Running generator at night.

Dan50

Active Member
I have purchased a 2015 Big Country 3150 RL that has generator prep. I was thinking of getting the Onan 5500 LP genny. Does anyone run them at night when sleeping? When going down south usually in the colder months we lay over in truck stop or what have you and would like to run the Onan for the wife's CPAP and the furnace etc. Is it doable and does anyone do this?
 

'Lil Guy'

Well-known member
I can only tell you that at the rest stops and truck stops it shouldn't be a problem. All the big rigs leave their engines running.
 

Oregon_Camper

Well-known member
I'd suggest 4x6v batteries. 2 for trailer (furnace) and 2 connected to an inverter. Wire the plugs in the bedroom to run off inverter AC power or standard AC power if you're plugged in.

This would allow your wife's CPAP to work, when you're in a location where generator is not allowed after quiet hours (normally 10pm)
 

Jim.Allison

Well-known member
First buy yourself 2 industrial 12v deep cycle batteries before you do anything. Then install a solar array. if you do in 2015 you will get a 30% tax credit for doing it (people like to say its not true but it is). This will take care of 90% of your boondocking battery needs.

I run a 3000 watt inverter off 2 Trojan T 1275, 12v deep cycle renewable energy batteries. I ahve flooded lead acid, but I would buy AGM's they are easier to contend with.

On the subject of running appliances, it is always best to run DC appliances on DC. It is a waste of energy to make AC power just to transform it into DC again for a DC appliance. Most likely your CPAP and CPAP heater is DC powered and all you need is a DC chord. Most CPAP manufacturers provide a DC power cord for about 29 bucks, mine stays in my rig.

I wired in a DC female cigar lighter adaptor that was mounted in a switchplate cover. I found it at the RV store in my area. I bought 2 of them. I was able to mount the adaptor in the wood panel on my side of the bed, the wires tied into the DC wires under the bed, the wires fed my DC lights above the bed in the slide out. Since this was already tied into the DC fuse box, no additional wiring was required. Works like a charm.

When a battery has a small load on it is more efficient. Its like a gas tank, if you do 55 mph you will get maximum mileage out of the tank, but if you do 100 you get a lot less. Batteries are the same way, so the Amp hours at the 20 hour rate is a good place to compare you batteries to other batteries, it does not tell you how that battery will act when you are only pulling 4 AH. My 2 12v Trojans will run your CPAP for 8 days without recharge, easily.

Here is how it goes on my rig on a normal boondocking day. 4 hours TV, 500 watt home theater, and blu ray DVD, 15 minutes microwave oven, DC lights as required. Go to bed, 8 hours CPAP and CPAP heater. Batts at 90% capacity, completely charged by noon having gone through the entire charge cycle. no generator required.

IF my batteries would have dropped below 50% charge during the night my "auto gen start" would start and run the generator until the batteries were again at 90%. My generator has never auto started. Although the microwave migh t cause a start depending on teh state of charge the batteries are in.

If you are a good DIY, the generator is pretty much "plug and play." but be advised that the generator is very wasteful when it comes to powering a rig. But it does come in handy for running air conditioners.

a generator motor is only 80% efficient if that, it is inturn only 80$ efficient in making electricity, your charger is only 20% efficient at charging batteries. You can see where I'm going with this.

It actually takes a generator 6 to 8 hours to charge a RV battery bank. 8 hours of operation will burn one entire cylinder of LP.

I encourage you to look into solar you will be glad you did. Your campground neighbors will thank you for not running that generator.

See my signature for part numbers of the items I used. Mine was worth every penny, and it was worth even more when Uncle Sam gave back 30% of what I spent on it.

BTW search SOLAR on this forum and you will get all kind of assistance on the subject.

Even a small solar array will keep that CPAP going much better than a generator will, and you never have to worry about CO getting into your rig. Nothing says nighty nite like CO in your system.





I have purchased a 2015 Big Country 3150 RL that has generator prep. I was thinking of getting the Onan 5500 LP genny. Does anyone run them at night when sleeping? When going down south usually in the colder months we lay over in truck stop or what have you and would like to run the Onan for the wife's CPAP and the furnace etc. Is it doable and does anyone do this?
 

