Generator fuel consumption

[/pine]

Our 12.5 kw Isuzu diesel generator used 2.5 gallons of diesel over 14.8 hours last year.

Ralph

That is great...what all were you running (percentage of the 12.5kw) for the 15- hours?

 

[MossRoad]

Yes, that is a good number. Only about 4 gallons per day at even $5 per gallon is only $20 per day. Pretty good in an emergency.
I have a cheap Coleman generator I bought about 18 years ago that is 5HP gas, 3600RPM, 1 gallon tank. It runs full blast all the time, so consumes quite a bit of fuel. But I don't run it continuously. I run a few lights after dark if needed, the furnace fan if needed, the well pump if needed, the fridge every few hours, the freezer a couple times a day and I usually go through about 2-4 gallons a day, depending. Never had to run it in the winter, or since we had the wood burner installed 4 years ago. But its nice to have in a prolonged power outage. Almost to a tee, if the power goes out, I wait at least an hour to start thinking about the generator. Then, by the time I get it out of the garage, dusted off, all the proper power precautions, etc... and I pull the starter cord, bring up a few things.... the power comes back on 10 minutes later! :laughing:

 

[rmorey]

Ralph, are you saying that you ran a 12.5 kW diesel generator for 14.8 hours on 2.5 gal of fuel?

 

[MossRoad]

That would have to be off and on as needed, wouldn't it?

 

[CobyRupert]

If you want your post to be correct you will need to change a couple of your kW's to kWh's. It's a totally different measurement.

??? I don't think so. Basically I said 1 gal (LP) has 26.8kW-hrs of Energy in it, but I expressed this equivalently as 1gal/hr = 26.8kW of Power. (i.e. I moved the "hr" to the other side of the equation.) I think my units are correct.
The concept of a gal/hr equalling an instantantenous power (kW) value is a little weird (one can think of it as a steady kW output for an hour, by virtue of the "per hour"), but in reality the gal/hr value is an instantantenous Power value too, it's just that we might not think of it that way.

 

[3930dave]

Then, by the time I get it out of the garage, dusted off, all the proper power precautions, etc... and I pull the starter cord, bring up a few things.... the power comes back on 10 minutes later! :laughing:

Somebody else on here has one of those magic generators too ! His even works over phone lines, when he calls a friend !

If I could figure out how to make those type of gens, I'd own half of Monaco by now.... :thumbsup:

Rgds, D.

 

[MossRoad]

Yeah, I think it just like washing your car to make it rain. Carrying an umbrella to make it sunny. Buying a generator to make sure the power never goes out. Take it all in stride. Insurance, I guess. :laughing:

 

[Egbert]

My 8500/7500 generator consumes about a gallon per hour. The good news is I can run everything in the house off this thing. After a 10 day outage from an ice storm, I decided I'd rather have a better option than candles.

I've thought seriously about getting a solar generator but the costs are a bit high for now. The big advantage is not having to worry about finding gas or putting up with the noise.

Has anyone tried a solar unit? Here's a link for an example ...

135 Amp 4000 Watt Solar Generator Just Plug and Play not A Kit | eBay

 

[DarkBlack]

Note: (Rough math here): 1 gal/hr of propane has about 26.8 kW of power in it, so 3 gal/hr is 80.4kW, so your generator's efficiency is about 17% at full load (14kW). I think that's about right for an internal combustion engine.

No. Above is exactly what you wrote.
I only tried to give you a simple technical tip for your post. No need to get defensive and start making things up.

 

[Larry Caldwell]

Your case is much different than most folks around here. I was just telling my kid that was worried about getting stuck in the car in a snowstorm that in Indiana, you are rarely, if ever, less than a mile from a house, building, business, etc... It seems most folks around here purchase large generators to run their entire house during power outages, storms, etc... just for convenience, and they don't plan for how much that convenience will cost them, then are shocked when it consumes a couple hundred dollars worth of fuel in a few days after a storm.

That's why I like my little camping generator that will run 4.5 hours on a gallon of gas. It will run the freezer and the TV at the same time, but that's it.