Generator Fuel Consumption

[jack14r]

I have found that if I use the inverters at night and some during the day I will save about 5 gallons of diesel a day.I guess it's pay now or pay later.I also usually try to be a good neighbor and turn the generator off by 10 pm if anyone is camping nearby.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Geoff, Nobody likes a smart ass.

Mark, Energy is energy is energy. What I mean is that if we ignore efficiency losses which I have no way of calculating, running an AC unit takes a certain amount of energy. If you run the AC from power created by the generator, or shore power, or from the battery through the inverter the energy is the same.

If we take shore power out of the equation, and look at just power generated on your money directly, you can be fairly confident if you run the AC from the generator, or from the batteries which them must be charged from the generator or the bus engine you will spend some dollars for fuel. Probably the same amount of dollars no matter how you accomplish it.

So to answer the question, running the generator continuously, or letting if be controlled by autostart is probably going to result in similar costs of energy. I don't have the ability to run my AC units from my inverter, so we just run the generator as long as we want AC.

[Joe Cannarozzi]

I think that when a converter sets an autostart below 12.2 they assume you are pulling amps out of them and that 12.2 magic number is a resting rate.

In other words say you have your fridge working off the inverters overnight yes it will have your batteries going down below 12.2 sometimes maybe towards morning but if you shut down all the loads you have on and allowed the batteries to rest some they actually would still be above 12.2.

If someone was using the autostart for storage to keep the batteries up and there was no draw on them then that sub 12.2 start mark would be bad.

[Yankee802]

Jon,

I didn't mean to offend you, so I appologize. It seemed there was a good amount of good natured ribbing going on here (POG), and it was my attempt at that. Again, sorry.

Geoff

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Geoff, If you think my remark about you being a smart ass meant I was offended nothing could be further from the truth. I was amused and thought I would give you a shot right back.

I get offended when Peter picks on the high quality paint job on my plane. I get offended when people like Brian make their engine look better than mine. I get offended when people make fun of my high speed runs at 62.5 MPH. I get offended when I get the Anal award. And let's not forget how Lew offends me for spelling errors, or when Dorinda picks on my because I don't have a fancy push button awning.

Now I'm all pissed off and it is your fault.

[Yankee802]

LOL, ok I wasn't sure, it's sometimes hard to tell tone online.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Now you are catching on. Don't take anything said on this forum serious, and don't believe anything anyone tells you.

[Yankee802]

So if I hear you correct, I shouldn't listen to you, right?

[Jon Wehrenberg]

I believe you have finally found the truth amidst all the blather on this forum.