Generac Power offers a variety of RV onboard generators. Its Power Partners Hybrid Electrical System can share power with an RV’s battery system, when needed, to make the most efficient use of electrical power.

Perfect Marriage?
For the other major player in the market, the results are much the same, but the approach is slightly different.

The Waukesha, Wis.-based Generac Power Systems calls its offering the Power Partners Hybrid Electrical System, and it was developed in partnership with inverter technology manufacturer Magnum Energy of Everett, Wash., and power management expert Precision Circuits Inc., of Lisle, Ill.

“It’s a hybrid solution where our system can actually share energy from the battery when needed, meaning you can go with a smaller generator,” says Bill Slavik, Generac’s director of RV OEM. “If you’re running all three air-conditioners and the microwave turns on, our system recognizes that the current is too much for the generator, and it turns on the inverter and takes power from the battery.”

On the market for several months now, Slavik says the system isn’t getting as much traction as he expected, particularly since it works with not only any sized diesel generator, but the company’s gasoline and LP models, as well.

“It tests out very well,” he says. “But, there are no OEMs in production with it. We’re having a little bit of trouble with the sales and marketing side of it and getting the OEMs to understand that it will work. The education has been tough.”

Dealers should also be a source of sales for the systems, given that Slavik says they’re designed for new generators and not to be retrofitted on existing ones.

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