the case I reccomend something along the lines of the honda I1500, providing you dont have a washing machine with a heater. (and assuming you dont mind having a petrol genny) You may find that the honda I1000 will be enough if you have a simple toploader (I've seen an I 1500 running a small windowtop AC along with about 4 full size fluros and 2 laptops.)

for your aircon you can easily run a small evaporation AC off of a single 80W solar panel if you change the fan motor to a DC item or hook it up to a small inverter. (done just right you can do this with a stand pipe and putting wet hession over the doors and windows)


IF you run led lighting about 50W worth of panel that gets 4-5 hours a day should stay in front of modest LED lighing for normal usge along with intermittant (about 1hr a day) charging of small electronics (one or 2 mobile phones)

If you can go the extra step and get the next size to the one you think you need.

I used to have a rooftop air con on our previous van, a dometic I think it was or similar. Now I have no idea how much juice that air con pulled while running, but I decided to test it one day as I wanted to give my genny a run andto my surprise, my 800w GMC ran it no problem for a couple of hours, satisfied I then I turned it off.
Test was done at home by the way, I wouldnt burden fellow campers with that noise

My 1000W genny flicked the overload switch as soon as I tried to turn the air con on.

With some appliances.. fridges/washing machines etc, the initial start up current draw of the motor can be several times the average running requirements. This can have a detrimental effect on small capacity gen sets and inverters, though the latter often have a 'surge' capacity to take account of this.

Originally Posted by Blknight.aus

that being the case I reccomend something along the lines of the honda I1500, providing you dont have a washing machine with a heater. (and assuming you dont mind having a petrol genny) You may find that the honda I1000 will be enough if you have a simple toploader (I've seen an I 1500 running a small windowtop AC along with about 4 full size fluros and 2 laptops.)

for your aircon you can easily run a small evaporation AC off of a single 80W solar panel if you change the fan motor to a DC item or hook it up to a small inverter. (done just right you can do this with a stand pipe and putting wet hession over the doors and windows)


IF you run led lighting about 50W worth of panel that gets 4-5 hours a day should stay in front of modest LED lighing for normal usge along with intermittant (about 1hr a day) charging of small electronics (one or 2 mobile phones)

Dave what do you think of diesel powered gennies? Trade Tools some times have them on special and they re yellow coloured. I know that the one I had on Fraser in a home I rented run a big Lister and it supplied the whole complex on an oily rag.I know nothing of the smaller ones.
Regards,
John.