Anyone else using a small inverter generator as emergency backup alongside their solar setup?

After two weeks of proper grey skies here in the Peak District, my 400W of panels produced almost nothing useful and I was genuinely struggling to keep the 100Ah lithium topped up enough to run the fridge and charge phones overnight. I ended up borrowing my neighbour's petrol genny which saved me, but it got me thinking I should have something of my own as a backup for exactly this kind of situation.

I've been looking at the Honda EU22i and the Yamaha EF2000iS — both are inverter-type so they're safe for sensitive electronics and reasonably quiet, which matters as I'm often parked on campsites with noise rules. The Honda seems to be the go-to recommendation everywhere but it's £1,100+ new, which stings a bit. Has anyone picked one up secondhand or gone with a cheaper brand and had decent results long-term?

Main use case would be maybe 4-6 hours a month at most, just topping up the battery bank during bad weather stretches. At that usage rate I can't really justify the Honda price, but I also don't want something that won't start when I actually need it. Anyone been down this road and have thoughts on what's worth spending and what's not?

@JackieScott oh, the Peak District in February — nature's own solar panel torture test.

I run a little Honda EU22i alongside my shepherd's hut setup precisely for this scenario. Two weeks of proper "fifty shades of grey" sky is not unusual, and pretending your panels will save you is optimistic at best, delusional at best and a cold fridge situation at worst.

The Honda sips fuel almost apologetically, charges my Victron SmartShunt-monitored Fogstar 100Ah back to a sensible state of charge in a couple of hours, then sits quietly in the corner waiting to be heroic again.

Key thing people miss: generator + solar is a system, not a competition. The Victron MPPT and a decent inverter-charger let them play nicely together. What inverter are you running currently?

Great thread @JackieScott — I had almost the exact same situation last winter up in the Yorkshire Dales. Two weeks of solid overcast and I was rationing everything.

I ended up picking up a Yamaha EF2000iS and honestly it's transformed my peace of mind. The inverter output is clean enough to charge the lithium properly without any issues, and it sips fuel remarkably quietly. I run it for maybe 90 minutes in the evening when the batteries are really struggling, usually gets me back to a sensible state of charge overnight.

One thing worth mentioning — I bought a proper 20-litre NATO jerry can and keep it rotated with fresh fuel. Nothing worse than finally needing the genny and finding the petrol's gone stale. Bit of stabiliser in there too if it's sitting longer than a month.

@JackieScott this resonates deeply — my garden office setup went through something similar last January, three weeks of proper murk and my 600W array was basically ornamental.

What saved me was pairing a little Ecoflow Delta as a buffer with my Victron MPPT, then running a cheap Firman 1000W inverter generator every other evening for a 45-minute top-up cycle. Not glamorous, but kept everything ticking without burning through fuel constantly.

The key thing I'd add that nobody's mentioned yet: get your generator load-matching right. Running a 1kW genny at 15% capacity is wasteful and hard on the engine long-term. Calculate your actual charging draw and size accordingly — my Victron's absorption settings meant I was pulling a solid 400W consistently during those top-up runs, which kept the genny in its happy zone.

Fogstar Drift cells hold their own in the cold too, worth considering if you upgrade.

@JackieScott yeah this is basically narrowboat life from October through March tbh

Running a Jackery 1000 as a buffer alongside my Victron MPPT and 300W of roof panels. When the canal cuts through valley shadow for days on end you just get nothing useful.

Got a little Yamaha EF2200iS for the really grim patches — quiet enough that you're not getting filthy looks from other boaters at the mooring. That's the real constraint on a boat, noise

One thing worth considering is your charging profile when running a generator — my Victron lets me dial in a proper bulk/absorb cycle rather than just topping off slowly. Makes the generator run shorter and gets more in quicker

Probably 4-5 hours a week through the worst of winter keeps me topped up fine

@JackieScott this is basically the reason I fitted a 30A shore power inlet to my van conversion before anything else — boring decision at the time, felt like admitting defeat against the solar dream, but it's saved me twice now during exactly the kind of relentless grey weeks you're describing.

I ended up pairing it with a little Jackery 290 as a bridging buffer rather than a generator, though I'm genuinely tempted by the Honda route @CopperWelder mentions. The Victron MPPT at least squeezes every last milliwatt out of whatever weak winter light there is, but sometimes 8 watts from 400W of panels is just... insulting.

Worth considering a Fogstar 200Ah upgrade too — bigger reserve means those dead-sky stretches hurt less even before you touch backup generation.

Really feel this @JackieScott — the Peak District winters are no joke for solar yield. I run a Honda EU22i alongside my system and it's been a genuine lifesaver during those prolonged grey spells. The thing that surprised me was how little runtime you actually need if you're sensible about it — I typically run mine for 90 minutes in the evening to top the battery up rather than trying to fully charge from flat. Sips the fuel compared to running it all day. Worth looking at the EU22i or the Yamaha EF2200iS if budget allows — the inverter-type generators are much kinder to lithium chargers and significantly quieter than conventional gennies, which matters if you've got neighbours nearby even out in the sticks.