Portable Generators

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Pgh_AL

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To all that know for a fact and not guessing. Is it ok for me to use a 1850 watt portable gen JUST to charge my house battery(s) ?

My Onan is inop at this time and until i find out if it doomed or not i need a way to keep my house battery alive temporarily .

I wouldn't try to run anything with it because it doesn't seem to be stable voltage and it's only rated at 1850 watts .What you guys think thanks
 
There is no technical reason why you couldn't use an 1850W generator to run a converter in an RV that is likely less than 1000W as much as you'd like. What the issue is with "stable voltage" is another question separate from the suitability of capacity.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM
 
There is no technical reason why you couldn't use an 1850W generator to run a converter in an RV that is likely less than 1000W as much as you'd like. What the issue is with "stable voltage" is another question separate from the suitability of capacity.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM
Well the idea of "stable voltage" can be attributed to my being concerned about possible damage to the converter . Which is the last thing i need .
 
Absolutely no reason you can’t use an 1800 generator for battery charging. Just plug your RV into it so your on board converter does the charging. I sure you turn off breakers to water heater and let the fridge run on propane.
 
It's implied you question the stability of the generator output. There's nothing about the load of an RV converter that would render an otherwise "good" generator unstable. So is your generator "bad"? Modern converters are switched mode and typically have a +/- input voltage tolerance of 10% or maybe more. So it would take a pretty "unstable" generator to operate outside the bounds of a typical converter. Most generators will hold to a few percent within ratings.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM
 
Absolutely no reason you can’t use an 1800 generator for battery charging. Just plug your RV into it so your on board converter does the charging. I sure you turn off breakers to water heater and let the fridge run on propane.
Yes that is my intention to use the plug and shut everything else down while battery charging . The fridge and WH are not operational at this time so they wont be a factor. Thanks
 
To all that know for a fact and not guessing. Is it ok for me to use a 1850 watt portable gen JUST to charge my house battery(s) ?
It will work fine.

I would have done that when my Onan crapped out last December while in Organ Pipe Cactus Nat'l Monument in southern AZ. But no place nearby to buy one, so I got by charging my house battery with my RV engine and used my 4KW inverter for the MW oven and coffee.

Can't you use your RV engine to charge the house battery for now?

-Don- Cold Springs Station RV Park, NV
 
It will work fine.

I would have done that when my Onan crapped out last December while in Organ Pipe Cactus Nat'l Monument in southern AZ. But no place nearby to buy one, so I got by charging my house battery with my RV engine and used my 4KW inverter for the MW oven and coffee.

Can't you use your RV engine to charge the house battery for now?

-Don- Cold Springs Station RV Park, NV
Yes that's what I've been doing but while Boondocking id have to run the engine a long period of time . And it doesn't charge at a rate that gives it a full charge .

Before my Onan crapped out i could run it about 15-20 minutes and id be good for a day and a half or so . Not so with the chassis alternator.

Winter is coming and i will need to use the furnace soon . Right now my biggest consumption are the water pump and the TV . The TV I can run on the chassis battery for awhile . I switch it back and forth. Thanks
 
Yes that's what I've been doing but while Boondocking id have to run the engine a long period of time . And it doesn't charge at a rate that gives it a full charge .
Engine will give a full charge to your house battery unless your battery is lith. But it could take longer, depending on how large of a converter you have when running on AC.

-Don- Cold Springs Station, NV
 
If he's charging with the engine how is the converter part of the equation?

The converter is for shore power or genny.

Doesn't charging from the engine involve direst DC from the alternator to the house batteries?
 
Engine will give a full charge to your house battery unless your battery is lith. But it could take longer, depending on how large of a converter you have when running on AC.

-Don- Cold Springs Station, NV
I don't know about the size of the converter. The engine will give it a charge but I don't think its a full charge. When I'm on shore power my HB seems to get a full charge .

When I disconnect from SP the battery levels out to about to about 13.5 and when the chassis charges it gets to about. 11.5-9 sometimes it might get to 12
 
You're probably losing that other .6 of a volt in the connections and wires between your alternator and the house batteries. At 50A it only takes 0.012 ohms to make that loss. I wouldn't worry about it though.
 
You're probably losing that other .6 of a volt in the connections and wires between your alternator and the house batteries. At 50A it only takes 0.012 ohms to make that loss. I wouldn't worry about it though.

 

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