Please post your generator choice and experiences

   / Please post your generator choice and experiences #11  
We have a Generac 20kW backup generator with a buried 500gal LP tank and have been very happy with it. Have had it for 3 years. Last year it ran for 3 days straight without any problems. We power the house, AC and barn with it. I have a service contract with the installer so every year it gets a once over including oil change. So far no problems!
 
   / Please post your generator choice and experiences #12  
I have two. I'll add a thumbs up for my Honda e3000c, which sat for two years, with gas, and was fired up on the first pull this past week. I powered one fridge and two freezers for a few hours until the electricity came back on.

It's small, quiet and comes in at 67 pounds. Specs on the internet. The only reason for the shout out is my neglect in proper storage of the machine.
 
   / Please post your generator choice and experiences #13  
The biggest issue I have with any generator is making sure that the darn thing will crank when needed...
I normally try to start mine up every month or two and keep stabil in the gas tank...

Stabil or no, I would never keep ethanol gas stored in a machine's carburetor. Tank, yes. Carb no. I always cut the fuel supply and let it run dry before storing them. I have lost two carburetors to ethanol gas, and it's not going to happen again.
 
   / Please post your generator choice and experiences #14  
A Lister Petter or another better built 1800 rpm diesel engine powered 4 pole 100% duty cycle head. It will be heavy but you can make it mobile if its on a cart or trailer. It will sip fuel compared to any 3600 rpm unit and in times of need.... I know I can get heating oil. Gasoline may be harder to find. I have a 500 gallon tank under my porch and a 275 gallon tank in the garage.
 
   / Please post your generator choice and experiences #15  
Might be worth looking at a trailer mounted MEP-002A (5KW, ~7KW surge) or MEP-003A (10KW, ~14KW surge) and adding an secondary tank. They are rated to put out 5KW or 10KW 24x7 at something like 6000 feet and 130F ambient temperature...
They are also setup so that they will automatically keep the daytank on the generator full by filling from an axillary tank (such as a 55 gallon drum).
They can be had directly from Government Liquidation for under $2000 or from private sellers who have tested them for $3000-$5000. One example is: LIBBY MEP-003A GENERATOR DIESEL 10KW WITH TRAILER WORKS GREAT 1 OR 3 PHASE | eBay
Others have bought one of those gensets and mounted it to a cheapie HF trailer...


Aaron Z
 
   / Please post your generator choice and experiences #16  
i have a 15000 watt generac that I got from Norwall.com Ihave only hooked it up to the house to make sure it works and start it (without fail) every month or two. i have used it for welding at the back of the property. I just had to take the welder. I permanantly mounted it on a cheapo harbor freight trailer. I found this option cheaper and more versatile than a permanent stand alone generator. I put in a whole house transfer switch. I have had it for 5 years and now since purchasing have not had the power off long enough to warrant using it.

Good luck but I found norwall wonderful to deal with
 
   / Please post your generator choice and experiences #17  
A Lister Petter or another better built 1800 rpm diesel engine powered 4 pole 100% duty cycle head. It will be heavy but you can make it mobile if its on a cart or trailer. It will sip fuel compared to any 3600 rpm unit and in times of need.... I know I can get heating oil. Gasoline may be harder to find. I have a 500 gallon tank under my porch and a 275 gallon tank in the garage.

For most people, I don't think diesel generators make sense. Here's why. It's true that diesel generators are more reliable and fuel-efficient than gas generators. Because they run at lower RPMs, they are usually also quieter. But they're typically around double the cost of a gas generator for the same wattage.

I don't think that the average generator user is going to put enough hours on the generator to make up the difference in fuel cost. If you're running the generator day in and day out at a work site, that's one thing. But if you pull out the generator a few days a year when there is a power outage, or you go RV'ing somewhere, it's going to take longer than many people are likely to own the generator to make your money back in fuel--especially now that diesel is pretty comparably priced to gasoline. If you have a source of alternate fuel, such as off-road diesel, or better yet, waste vegetable oil or biofuel that you refine yourself from e.g. sunflowers (yes, people do this), that's another story. But if you're buying fuel at the pump and not using the genny pretty much on a daily basis, the fuel efficiency doesn't seem like it matters.

Diesel generators seem to use roughly half the fuel of gas generators, for a given wattage output, and are roughly twice as expensive. Consider a 7000 watt generator. You can get that for around $700 in gasoline, or around $1400 in diesel. Say that gasoline and diesel are priced the same, at about $3.50 per gallon, which is the case at gas stations around me. You need to make up $700 in gas to break even. For every hour you run the generator, you make up $3.50 * 50% fuel usage = $1.75 with the diesel generator. $700 / $1.75 = 400 hours you have to run the generator before you break even on the diesel. That doesn't sound like a lot of hours, but if your generator is intended for emergency usage, you're going to put, what, maybe 50 hours a year on it? So you'll break even in eight years.

The more expensive diesel and gasoline get, the lower the break-even becomes, so that may factor in. But if diesel gets more expensive than gasoline, as it was up until recently, the break-even gets longer. I'm not saying it's cut-and-dried either way, but you should at least do the math before you shell out for diesel.
 
   / Please post your generator choice and experiences #18  
I put 2500 hours on a home depot "porter cable" 5500 wart unit before selling it. Never failed to start on first pull even after sitting. Think I got lucky with that one. I now have a generacl 12k that I bought direct from them. Runs great and doesn't burn much fuel. It is a little loud but a little noise is ok when you have light.
 
   / Please post your generator choice and experiences #19  
For most people, I don't think diesel generators make sense. Here's why. It's true that diesel generators are more reliable and fuel-efficient than gas generators. Because they run at lower RPMs, they are usually also quieter. But they're typically around double the cost of a gas generator for the same wattage.
Another thing to consider is what you have for fuel storage, we heat with oil and have diesel on hand for the tractors, so a diesel generator works for us as we have a weeks worth of diesel on hand most of the time.

Aaron Z
 
   / Please post your generator choice and experiences #20  
For large whole-house generators, I haven't seen cases where the gasoline options were even that prevalent. It's generally propane/NG or diesel for the big water-cooled units.

When comparing gasoline and diesel fuel costs, make sure to figure that most people running a whole-house generator are buying off-road diesel (no road tax) and storing it bulk.
 

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