*5...I just received my Honda generator last week. (After all the power outages and misc, I figure it'd be good to have something ....even though I know its underpowered for my house I figure I could watch TV and light a few lights at least). I got the Honda 2000 also with the intention of possibly using it on my Sailboat just in case I wanted a backup to charge batteries or "maybe" run my A/C unit. But I was concerned about whether it would actually start up my A/C unit so I went to my boat yesterday and tried and it did....Yeah ! ;D I have a 16.5K BTU Flagship Marine A/C and resistive heat unit (more on the heater later). The Flagship marine unit was installed by me and its a pretty high quality A/C unit. It is engineered pretty well and uses a rotary compressor (much less start up power than a Piston compressor), plus it also has "start up capacitors" that lowers the start-up current surge. Its rated at about 14.1 amps (non-start up), which includes the A/C unit, the water pump and fan blower (basically everything) but I think that is a conservative number and I think its a little bit less. I will have to measure the actual current running to know the real current usage (sometime in the future). The generator didn't have a problem starting the A/C unit with the eco-switch "off" on the generator, it didn't work consistently with the eco-switch "on" just as others on this list suggested. The resistive heat on my Unit is not a reverse Cycle system. Yes it uses considerably more current than a reverse cycle heater, but the problem is that a reverse cycle heater doesn't really work well when water temps get below 45 deg and I sometimes keep my boat in the water late in the season (or all winter) up in the northeast. I was a bit amazed that the generator worked with the Electric Heat on (~18.1 amps) but it seemed to struggle a bit so I turned it off. http://www.flagshipmarine.com/heat.html As as second test I started adding 115VAC loads, with the A/C unit running, I was able to turn on minimal 115 loads no problem, then I was able to turn on my 20Amp Mariner Battery charger...No problem (and it was pumping out the full 20 amps!!). Though I did notice the generator "pitch" change a bit. I figured I'd go for the whole shooting match so I turned on the Microwave....worked about 3 seconds and then -- Shut down --- the generator has a protection mode wheras it will. At least it's nice to know that it can handle a few things. As far as noise, well its a lot quieter than other generators out there on the market, but I wouldn't call it whisper quiet. For the test I had it sitting in the scooped out transom. If I was in the cockpit, it could be a bit annoying , maybe a few feet out on the dinghy as someone suggested and the noise level would go down reasonably. The noise forward of the boat was very minimal and at less than 50 feet in front of the boat it was hard to detect the thing running. Behind the boat was a different story, it took me over 150 + feet at the docks in my marina before "I" think it goes down to an acceptable level. If I was in a quite anchorage, I would be concerned about running this thing "upwind" of anyone unless they were at least a couple hundred feet away. During the day with lots of noise and people messing around its probably fine and maybe if I was at the far end of an anchorage down wind(my stern is facing away from all boats) then it wouldn't be noticable. But I'm going to have to do "in-field" experiments to see what the results are actually like.
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Very Good Points and Good Write-Up
Noise: I concur totally with your assessment. Also, as you noted, breeze or wind is a significant factor for transmitting noise. Running something like this upwind of other people could be considered inconsiderate. Loads: Honda points out in the manual that continuous starting of heavy loads will cause the unit to fail prematurely. How does one know if they're stressing their gen set? I suppose if it really struggles that would be a sign but if it's a little bit less than that - who knows? They aren't cheap. With an air conditioner unit if there are some items that "come on" at the same time that the compressor starts I wonder if there could be some re-wiring with a delay timer so the water pump and fan blower can come on a couple seconds later? That was a good write-up!
Noise: I concur totally with your assessment. Also, as you noted, breeze or wind is a significant factor for transmitting noise. Running something like this upwind of other people could be considered inconsiderate. Loads: Honda points out in the manual that continuous starting of heavy loads will cause the unit to fail prematurely. How does one know if they're stressing their gen set? I suppose if it really struggles that would be a sign but if it's a little bit less than that - who knows? They aren't cheap. With an air conditioner unit if there are some items that "come on" at the same time that the compressor starts I wonder if there could be some re-wiring with a delay timer so the water pump and fan blower can come on a couple seconds later? That was a good write-up!
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