Real-World Generator Burn Data

[kowtow]

Kowtow: You are just MADE for YouTube. Someone needs to bring a lampshade to the M&G...

I'm afraid I have no clue were Barbie Death Camp is and unfortunately I will be doing chores all day and night on Wednesday. I'll be putting armor-all on my bicycle tires, detailing the minivan, vacuuming the trailer, cleaning hair out of the shower drain, cleaning windows. If you guys could move it to Thursday it would work better for my schedule, but since it's already scheduled I'll just have to wonder what excitement I'm going to be missing...

[gaminwench]

Placement hasn't come out yet, we should hear soon about the location of BDC.

You WILL be at the MnG;
we'll make a posse and kidnap your sorry, drunk ass if necessary

[TT120]

Don't worry. Kowtow WILL be at the M&G. Joel and I have a plan.....And a backup plan...... And sharpies......

[Sunbeam56]

Joel and Kowtow? Same camp? I may have to visit...

[kowtow]

I won't be with Joel and TT120 this year. I'm going to put myself on the East side of the playa, somewhere near Omaha, NB, or was it Souix Falls, SD. Fuck I failed geography!

It took me 8 months to figure out how to pronounce playa "plAAya." I always knew I was a play-ya, but I didn't know that's NOT how you pronounce it.

I spent 8 years in Japan, so that's why my english sucks. Anyway I hope to see you all out on the PLI-YA at Sturgis!

[kowtow]

So today I broke down and installed an A/C unit in the trailer. Since I purchased the EU2000i it seemed like a waste to run it 24/7 just to power a small 5.0 cuft chest freezer, so as a result I installed a 6k BTU A/C unit. It cools the shit out of space that's ~84sqft or 500cuft., considering it was designed for a space of around 5,000cuft. The A/C pulls about 600Watts and the chest freezer pulls about 500Watts, so the combination does take the EU2000i off idle, but I will be curious to see what mileage I will get out of the genny with these two constant loads.

[kowtow]

Placement hasn't come out yet, we should hear soon about the location of BDC.

You WILL be at the MnG;
we'll make a posse and kidnap your sorry, drunk ass if necessary

Hola! Happy 4th of July!!! This means we have 8 more Saturday's before homecoming. That also means there are 8 Wednesday's before you send out Bruno's Gerlach posse to drag me to the M&G.

[Popeye]

So today I broke down and installed an A/C unit in the trailer. Since I purchased the EU2000i it seemed like a waste to run it 24/7 just to power a small 5.0 cuft chest freezer, so as a result I installed a 6k BTU A/C unit. It cools the shit out of space that's ~84sqft or 500cuft., considering it was designed for a space of around 5,000cuft. The A/C pulls about 600Watts and the chest freezer pulls about 500Watts, so the combination does take the EU2000i off idle, but I will be curious to see what mileage I will get out of the genny with these two constant loads.

With the AC unit that much bigger than needed you might see some icing on the evaporator. Shutting the compressor off and leaving the fan running should take care of it though.

[Captain Goddammit]

6k BTU is not oversized for a desert trailer, in fact it's barely adequate. Virtually all campers and trailers come with much more powerful units than that.
I have a little 5 or 6k BTU window AC that I bring just for a backup for my 11-foot (it's actually 19 feet if you count the overhead bunk) truck camper, which has an 11k BTU roof AC.
The little window unit barely cools it on the playa.
I seriously doubt you'd have icing issues.

[GreyCoyote]

Icing issues in 5% RH? I think... not. The dew point is into the single digits.

FYI: I lived in a house in the desert for years that didn't even have the AC drain plumbed to waste. It just sat there and evaporated on its own. In the entire history of that house, I bet that AC didn't make five gallons of water. No possibility of icing either. Deserts are like that. Condensation and icing tend to be mostly non-issues.

Compare that to the swamp that I live in now: a puny 6K BTU AC produces about a gallon of water an hour most days. It's a steady dribble that never quits, and yep, it'll ice-up if you don't watch it. Icky.

Location. Location. Location...

[Captain Goddammit]

I have a 12k BTU portable room air conditioner. It's a radial compressor type.
I plugged my meter into it to see what it's power draw was and I was surprised by what happened.
I expected to see an initial heavy surge and then see it taper off.
Instead, it started out at around 400 watts and very slowly increased until it leveled out around 1000 watts.
It would seem a small generator would have an easy time with one of those. I haven't tried it on mine, maybe I will just for fun.

[rangerclaymore]

Thank you so much for this info. This will be my first year running a theme camp and I planned on asking exactly for this info from people.

I have camped without needing power for my 9 burns. And though I work on SITE to build the Ranger Outpost, we use DPW power, so I still don't know much about it.

Since we are going to have a bar, having a fridge would be a great help. Though that is going to depend on what materials we can get and bring. But it's good to know what it can be powered with a 3000 generator.

Anyway, I'll show this to the guys in my camp who will be helping me.

Claymore

[GreyCoyote]

Fwiw, a single EU2000 (2000 watts) will happily power a pair of refrigerators, or freezers, or combination thereof.

[dragonpilot]

We ave a 3500W gen...only run it at night to power camp lights and the half-size freezer. Since we're not in and out of the freezer much, the contents stay frozen all week long just running it about 6 hours a night.

[RedManRising]

Hope this falls in line with the topic here and wanted to ask about RV generators. My rig has an Onan built into it. When parked at my sister's house last month (with daily temps over 105) I ran it pretty much non-stop to keep one A/C unit on (shore power was not an option). In a neighborhood, the noise of the generator seemed minimal (a constant hum that was hard to hear from 30 feet away), but out on the playa conditions may vary and I want to be considerate of my neighbors.

Planning to make a power hook up available to neighbors to they can charge batteries, run lights, etc. Any recommendations on further baffling the sound of a built-in RV generator?

[GreyCoyote]

Any genset with a tailpipe can be conveniently hacked into a quieter configuration by extending the tailpipe upwards and above the roof of the coach. Keep in mind that a very significant amount of noise comes from the exhaust. Getting that noise up about 10 feet, and pointing it skyward, can have a very pleasing effect.

You should also consider a couple of well-placed pieces of plywood with carpet stapled to both faces. These ugly abominations are the instant breakfast of noise baffling nerds everywhere. A little density, in the right place, can make a world of difference.

Parting shot: energy transfer, and apparent loudness, increases with frequency. If you can transpose high frequency into something lower by a couple of octaves, the *perception* of power will be less. Of course, low freqs travel further per watt, but they are more pleasing to the ear than a higher rasp.

HTH. Grey.