On Jun 8, 5:47 pm, zxcvbob wrote:
I was tempted to buy a Honda 2000W electronic generator at the state
fair last year because they were on special for $899. (that's a great
price) I decided not to get one because (1) I hate spending $900+ and
(2) the electric power here is very reliable.

But I'm still interested in emergency generators even if I may never get
one.

Does anyone have experience with 2kw to 5kw diesel generators? Yanmar
makes them -- very expensive and hard to find -- and there are Chinese
knockoffs for less than $1000. (If you search on "Yanmar diesel
generator" you will probably find more links for the Chinese generators
that just have the word "Yanmar" in the page somewhere.)

They run at 3600 RPM rather than the 1800 I expected. So is there any
real advantage over gasoline? How long do 3600 RPM diesel engines last?
Gasoline engines are sometimes only rated for a few hundred hours. The
online specs never give this rating. I guess it's safer to store 100
gallons of diesel fuel during the blizzard (or hurricane, or whatever)
season than it is 150 gallons of gasoline.

Bob

I don't know if you have a tractor, but I bought a PTO driven
generator for mine a year or so ago. That solves the fuel storage
problem. I mounted it on a small trailer and park it in the shed. When
I need it I hook it to the tractor, drive up to the house and plug it
in to a transfer switch. I bought a 12kW generator on ebay for $600.
If I have projects far from the hose I can pull the generator out
there and run my power tools.