There has been considerable discussion recently on the use of a Honda 2000 generator to power AC units when not connected to shore power. Having just purchased one, here is my experience. Note that this was for a 387 with two CruiseAir AC units, a larger one for the main cabin and a smaller one for the stern cabin.
First, the generator had no problem running the stern AC unit. Unfortunately, the stern unit couldn’t deal with the whole boat when at anchor in the 90+ degree afternoon’s sun. We didn’t try it at night.
Second, the generator could run the larger AC unit as long as it was the first time you ran it that day. What you can’t do is to let the compressor stop and then restart it. That causes an overload on the generator.
(Updated: 8/19/2013 – I installed a Dometic SmartStart to the main AC
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