Briggs & Stratton P2500 PowerSmart Series Inverter Generator | 2.5kVA

Twenty-five hundred watts is the surge and it only covers the second a motor kicks in. What it holds continuously is 1,800W. That's a camping fridge, lights, a laptop, a phone charger and a kettle if nothing else big is on. It's a drop saw or a small compressor by itself. What it is not is a caravan air conditioner, which wants more than this before you plug anything else in. Add up the running watts of everything you want on at once, keep the total under 1,800, and check the biggest motor's surge fits in the gap to 2,500.

Carbon monoxide from a generator is colourless and it kills people every year, usually because someone ran one too close to a tent, in an annexe or in a garage with the door part-open. CO Guard has a sensor that monitors the air around the machine and cuts the engine before the concentration gets dangerous. It doesn't make it safe to run one indoors, and nothing does. What it does is protect you from the mistake that's easy to make at 11pm when it's raining and you want it out of the weather.

PowerSmart throttles the engine back to match whatever you're actually drawing, instead of running flat out all the time. On light loads that means less fuel, less noise and less wear. Eight hours at quarter load off 5.5 litres is what comes out the other side, which covers a night at camp without a midnight refuel. Run it hard and the engine winds up and the run time drops, the same as any inverter generator.

The QPT parallel kit links two P2500s and combines their output, so you get roughly 3,600W running from a pair. That's a genuine option if you already own one, because two 22.7kg units are easier to move than one 45kg machine and you can leave one at home for small jobs. If you're starting from scratch and you know you need more, the P3500 costs less than two P2500s and takes up less room. Buy the pair for flexibility, buy the bigger one for value.

Fifty-eight decibels at seven metres is quiet for a petrol generator and about the level of a normal conversation. Most parks with a generator policy will accept it, and your neighbours two bays over won't be counting the hours. What it isn't is silent, and up close you will hear it. Put it seven metres from where people are sitting with the exhaust pointing away, and it stops being a topic. Try the Generator Finder if you're weighing it against the other 2.5kVA machines.