Dan50

Active Member
I asked the question because I am concerned about the safety aspect concerning the exhaust fumes. I don't want to spend time and money on more batteries( I have 2 6 volt) or solar arrays. I am just wondering who uses their genny at night and are there exhaust fume concerns.
 

avvidclif

Well-known member
I don't know about the exhaust routing on yours but mine ran overnite last weekend and I'm still on the top side of the grass. My exhaust runs out the drivers side of the RV under the kitchen slide.
 

Jim.Allison

Well-known member
576 watts nominal. My solar charger is able to run my batts through the complete charging logrythem on a daily basis, and equalize when needed. I'm very happy with it.

Thanks for asking


Jim,


How big of a solar array did you install?

Your usage summary is really good.
 

Silverado23

Iowa Chapter Leaders
576 watts nominal. My solar charger is able to run my batts through the complete charging logrythem on a daily basis, and equalize when needed. I'm very happy with it.

Thanks for asking

It sounds like you have a good system that works well for you.


Have you posted any other information about your system on this site?
I am interested in installing my own solar. Before making the plunge I am trying to read as much as I can about any system anyone is willing to share.
 

Jim.Allison

Well-known member
To the OP, sorry I hijacked your thread. I thought you were looking to run a CPAP. In a Gen Prepped Rig.

I used to struggle with the generator notion also, Until I realized that it is just a great way to go to sleep and never wake up.

I think I would look at the Gen-Turi or avoid the problem altogether. You could check into a RV park for little more than what it cost to run the generator, and sleep with 50 thundering big rigs.

Just to add perspective, go look at your water heater exhaust flue, and your heater exhaust flue, in your stick built, then compare that to the notion that you will be poisoned by your ONAN 5500 LP. I think you will find that the ONAN is safe enough.

But I would hate to die after having been warned in an owners manual.
 

DocFather

Well-known member
To the OP, sorry I hijacked your thread. I thought you were looking to run a CPAP. In a Gen Prepped Rig.

I used to struggle with the generator notion also, Until I realized that it is just a great way to go to sleep and never wake up.

I think I would look at the Gen-Turi or avoid the problem altogether. You could check into a RV park for little more than what it cost to run the generator, and sleep with 50 thundering big rigs.

Just to add perspective, go look at your water heater exhaust flue, and your heater exhaust flue, in your stick built, then compare that to the notion that you will be poisoned by your ONAN 5500 LP. I think you will find that the ONAN is safe enough.

But I would hate to die after having been warned in an owners manual.

That was my concern, too! :angel:
 

Jim.Allison

Well-known member
I had no experience with solar when I installed it, I learned from scratch using links from this forum and surfing the net. All major components had both installation manuals and user manuals online. It took me 30 days to figure out what I needed to do.

There are a couple of links on the net that will put you into surfing mode. One guy rants and raves about how most systems are installed incorrectly. He is very informative, and I discovered what he says is true. There is another guy who is very adept at getting you through the design process.

Overall it was a real fun project and my system is a real hot-rod, I like it very much. It is so nice to be able to sit in peace and quiet in some primitive National Forest Service campground and not spend a dime on battery charging and still have all the necessities and luxuries of home, except air conditioning. What is not nice is having to listen to someones construction generator rattling all night.

This link is excellent reading if you have not read it already. But it is a couple of chapters long and you need to read it all the way through, I agree with most of his writing and it meets my observations as well.

https://handybobsolar.wordpress.com...g-puzzle-2/?blogsub=confirming#subscribe-blog

This link is to a guy that has really taken the time to fill you in.

http://www.jackdanmayer.com/

That is more than what you asked but someone searching the subject might run across this and get steered in the right direction.

Yes I'm involved in some of the discussions in this forum. Just search "solar" and you will find us.



It sounds like you have a good system that works well for you.


Have you posted any other information about your system on this site?
I am interested in installing my own solar. Before making the plunge I am trying to read as much as I can about any system anyone is willing to share.
 

whp4262

Well-known member
Get a couple good CO detectors and a Gen-Turi exhaust. I haven't run the generator in my Cyclone for extended periods but I did in my class A without problems.
Oops guess I should edit the 2 from the end of CO. Lol

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Last edited:

avvidclif

Well-known member
To the OP, sorry I hijacked your thread. I thought you were looking to run a CPAP. In a Gen Prepped Rig.

I used to struggle with the generator notion also, Until I realized that it is just a great way to go to sleep and never wake up.

