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Ahh generators. I have used a few.
My dark site has a weekender and an observatory which I built on it but no power connected. To connect power would cost $40,000 to add a few poles and a transformer.
I researched and then bought a Honda eu20I generator for power to run the home and the observatory.
It is light - 20kg. It runs for about 9-10 hours on a full tank (Honda website says 13 or 15 which is a lie unless the latest model has better fuel efficiency or a large tank which I doubt).
Power is very clean. It ran very well for 2 years. I was a bit slow in changing the oil but I did change it occassionally. I ran the house and my observatory on it including SBIG/FLI/Apogee cameras, Tak mount, laptops, desktops. No problems.
The only problem I ever saw was battery chargers seemed to blow their fuse often and I put it down to the generator revving up when the fridge motor kicked in causing a slight power spike. I never saw any bad effect on my observatory gear though.
One night it suddenly started blowing a lot of smoke. It had been run probably only 900 hours total time (not a lot really).
The smoke oil burning got worse. I got it checked out and it would require an engine rebuild virtually to fix.
The Honda dealer claimed it was because I did not change the oil enough. This is false. I did change the oil like 120 hours instead of 90.
Another dealer told me recently he'd seen that a few times with them and it was caused by cylinder glazing from too much time spent at idle (they tend to idle most of the time unless the fridge kicks in or you use some heavy power drain item like a power tool or a microwave).
So I can't recommend the Honda. It is clean, it is quiet (it has a cheery sounding idling motor) easy to start, easy to change the oil, compact, light, power chord broke once but then burned oil and failed after only 2 years of use 3-4 days parttime per month. Not good enough for $2200.
I switched to oil additives to reduce it and it worked a bit better. I then switched to Castrol magnatec and initially it greatly reduced the oil burning.
I recently retired it to backup only as it got worse and spark plugs were now oiling up routinely as I would tend to overfill it with oil to counter the oil burnup and it would shut itself down if oil gets too low.
I bought a Genquip 3.3 kva generator for $1995. I thought - great 3300 watts of power to run anything including an air conditioner. Its a hunk of junk and has broken down about 5 times now. Usually the pull chord snaps because the metal guide has jagged edges. Also the power is not as smooth as I would get poor TV reception on some channels only when using that generator and not from the Honda.
I recently bought a Yamaha 2.8kva generator. Its a Rolls Royce. A bit heavy at 70kgs but its electric start, very very conservatively rated at 2.8kva (the Genquip is "3.3kva" yet the Yamaha can outperform it effortlessly so the Genquip is extremely unlikely to put that much out).
The Yamaha is quiet, starts very easily, clean power, full tank lasts 20 hours. Awesome machine.
New Honda eu20is are now $1995 or less.
I would stay clear of the cheap Chinese units and not the cheaper larger rough Hondas etc meant for construction sites.
I love the Yamaha so I'd recommend the small Yamaha. To just power your astro gear you'd only need the 1.0kva models. 2kva doesn't even blink from the tiny drain from the astro gear.
To get it in perspective a 2kva generator will run a fridge, several lights, a TV, DVD, all your astro gear all at one time without breaking a sweat. Even an electric blanket.
What drains the power is anything that heats - like a microwave or an electric kettle or electric heaters. They would be too much for it.
A little Yamaha or Honda 1.0kva inverter generator would be quiet and light. You would need to refill to go all night though. And change the oil regularly and give it a break after say 10 hours of running to cool.
Greg.
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