I've know a couple RV people that have owned some of the cheaper 2kW generators. Some have not been particularly reliable and all have been noisier than the Honda or Yamaha i-series. Everyone of the RV owners that I know have replaced their "off-brand" generators with one of the i-series for either noise or reliability.
The cool thing that the inverter generators do is adjust the throttle of the engine to match the load. Most non-inverter generators run at one setting, wide open, regardless of how much electricity is being used. This makes a big difference when you're running lights or other random loads for backyard or on-shore parties.
For my boat, I want to get as much power as possible into my batteries to minimize the time on the generator. So if your charger input is sized to the continuous generator output, the inverter feature will not have much effect, the generator will be running flat out just to cover the load. If your charger is less than capacity for the generator (like a 15A 48V charger, about 1000W input) then the inverter generator will be noticably quieter because it will throttle down to match the load. Even more so for a 10A 48V charger.
So it all depends on your specific set-up. But for me, the reliability of the product makes the brand name inverter generator a best buy.
Fair winds,
Eric
Marina del Rey, CA
--- In electricboats@yahoogroups.com, "David Hughes" <davidhughes_casaba@...> wrote:
>
> A lot of people here seem to use the Honda Inverter Duty Generators (or their look alike) as their on board back-up for charging and or the "hybrid" operation of their drive. My question is in regard to, is the inverter duty really needed to operate the chargers that we use?
>
> I understand that there may be some benefit with regard to noise. However, just looking at Northern Tools, they offer a lot of portable non inverter duty generators for a lot less money then the Hondas but are rated around 60dB.
>
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