Years ago... runs on a can of butane.... cans were about 50c each...
That must have been MANY years ago!
6~8 years ago it was retailing for like $6~8 a can?
A ma&pa dollar store up the road had it for $2 a can, and I'd get all they had to take to a store 45 miles away to sell it for $3 a can, and they'd sell it FAST for $5 a can.
Might be different Down Under, but the US has ALL kinds of rules about shipping that kind of thing, and it got worse after 9-11. The price went through the roof after 9-11.
I agree with Chris about coffee pots, mostly.
Not sure about the one I use now (has more damn buttons than a laptop).
The one 2 or 3 ago was like 600W or <1W. It only had 1 heating element.
When brewing it was a high duty cycle. Then the duty cycle was a lot less to maintain a hot pot.
The Average Power may have been only 50W, but a 100W inverter was not going to make it work. LOL
How I was thinking about a genny is like I usually think in this kind of situation.
The battery bank is USUALLY big enough to supply adequate power in an emergency, right?
And the bank, with RE input, is often enough to deal with an emergency, right?
I am thinking a lawn mower motor and DC genny is going to use a lot less gas for the same results (warm house and cold beer).
I know a guy who put a PMA on an old 3 or 4 HP rototiller engine, and had a hard time keeping it below 300W(?) at idle.
"We went through 20 gallons of gas in two days" ?
That is
EXACTLLY what I am talking about.
Try to burn that much gas with a decent 3.5HP B&S lawn mower engine.
No reason to burn that much fuel except to keep the motor at 3600RPM and the output frequency at 60HZ, but the inverter keeps the frequency at 60HZ even if the motor is NOT running!
G-