950W Generator on sale at Canadian Tire

[RONatron]

Just picked up a Yardworks 950W Generator for $350 (Reg $500) seems like a really good deal. Supposedly almost as quiet as the Honda EU series, with pure sine output, idle down for low load, etc. The price was right for me or I would have paid for a Honda. Thought some of you might be interested in this sale. link to Canadian Tire site

I'd like to use this to charge and sometimes fully power house electric. It's not real beefy, but the price is affordable. Since I have nothing built yet I'll just have to make sure to keep electric requirements pretty light.

Also Costco / price club has a 3 panel solar system that puts out 45 watts on sale for $300 I might pick up. I don't have much cash at the moment though so that might wait. Canadian Tire has a small unit that puts out 125 mA / 12 VDC great for trickle charging.. only $10 on sale this week. Might get a couple of them just to keep the main batteries topped up.

[RONatron]

For frugal 12V power generation / battery charging, homebuilding an engine + alternator looks pretty cool and can be very inexpensive. Use a lawnmower (or other small) engine, Standard 10SI Bosch alternator, and GM style headlight switch (to control power return to alternator to control load during startup). For example:

http://www.qsl.net/k5lxp/projects/Lawne ... nator.html

With the Alternator producing 63 amps (ref) at 12 V this is about 750W power. Unless my calculations or something are off which can happen often. LOL

I am considering returning the Yardworks generator and building a simple 12V genset to charge batteries, with an inverter off batteries providing any 120VAC. It's no where near as user friendly as a ready made generator, but it can get the job done for real cheap which appeals greatly to me. Still sorting out my requirements...

What a lot of stuff to learn. I like.

Vehicle is coming along. Fuel line is repaired, and trickle charger for chassis batteries is installed. Step by step.

[Abbott]

Thanks for the info.

[Xtevan]

Here is another take on the lawnmower generator conversion

http://theepicenter.com/tow082099.html

Was thinking about buying the plate and building one up for burning man

Xtevan