Your last generator Maintenance Run

[Industrial Toys]

Don't know why to bother mentioning LED lights when discussing loads. Unless you have some LED monument lighting, wait I do. The capacitance in the house wiring probably uses more power.

Funny, I asked my lady friend on the weekend if she knew what LED stood for. I forget what she said, but it was comical. Told her, and she said whe would have never guessed. Never asked what a Diode was though. Yet she has bought tens of thousands dollars worth of LED relamping.

 

[nikdfish]

Dug the champion 7kw dual fuel out of the tractor shed to give it a go. Oil good, battery good, hooked up a bottle of propane, started it using the electric start & let it run 25 min with a 1500 watt heater on each leg.

I haven't run it on gas for a couple of years now. I keep 7 20lb. jugs on hand "just in case". It could be a loaner or backup if there was an issue with the whole house unit.

The whole house 22kw unit was serviced recently & I just had the LP tanks topped off (2 500 gallon - we'd only used 160 gallons in the last two years).

 

[3930dave]

I exercised my PTO generator for an hour on Sunday, my load run concurrently was:

1) Baking a frozen pizza (electric)
2) Load of laundry in the clothes dryer (electric)
3) Dozen LED lights
4) Dishwasher/Well pump/Oil Burner Boiler

Got lunch and a bunch of chores done with 1.25 gallons of diesel. I used a stick to measure the tank level before the test and while refilling.

My next test will be to measure fuel consumption with a more idle load such as just a few lights, small electronics, and fridge.

Coupla bigger loads there, but nothing really for most PTO units..... lots of capacity :thumbsup:

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

have now loaned out both my portable generators, after going over both of them. One is close neighbor, older couple, so if my big gen conks out, which is unlikely,
I can go retrieve my other one and it can be the community gen. Have to explain to recipients carefully and repeatedly they can't let gens run for hours on end without any load but lights. One wanted to let it run unattended while she had evacuated to next town over. No....so her neighbor will run the gen while attended enough to run refrigerator, all she needs. My neighbor is going to jury rig something through his dryer outlet, who knows, electrical code nightmare and dangerous, but if done ever so carefully and fully disconnect the street line, well, I just don't want to know... It's called an interface box and go get one...this happens enough here that he really needs that.

predictions are now 49mph sustained winds and 7-10+++ inches of rain. 36 hours of continuous heavy rain, no way our power will stay on through that.
Almost makes me wonder if I should sand bag my outside gen. Sure wish I had installed that on a foot high riser...

In search of non ethanol gas since my local station has been out, found two more downtown. Filled up three cans of premium E0 and I'm ready, hopefully for nothing as
my propane gen does the work.

maybe I'll put a set of new plugs in the Generac 22kw, sort of a pat on the head and thanks in advance...

All that good karma you are creating d, will serve you well I'm sure. Keep us posted how you are doing.

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Don't know why to bother mentioning LED lights when discussing loads. Unless you have some LED monument lighting, wait I do. The capacitance in the house wiring probably uses more power.

Funny, I asked my lady friend on the weekend if she knew what LED stood for. I forget what she said, but it was comical. Told her, and she said whe would have never guessed. Never asked what a Diode was though. Yet she has bought tens of thousands dollars worth of LED relamping.

Are you prejudiced against optics ?

Laser capable of cutting steel.... that would be a fun load, and almost sounds like something you should have in stock !

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Dug the champion 7kw dual fuel out of the tractor shed to give it a go. Oil good, battery good, hooked up a bottle of propane, started it using the electric start & let it run 25 min with a 1500 watt heater on each leg.

I haven't run it on gas for a couple of years now. I keep 7 20lb. jugs on hand "just in case". It could be a loaner or backup if there was an issue with the whole house unit.

The whole house 22kw unit was serviced recently & I just had the LP tanks topped off (2 500 gallon - we'd only used 160 gallons in the last two years).

The beauty of propane and natgas..... long storage, worry-free.

All that work you've done against Murphy, chances are your grid won't go down for months....

Rgds, D.

 

[Industrial Toys]

And units absolutely notorious for not starting in these Canadian Winters. No thanks.

And, if it comes down to it, I want something I can work on and I don't happen to be a Gas Tech.

 

[Chilliwack Murray]

The main issue with gaseous fuel - LP or natural gas is these fuels have a very narrow air fuel ratio they will run in. Gasoline will run in a much wider mixture range, maybe not well, and with drastically higher emissions, but they will run.

Because of this, elevation, air temperature, changes in fuel pressure and very minor vacuum leaks can all make a gaseous unit not start, or if it does start, hunt terribly where a gasoline unit will puff or backfire away but usually keep running when you need it.

 

[3930dave]

Right tool, optimized for the job......

Would I take a $500 gasoline generator, do a cheap propane conversion, then move somewhere that regularly sees -40 down and depend on it for primary power ?

Rhetorical question, obviously.

Scale the reliablity to the application. I remember looking at a listing for a very remote property, Canadian high-north..... twin CAT diesel gens. I like redundancy at any level; neglecting it in that type of application could be lethal.

Automotive propane systems of 40 years ago were crude, compared to what is available today. Roush is running liquid propane injection today...... worlds different than those old systems.

Fuel System Overview - ROUSH CleanTech

Temperature/Pressure..... someone once told me there is a relationship.......... Propane can have issues with vapourization at low temps, when running it as a gas (vs. liquid). Stationary apps have the advantage of being able to add storage tanks (to increase surface area) that is harder to do in automotive systems.

Where do people often have issues with diesels ? Low Temps. Modern DEF systems add another set of low-temp problems. IMO, up north, DEF tanks need "block" heaters if you are after reliable performance.

At the propane tank level, we have options that weren't available 40 years ago. High-rel low-temp propane system - high wattage silicone heating pads are relatively inexpensive - I'd bond them to the tank with thermally conductive glue, and fire them at low temps to ensure initial vapourization.

Commercial installations of natgas gens often have (relatively) high pressure natgas on-hand already. Residential natgas pressure is (designed to be) very low. When an Eng buddy of mine built his retirement home, he went over the specs for the natgas generac he was getting installed, noted the pressure spec required for low temperature operation and went out and bought a second higher-pressure regulator for the generator ONLY, and had it plumbed in at his cost.

Would the avg consumer do that ^ ? No. Is my retired buddy ever likely to see a low temperature fuel pressure related problem on that installation ? Again, No.

I can say that, because he also went out and bought a Spare High-Pressure Regulator (not a common on-service-truck item), and wrapped it up for storage on his shelf at home. I realize that in the consumer market, "normal" people aren't even aware of these issues, let alone be willing to spend money pro-actively addressing them.....

As always, I don't mind kicking-around pretty much any remotely-related tech issue in this thread. That said, I find the issue of propane and natgas performance very interesting in it's own right, so decided to throw a line in the water with this thread, to see what bites there....

https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/oil-fuel-lubricants/417075-propane-natgas-any-fuel-related.html

Rgds, D.

 

[LouNY]

As far as propane powered generators, I have not personally owned one.
On the other hand I have owned and driven a few propane powered pickups and tractors.
Those vehicles had a liquid draw from the propane tanks that went to a water heated vaporizer,
those systems were very reliable and easy to use.
I have looked at propane gen sets but the fuel consumption and difficultly I would have in getting refueled
in my location in the winter soured that for me. (trucks would have to be chained to make my driveway safely most of the winter)

As far as natural gas it will never be available in my area unfortunately.
Also it is not an uninterruptible source of power, earthquakes, line breakage, booster station fails,
and high demand resulting in curtailments.