I’m looking to buy a (not too expensive) inverter/generator to charge my AC500, when there is no solar power. The manual suggests a generator that provides at least 5000w.
Any experiences with generators in general or with a lower wattage? I’ve read in other threads there might be some issues.
Thanks.
I have a generator with only 2000W power tested with my AC500. The generator would only start to charge the AC500 if the charge power is limited to 1000W in the AC500 menue. Otherwise the generator would show overload and stop. Then when charging was running, I could level up to 2000W in the AC500 and the generator was still okay and continued charging.
So it is probably better to choose a generator with 5000W or more. In any case, you need to buy an inverter-generator.
Check your AC500 user manual to see of you can lower the AC charging current. On the AC300 I can lower it to 10 A or 1000 W. I have it set to 30 A or 3000 W which is its maximum.
I have a Westinghouse igen4500df, works beautifully. It is a gas/propane inverter generator. On propane it can handle something like 3300 rated watts. I tested it on propane, charging my AC300 and running a 1500 watt space heater. Works great. The AC300 pulled 1700+ watts while the heater ran full out. It’s quiet (for a generator) and maneuverable.
I purchased the Benchmark 4000W inverter generator for $599.00 Canadian for the same reason and it appears to work fine.
I also lowered the amps to draw 10A instead of 15A because I’m running 2 AC500 units in split phase mode.
I am using a Firman 4000 watt inverter generator to charge 2 ac500 units in split phase mode but kept getting errors. Ended up taking both units to single phase and charging them separately. But this is inconvenient. You were able to get both units to charge with no errors from one inverter generator by limiting the input current?