10000 BTU Emergency Window Unit: Best energy efficiency plus build quality?

[Vigilant994]

In these parts, we can pretty much count on one hurricane per year here lately, with a resulting power outage. Been doing just fine with a 3500/4000 watt Champion generator to power fridge, non-Energy Star 10000 BTU window unit (emergency use only) and computer. Run time is rated at 12 hours per 3.8 gallon tank of fuel, and I have had no problem getting that number. With a 100 gallon treated non-ethanol gas reserve, I have felt pretty well-prepared until recently. But with all that is in the news plus our aging power grid, I have decided to go with a set of Champion 1850/2500 watt inverters rated at 11.5 hours run time in parallel, with both 1.1 gallon tanks full. Plus a bigger gas reserve. That would yield 3700 running watts, or 925 watts at 25% load. I've been looking around, but so far have not found one with the lowest current requirement that has any kind of reputation for dependability/longevity. Was hoping someone could make a recommendation? Again, looking for the lowest power requirement plus a quality, long-lasting build. 10000 BTU window unit. Thanks in advance.

[Vigilant994]

That's 11.5 hours run time at 25% load.

[pecmsg]

Mini Split

Make sure that inverter gen has a Clean Sine wave or your computer is toast!

[Vigilant994]

Mini Split

Make sure that inverter gen has a Clean Sine wave or your computer is toast!

Has been verified. Thanks.

[Artrose]

In general, to assure reliable power in my situation, no matter what combination of the following that I operate at any particular time, I've calculated that I need at least 4500 watts continuous and 5500 surge to run my small window shaker, a refrigerator, a couple lights, a small TV, a microwave, the wifi system, and some small battery chargers. In the winter, instead of the A/C, it runs the propane furnace, and maybe a space heater.

This last extended outage I rotated my loads, so as to not overload my 3500/4500 watt emergency generator. Several years ago I made the decision to keep my backup smaller than required to save fuel. That was not an issue for our normal few hour, or occasional day long outages, but for the several days in a row that we just experienced, my savings versus comfort and safety equation was blown straight to hell. No more half way......

I don't want to spend the crazy money required for a whole house system, and we're already heating with propane, so a dual fuel generator makes sense to me.

I'm keeping my 3500/4500 as a back up, and am purchasing a 7500/8500 dual fuel for the frequent long duration outages I expect to see in the future. I plan to maintain the generator on propane bottles, for doing my normal bi-monthly test runs, and for the short duration outages. I normally store several gallons of Avgas because it doesn't degrade like Mogas. I will definitely increase this stored supply.

If you're concerned about your desktop, or laptop, and a potential dirty power supply coming from your generator, go buy an Invertor type of generator. They are generally limited to about 3500 watts, but that sounds like about what your presently using. The Invertors also tend to use less fuel.

Personally, I have never had a problem running my desktop, or a problem with shortened service life on my laptop chargers while using my regular old noisy generator.

[Vigilant994]

In general, to assure reliable power in my situation, no matter what combination of the following that I operate at any particular time, I've calculated that I need at least 4500 watts continuous and 5500 surge to run my small window shaker, a refrigerator, a couple lights, a small TV, a microwave, the wifi system, and some small battery chargers. In the winter, instead of the A/C, it runs the propane furnace, and maybe a space heater.

This last extended outage I rotated my loads, so as to not overload my 3500/4500 watt emergency generator. Several years ago I made the decision to keep my backup smaller than required to save fuel. That was not an issue for our normal few hour, or occasional day long outages, but for the several days in a row that we just experienced, my savings versus comfort and safety equation was blown straight to hell. No more half way......

I don't want to spend the crazy money required for a whole house system, and we're already heating with propane, so a dual fuel generator makes sense to me.

I'm keeping my 3500/4500 as a back up, and am purchasing a 7500/8500 dual fuel for the frequent long duration outages I expect to see in the future. I plan to maintain the generator on propane bottles, for doing my normal bi-monthly test runs, and for the short duration outages. I normally store several gallons of Avgas because it doesn't degrade like Mogas. I will definitely increase this stored supply.

If you're concerned about your desktop, or laptop, and a potential dirty power supply coming from your generator, go buy an Invertor type of generator. They are generally limited to about 3500 watts, but that sounds like about what your presently using. The Invertors also tend to use less fuel.

Personally, I have never had a problem running my desktop, or a problem with shortened service life on my laptop chargers while using my regular old noisy generator.

Thanks for the input. From what i have heard, power from a Champion is typically pretty clean, and I have never had any issues. Their inverters are supposed to be even better. As I said, the fuel savings by going with two parallel inverters is what drives my decision, and I seriously doubt that reliability will suffer, especially since I plan to buy a third inverter as a backup. Those two parallel 1850/2500 watt units should run everything pretty much effortlessly in Eco mode, except for the computer, and I would have no problem cutting down there. I'm planning on increasing my gas reserve slightly to 250 gallons for now, maybe more. I'll rotate to fresh gas on an annual basis.