Generator PTO generator feedback

[bucmeister]

Guess I am an odd man out on this issue. I now have both a PTO and a portable. A hand me down 13kW Northstar PTO for long outages when it is hot and we want to run the A/C to sleep and a 6.5kW Silent Diesel for most all the rest of the time. The 6.5 will give me about 12 hours on 3 gallons with our average load, which saves enough fuel to justify running the tractor for 8 hours at night to cool the house for comfortable sleeping. I would never want to have to run the PTO with my 50hp tractor when the small unit will do just fine.

 

[Soundguy]

I bet if you added up the fuel usage per kw generated.. I bet you the fuel cost would be VERY close. especially if it is a modern diesel tractor. Just because it is a 50hp tractor doesn't mean it's putting out 50hp when it's running the genny... a 13kw genny should consume a max of 26hp or actually, a bit less. And,, that will be at max electrical load.. lower loads will mean less hp needed, controlled by the governor and throttle.. less hp will mean less fuel.. modern turbocharged diesel engine are pretty darn efficient.

Look at it like this.. My 70hp diesel ford 5000 uses less 'dollars of fuel' to run my 12.5kw genny than my 33hp gasser ford 660 uses on a similar task, IE.. running my well on my farm property when I had an extended outtage... that diesel isn't even turboed either... but is more efficient than that gasser... I didnb't even attempt to run it wiuth my 850..it's even more gas hungry than the 660 on a bad day...

soundguy

 

[dex3361]

Guess I am an odd man out on this issue. I now have both a PTO and a portable. A hand me down 13kW Northstar PTO for long outages when it is hot and we want to run the A/C to sleep and a 6.5kW Silent Diesel for most all the rest of the time. The 6.5 will give me about 12 hours on 3 gallons with our average load, which saves enough fuel to justify running the tractor for 8 hours at night to cool the house for comfortable sleeping. I would never want to have to run the PTO with my 50hp tractor when the small unit will do just fine.

What brand silent diesel do you have and how many hours run time?

 

[bucmeister]

I bet if you added up the fuel usage per kw generated.. I bet you the fuel cost would be VERY close. especially if it is a modern diesel tractor. Just because it is a 50hp tractor doesn't mean it's putting out 50hp when it's running the genny... a 13kw genny should consume a max of 26hp or actually, a bit less. And,, that will be at max electrical load.. lower loads will mean less hp needed, controlled by the governor and throttle.. less hp will mean less fuel.. modern turbocharged diesel engine are pretty darn efficient.

Look at it like this.. My 70hp diesel ford 5000 uses less 'dollars of fuel' to run my 12.5kw genny than my 33hp gasser ford 660 uses on a similar task, IE.. running my well on my farm property when I had an extended outtage... that diesel isn't even turboed either... but is more efficient than that gasser... I didnb't even attempt to run it wiuth my 850..it's even more gas hungry than the 660 on a bad day...

soundguy

I understand what you are getting at and if the 6.5 was running continuously at full load it would definitely go through more fuel, my comparison of it to the portable gas unit was only to illustrate why I am (so far) happy with the little Chinese made unit. How it will hold up long term is a whole other issue that only time will tell. The tractor is a '95 JD5300. When mowing grass with my 84" finishing mower it will easily go through 8 gallons in the 5 hours it takes to do the yard. I have not yet hooked the generator to the tractor and put the test load on for a few hours to test consumption so it may not be a lot of difference. Sometime this summer that may well happen. However, I will just about bet that the tractor would burn more than 3 to 4 gallons of fuel in 12 hours just spinning the gen at the proper pto speed with no added load, but I could be wrong.

The big factor many times is convenience. The 6.5 stays under the carport out of the rain and can be positioned, cranked to warm up, breakers flipped, then power applied to the house in 15 minutes, whereas it would be a lot more involved process to go to the tractor shed, drop whatever equipment is on the tractor to then connect to the gen then bring the combo to the house for the typical 1-3 hour run we experience around here. Also, the small unit is secured to column and I am willing to leave the small unit running during the day while at work, if necessary, whereas I would not do so with the tractor because it may drive off with some help.

 

[bucmeister]

What brand silent diesel do you have and how many hours run time?

The unit is setting at my hunting camp at present and the name on the cover escapes me, Sensee or something strange like that. This is one of the Chinese units we see so many of these days and so far we only have 30+ hours run time on it. Not sure what the long term is going to be. If we get as good of service out of it as we have the '89 Coleman 4kW it will be a good value.

 

[Soundguy]

While the larger engine may burn a tad more fuel just for differences in spinning mass.. compairing diesel usage to diesel usage on the 2 gennies at the same electrical load level over the same time period.. I'd still lay my 2$ on them having such close fuel usage as to be negligible. The convienience factor, however, as you pointed out, is plenty enough to justify either combination as the owner see's fit.

soundguy

I understand what you are getting at and if the 6.5 was running continuously at full load it would definitely go through more fuel, my comparison of it to the portable gas unit was only to illustrate why I am (so far) happy with the little Chinese made unit. How it will hold up long term is a whole other issue that only time will tell. The tractor is a '95 JD5300. When mowing grass with my 84" finishing mower it will easily go through 8 gallons in the 5 hours it takes to do the yard. I have not yet hooked the generator to the tractor and put the test load on for a few hours to test consumption so it may not be a lot of difference. Sometime this summer that may well happen. However, I will just about bet that the tractor would burn more than 3 to 4 gallons of fuel in 12 hours just spinning the gen at the proper pto speed with no added load, but I could be wrong.

The big factor many times is convenience. The 6.5 stays under the carport out of the rain and can be positioned, cranked to warm up, breakers flipped, then power applied to the house in 15 minutes, whereas it would be a lot more involved process to go to the tractor shed, drop whatever equipment is on the tractor to then connect to the gen then bring the combo to the house for the typical 1-3 hour run we experience around here. Also, the small unit is secured to column and I am willing to leave the small unit running during the day while at work, if necessary, whereas I would not do so with the tractor because it may drive off with some help.

 

[SPYDERLK]

While the larger engine may burn a tad more fuel just for differences in spinning mass.. compairing diesel usage to diesel usage on the 2 gennies at the same electrical load level over the same time period.. I'd still lay my 2$ on them having such close fuel usage as to be negligible. The convienience factor, however, as you pointed out, is plenty enough to justify either combination as the owner see's fit.

soundguy

I wouldnt. The pumping and friction losses in the bigger engine will be a factor as you say. But more importantly, the standalone doesnt have the PTO transmission loss exhibited in the tractor and the genny gearbox. The end to end connection of engine to generator in a standalone approaches 0% loss of power. So, with near equal efficient engines and generators the standalone will be much more sparing of fuel use.
larry

 

[Soundguy]

I'm not ready to call the chinese standalone engine equal to one I might see in a modern 1st or 2nd tier tractor brand....

soundguy

 

[BobRip]

I'm not ready to call the chinese standalone engine equal to one I might see in a modern 1st or 2nd tier tractor brand....

soundguy

Please keep us updated when you get some more run time.

 

[Soundguy]

I agree. Some significant hours, plus fuelk usage numbers with a kwmeter would help out here.

soundguy