Hello Everyone!
I have a question that I'm sure you all can answer. I still have a few years left to work full time and then some.  Sooo while I'm at work the cats would be at home in the rig. I'd like to ensure that while away the cats will be comfortable.

I know homes have generators that will kick in when the power drops so you never really have an interruption in service. Is there such a thing for RV's? And could a generator run at least one AC unit and keep the rig tolerable for up to 8 hours? My concerns are mostly for during summers, temps get over 100 with 10000% humidity...

Any thoughts would be extremely helpful...

Best Regards,
She-Nist

I think you need about 2000 watts to run a generator and most built in ones are larger. For portables you would need 2 tied together. I've never heard of an RV equivalent to an emergency generator that goes on automatically on power failure, but I'm sure others will comment. A question comes to mind though, how did pets evolve for the last 20,000 years, before air conditioning? Good luck,

I worry about this whenever we are someplace hot. (Wouldn't that be nice this year?) Our solution is when we are in a park we leave the air conditioning on for the cats, but we also have two fantastic fans set to come on if the temperature gets above 85 degrees. The fantastic fans pull out a huge amount of air. I think Iread somewhere that the fantastic fans completely change the air in an RV in 10-15 minutes. Because the fantastic fans run on 12 volt, we don't have to worry about a park having a power outage. I have heard horrible stories of animals dying in trailers left in the extreme heat.

We stay in full hookup campgrounds and use their power when it is hot to run the air conditioning and our cat is fine. Most boondockers I know, who camp without hookups, camp where the temps are more moderate and will also go to a campground when it is too hot. Running the generator all day costs more than campground electric in most cases. Yes the campground power can go out, but it is not a big worry since it is a rare occurrence.
We have boondocked in the 80s, like last October in Zion National Park, and with the windows cracked open and our fantastic fan on.  Our cat survived fine and she has long hair.

-- Edited by bjoyce at 20:22, 2009-02-01

She-Nist, We had two medium size dogs with lots of fur, they were similar to a husky. I had our RV equipped with two Fantastic Vent fans that are thermostat controlled. Our 5th wheel is well insulated against the heat, so it is rare that the temperature inside is as high as the outside temperature. When we left the dogs in the RV, we would leave the airconditioner on and set the Fantastic Fans to come on at 68 degrees. That way if the power went out at the park the fans would circulate the air. We also put out a couple of big bowls of water. One time we went on a 3 hour tour that lasted 12 hours, we were worried about the dogs, because we were boondocking and had no A/C. The Fantastic Fans were going and they were fine when we finally got back to the RV. I think you'll find cats and dogs will tolerate the heat a lot better than most humans. Their fur plus other anatomical features are designed to help keep them cool in heat and warm in cold. Our dogs would basically stop moving when hit got above 80 degrees. They would stretch out, pant and drink lots of water, but move as little as possible. They would also move from the carpet or couch to the tile floor where it was cooler. We had them in 110 degree heat for a few days in a row and it didn't seem to bother them any more than 80 degrees did.

My Monaco Diplomat has Auto Generator Start. There are several "triggers" that will cause the generator to start. I do not use this feature but I have documentation if you need more information. This was a factory installed option but I assume they can be added by dealers. I think it would depend on if the installed appliances, and, if they supply the needed signals to the generator start device, ie. coach temperature, battery charge level, etc.

Magnum Energy, who also make great 2000watt and larger inverter/chargers, makes a generator start that has its own thermometer and it also monitors the battery voltage. It can start the generator based on temperature or low battery voltage. The ME-AGS-S is a standalone unit that does not need a Magnum inverter. That same web page has a link to generators they know how to hook up to and a pdf file to set up your own hookup for generators that do not have the support built-in.

Thanks for all the great replies everyone! I really appreciate all the input. I went to a local NuWa dealer Monday and asked the same question to the parts department manager who said "there's no such thing for RV's"
Hmmmmm...I've considered sending in a male 'spy' to find out if he would get the same answer I received. But really it's not worth my time...and that dealership lost lots of points on my scale of one to ten.

If anyone else has any thoughts I'd be more than happy to entertain them...I'm trying to consider every angle when making the switch to an RV...the kitties' comfort is priority one.

Happy Tails to everyone!
She-Nist

I've been told most 5'ers and tt's do not come equipped with a generator (I have a Class A). Might have had something to do with their response (but I doubt it). I'm with you, find a different dealer.

Another wonderful thread that helps out others as well. I have been worrying myself about my dogs while working down here in Brunswick. It's starting to get hot and humid down here and I was fretting about things like AC failure or power outages etc. and it would just kill me to come home to something tragic as I have to leave them in the TT all day while I work. I just ordered the fantastic fans for my RV and will feel better after installing them.