Homebrewed Electricity > Temporary power
Generator on LPG
kitestrings:
Three years ago I bought a "parts" generator on ebay. Aside from being setup for gas, we have this identical unit; Onan Commercial 4500, extended PTO . I thought we might be able to use the starter, control board, rectifier, regulator, etc, and ours has got pretty high run-hours. It didn't look like much. It came out of a bucket truck and an oil leak blew hydraulic oil from tip to tip.
I played with it a bit, some minor ignition issue, spent o-ring in the carb, and soon had it running enough to know the engine had some life to give - hours were quite low - the carburetor needed some work. Three years later I found a brand new LP carb, and the project took a turn:
Just got it going. This thing now runs like a top. And, we can drop it in place if/when we want to replace it or pull major repairs on our original unit:
JW:
I have a nice 6kw diesel gen-set. I lost the documentation but have run it several times. since its a diesel im happy with fuel economy. I actually ran my direct tv and picked up the signal just using the gen set. So its safe for electronics.
kitestrings:
Is that Onan green?
I guess the ideal thing is a to have robust, reliable and quiet generator that you rarely need. I've grown partial to LPG. It starts well in cold temps and doesn't carbon up nearly as much... and you don't have handle fuel. Gasoline is tricky now a days, because if it sits too long you can have some uninvited problems.
We originally set ours up so that we could use the same engine to split firewood. I keep the hydraulic pump permanently mounts on the end, and then just swap spacers to couple to the pump motor.
This keeps the noise in the shed, and lets me listen to music while I spit. It makes for a rather enjoyable fall day.
ChrisOlson:
--- Quote from: kitestrings on July 08, 2019, 03:30:17 PM ---I guess the ideal thing is a to have robust, reliable and quiet generator that you rarely need. I've grown partial to LPG. It starts well in cold temps and doesn't carbon up nearly as much... and you don't have handle fuel. Gasoline is tricky now a days, because if it sits too long you can have some uninvited problems.
--- End quote ---
We had a LPG generator and got rid of it. Way too inefficient and costly to run. The cost/kWh didn't make sense.
We got diesel but only use it for standby.
Our Honda EM4000SX is our main unit for peak load power to offset overload on the inverter. We have 100 gallon gas tank for it and refill it when it gets down to about 10-15 gallons left in it. I treat the gas with Stabil when it goes in the tank, have never had a problem with it. The tank gets refilled, on average, a little over once a year. It is wired into our XW-AGS for autostart by system demand.
Despite having around 1,000 gallons of gas thru it over the past 7 years it never fails to start on the first start sequence, even at 40 below zero when neither the diesel nor the LPG unit would start and run without significant pre-heat. It is in our generator room which is unheated, when it gets below zero in the winter time we have a 100 watt heat lamp that shines on the engine on the carb side. That's all it takes to get it to start reliably, which is 1/3 the power it would take to keep a diesel or LPG unit pre-heated to start on-demand, then go to full power output within 30 seconds to meet inverter overload. The gasoline generator can do it reliably, every single time.
To get our diesel started in the winter time for battery charging/load management I manually start the Honda and run it for an hour to warm it up to 70F in the generator room. Then start the diesel and let it idle for 10 minutes before bringing it online.
kitestrings:
The fuel efficiency is lower as you say, but in our case, the generator sits for months - I haven't run ours this spring/summer at all, except to exercise it. I do like not having to handle fuel. Diesel I suppose long-term is better, but every time I change oil in my truck, I'm reminded how comparatively messy and expensive it is, and you do have cold-temp starting to consider.
I haven't had starting issues with LPG, but when it gets real cold I usually just pop on some heat in the shed half an hour or so before I fire up. The thing I have had to watch is moisture at the air intake. It is not just the cold, but the combination of cold and humidity. We get these spells where it is warm wet/snow, then the temps drop 30-40 deg. Under vacuum the air filter can ice up real quick. I usually mount a shop light beside the intake and have it on it when the conditions warrant.
What is your diesel unit Chris?
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