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Quiet reasonably priced portable generator for TV and lighting?
I am thinking about getting a generator for my horse trailer. I would just use it to power the TV and a small cheap DVD/blu ray player occasionally (good for rainy days camping) maybe two or three single bulb lights for convenience and a heating pad or small fan during the appropriate seasons.
The TV would be a 120v, 1.1A, 60 Hz, LCD color TV that I already own and one of the cheap players from Walmart.
I don’t know anything about generators, the thought of getting one has been bouncing around in my head for a while now. I take my horse camping a lot by myself and it can get creepy at night when the weather picks up. Having some dependable lighting or background noise would be nice. I would want it as quiet as possible so to not disturb any neighbors and to keep the noise level down for my horse. He's still green when it comes to being solo, but other campsite generators don't bother him too much.
*If it is cheaper then I can just get good battery powered lights and just use the heating pad/fan with the TV and DVD/blu ray player? No idea if that makes a difference.
I'm not looking to use it all the time. It would just be nice to have when the rain traps me in my small living quarters or when it gets creepy at night.
Would a hot plate rack up the wattages? If it means that the generator would need to be bumped up a size, then I would just scrap the idea. It would just be cool to be able to have in an emergency, to avoid cooking outside if its bad weather.
** I would like to keep the purchase of the generator under $700 if possible. I don't know how realistic that is? Name brand doesn’t matter to me!
2 Answers
- Mmm JLv 71 year ago
Personally, I would not use a generator that runs on fuel. The noise and carbon monoxide issues are not something I want to deal with.
In my opinion, a 100 amp hour to 200 amp hour battery storage should be enough for everything except your heating pad and hot plate. Heaters use a LOT of electricity, quickly. Hopefully these items are optional.
There are two ways to charge the batteries:
1) Connect the batteries to the towing vehicle's electrical system. The "camping batteries" (for lack of a better term) get recharged when the vehicle is running - while you are driving to your destination. If the batteries drain because you stay in one place, then you need to start the vehicle and have it run for a while. This has the same downsides as the fuel-using "standalone" generator.
2) An alternative to have a fuel-using generator to recharge the batteries is to use solar panels. though, obviously, the solar panels can only recharge when they are in sunlight.
I've made a couple of solar generators in the last few year. The most current one has a 100 amp hour Lithium Iron Phosphate battery (this is $900 all by itself)
2000 watt pure sine wave power inverter, multimeter, fuse/breaker, and a few other things - all installed in a rolling tool case + anywhere from 1-4 solar panels (ranging from 100 watts to 160 watts each.
The panels can be put on the roof of the vehicle (horse trailer?) to collect sunlight for the battery(ies).
Look up "solar generator" on YouTube. There are many tutorials on making your own. There's a company "bepreparedsolar.com"... they are way too expensive for your budget, but there is value to having someone else put the storage box insides together...
