paulnptld Posted September 3, 2013 Share Posted September 3, 2013 After a ton of research I decided to purchase a Powerhouse generator instead of a Honda or Yamaha. The generator had great ratings, is nearly as quiet, but had a couple of major upsides. Continuous output is rated at 2,000 watts with peak at 2,100. This is significantly better than both the Honda eu2000i or Yamaha. The major differentiator though? Remote start! With the included wireless remotes you can start and stop the generator from up to 75 feet. So far it's fired up perfectly every time. Finally, the price was only $660. In Portland I purchased the unit from Juan at Curtis Trailers. Great people over there, and very helpful. When I first received the generator last week, I was disappointed that it wouldn't fire up my Dometic air conditioner. After installing a hard start capacitor on the AC unit yesterday, it fired up immediately. So a $20 part solved a potentially major limitation. The Powerhouse generator feels more 'substantial.' It's really well built, but does weigh in at 73lbs. That's nearly 25lbs more than the Honda. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linda s Posted September 3, 2013 Share Posted September 3, 2013 How loud is it. Only thing that would make me buy a Honda is the quiet. Linda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulnptld Posted September 3, 2013 Author Share Posted September 3, 2013 I looked at the Honda. I found that the noise levels were comparable. The Powerhouse is slightly louder, but then again it's pumping out 2,000 watts continuous vs. 1,600 on the Honda. You could always place the Powerhouse up to 75 feet away from your RV if you want and fire it up remotely. That would effectively take care of all the noise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zero Posted September 3, 2013 Share Posted September 3, 2013 Home Depot was having a "truck-load" sale in their parking lot when I was in Michigan. Honeywell 2000i inverter-generators for $400 each. I met several RV people who had already bought one and ran their AC sucessfully - and then came back to buy more. No remoter start but for $400 - what I call a good deal. I've got one here. 2000 watts continuous and 2200 watt surge-rating. Has a pair of 120 volt /20 amp outlets. Weighs 49.5 pounds. 18" X 12" X 22" size. The sound ratings can be misleading. Honda shows 59 dBs and this Honeywell claims 68 dBs. I don't know what distance the dBs are read from. With an inverter generator -sound being made depends on engine RPM that depends on load. So a true test would be to have a Honda and a Honeywell - side-by-side powering exactly the same watt-load and heard from the same distance. This thing seems amazingly quiet to me. For $400 - I wish I'd bought more when I had the chance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulnptld Posted September 3, 2013 Author Share Posted September 3, 2013 Sounds like a great generator! The remote start on the Powerhouse was a really big deal to me. Living in Oregon, the last thing I want to do when camping in October is head outside in the cold rain to fire up the generator! I'm also hoping this thing does ok at 6,000 feet and sub-freezing temperatures. That's pretty much what you can expect on Mt. Hood throughout the winter. I plan on weekending at Mt. Hood Meadows frequently this ski season. They allow free RV parking for up to two nights. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanAatTheCape Posted September 7, 2013 Share Posted September 7, 2013 does the power house have the eco throttle like the honda 2000? On my 2000 I use the eco throttle most of the time- it idles slow but accelerates when it needs to (like when I turn on a high draw appliance like the microwave). in eco mode it will run 8 hours on one gallon of gas. as for being 75 feet away, I am guessing the remote control claims it can "reach" that far.. I prefer to have my gen cable locked to my camper. Besides - putting it far away from my camper would mean extension cords to get back to the camper - which means electrical resistance, etc. The honda starts quite easily on the first try usually. If I have left it sitting for a month it takes 3-4 pulls. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zero Posted September 7, 2013 Share Posted September 7, 2013 does the power house have the eco throttle like the honda 2000? On my 2000 I use the eco throttle most of the time- it idles slow but accelerates when it needs to (like when I turn on a high draw appliance like the microwave). in eco mode it will run 8 hours on one gallon of gas. as for being 75 feet away, I am guessing the remote control claims it can "reach" that far.. I prefer to have my gen cable locked to my camper. Besides - putting it far away from my camper would mean extension cords to get back to the camper - which means electrical resistance, etc. The honda starts quite easily on the first try usually. If I have left it sitting for a month it takes 3-4 pulls. I'm not sure what model of Honda 2000 you are referring too. Any inverter generator I know of will throttle down to idle and then only rev high enough to power for whatever load is needed. That is because inverter generators make DC that gets inverted to DC. They can make the 60 Hertz cycle at any RPM. AC generators must run at only one high preset RPM to make 60 Hertz. So these sorts often have an "eco" or "thottle down" mode that lets them idle when there is no load. When even a tiny load is applied they rev up to full RPM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maineah Posted September 7, 2013 Share Posted September 7, 2013 I don't know how they rate the noise level every one seems to have their own ideal on how to measure it. The 3000 watt Honda says 52db 100% load at 50' The National park Service says 60 db max @ 50' no matter what the load. The Power House idling is 56 db and at 25% load 67 db @ 23' no ideal how they picked 23' The Honda 2KW is 59 db 100% load @ 50' The big difference comes in the weight the little Honda is 46#. Now as far as db's if you increase the db level by 3 db you effectively have doubled the noise level so the 59 vers. 67 is a gain of 8 db so you can see where this is going. You pay dear for the noise level the bottom line is it worth it to you and your neighbors. I don't know how well the NPS polices the noise but they can tell you to turn off a generator that is noisy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zero Posted September 7, 2013 Share Posted September 7, 2013 Even "quiet" generators make noise when there are a bunch going. We were at Pictured Rock national park in the UP of Michigan not long ago. Middle of a hot summer day. There were close to two dozen RVs in the parking lot and most had generators running the entire time we were there. I noticed a few had dogs peeking out the windows and I suspect many left them on to run the AC to keep their dogs cool. Each RV by itself was pretty quiet -but with near all of them running - it was pretty annoying and a bit bizarre. I won't camp at a campground that allows any of them to be run at night. If I have a choice, I go where they are not used at all. On the subject of rating generators by the 10/Bell Labs figure (dBs). Seems they ought to be rated by dBs at X amount of feet at X amp-load. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maineah Posted September 8, 2013 Share Posted September 8, 2013 Frankly there is no such a thing as a quiet generator when you are trying to sleep. I guess it's all in what you are used to I can sleep through a coyote howling but not a generator running. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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