I think I would look at the Gen-Turi or avoid the problem altogether. You could check into a RV park for little more than what it cost to run the generator, and sleep with 50 thundering big rigs.

Just to add perspective, go look at your water heater exhaust flue, and your heater exhaust flue, in your stick built, then compare that to the notion that you will be poisoned by your ONAN 5500 LP. I think you will find that the ONAN is safe enough.

But I would hate to die after having been warned in an owners manual.

******

I didn't buy my rig with a generator to not use it. Use a good CO not CO2 detector and keep on trucking. On the RV park. I was in a State Park with electric and completely setup and happy until a dufus backed into a power pole on the adjacent site and broke the water line and they had to shut off the electricity. We decided we were not moving, large sites are not common and that's what we bought a generator for.

Now a simple question, anyone know of someone who died in an RV because of the generator running? First cousin of a second uncle on the far branch of the family tree once heard someone else tell about it, don't cut it.

What were the last words out of a rednecks mouth before he died? "Watch this Jimmy Don you ain't gonna believe it"
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Jim.Allison

Well-known member
CO detectors are so cheap, I think I would just buy a couple for redundancy. Surely 3 or 4 will alert you to the poisonous gas if it were to creep into your rig, but you really got to ask if burning .8 gallons of LP per hour, emitting primarily CO2 and water and minor amounts of CO, what could possibly build up in your rig.

My exhaust pipe exits near the generator hot air exit. The velocity of the air there is enough to disperse any emissions. It also comes in handy because I have a dedicated tank for the generator, I can set that tank in front of the exhaust pipe and hot air exiting the generator which keeps it from freezing.
 

danemayer

Well-known member
******

I didn't buy my rig with a generator to not use it. Use a good CO not CO2 detector and keep on trucking. On the RV park. I was in a State Park with electric and completely setup and happy until a dufus backed into a power pole on the adjacent site and broke the water line and they had to shut off the electricity. We decided we were not moving, large sites are not common and that's what we bought a generator for.

Now a simple question, anyone know of someone who died in an RV because of the generator running? First cousin of a second uncle on the far branch of the family tree once heard someone else tell about it, don't cut it.

What were the last words out of a rednecks mouth before he died? "Watch this Jimmy Don you ain't gonna believe it"

I'm attaching the safety warnings page from the Onan manual, in case you haven't got a copy of the manual. It doesn't say you can't run the generator overnight - just says if you do so, you need to have a CO detector.

Btw, Heartland doesn't monitor the entire forum, just selected areas and this is not one of those areas. If Heartland were to respond, I'm sure they would tell you exactly what Onan has said. To expect anything else would be unrealistic.
 

Attachments

  • Onan Safety.pdf
    80.3 KB · Views: 25

Jim.Allison

Well-known member
Interesting, i guess that answers that. LOL. I would still have redundancy in my CO monitors. The gas is just so dang deadly. My rig already has two.
 

Silverado23

Iowa Chapter Leaders
Jim,

Thank you for sharing. I had not seen the first one of these articles. The more I read on adding solar, the more likely I will probably add a solar project. It certainly sounds like there are some great advantages to adding solar over a generator at this time.

I had no experience with solar when I installed it, I learned from scratch using links from this forum and surfing the net. All major components had both installation manuals and user manuals online. It took me 30 days to figure out what I needed to do.

There are a couple of links on the net that will put you into surfing mode. One guy rants and raves about how most systems are installed incorrectly. He is very informative, and I discovered what he says is true. There is another guy who is very adept at getting you through the design process.

Overall it was a real fun project and my system is a real hot-rod, I like it very much. It is so nice to be able to sit in peace and quiet in some primitive National Forest Service campground and not spend a dime on battery charging and still have all the necessities and luxuries of home, except air conditioning. What is not nice is having to listen to someones construction generator rattling all night.

This link is excellent reading if you have not read it already. But it is a couple of chapters long and you need to read it all the way through, I agree with most of his writing and it meets my observations as well.

https://handybobsolar.wordpress.com...g-puzzle-2/?blogsub=confirming#subscribe-blog

This link is to a guy that has really taken the time to fill you in.

http://www.jackdanmayer.com/

That is more than what you asked but someone searching the subject might run across this and get steered in the right direction.

Yes I'm involved in some of the discussions in this forum. Just search "solar" and you will find us.
 
Top