"Pete C." wrote in message
...

Twayne wrote:

RBM wrote:
"Lee" wrote in message
...
A friend has a backup generator that runs off of natural gas, and I
always
thought it would be nice to get one when I got a new house. Fast
forward -
I have a new (old) house, but it heats by oil and there is no gas
nearby.

The power has gone out several times this summer, so now I'm wondering
what the options are. Are there any generators that use oil? I know
there
are propane generators, but was thinking it would be nice not to worry
about another tank and delivery schedule.

Any recommendations? I need something *simple* to use. So far the
outages
have lasted around 6 hours. They are annoying in the summer, but I'm a
little concerned about more occurring in the winter.

It won't be as cheap as a NG/LP generator, but a diesel generator will
run
fine on heating oil, runs at half the RPM's of a gas generator, and
will
last much longer


Well, it'll run fine on #1 fuel oil; not other numbers. #1 is actually
kerosene but with a little less filtering since it's not used in
automtives. You might have to clean the filter a little more often with
#1, gut it's an easy job.
If you heat with #2 fuel oil, do NOT use that unless the genset is
specifically designed FOR #2 fuel oil.

HTH

#2 fuel oil and #2 diesel are the same thing. #2 fuel oil gets red dye
and is exempt from transportation fuel taxes. #2 fuel oil is also known
as "off road diesel" as it is commonly used in construction and logging
equipment that doesn't operate on the public roads and is exempt from
the transportation fuel taxes.

Sorry, I checked, part of that is myth. You really need to check your oil
supplier, apparently in areas that have a lot of oil heat, heating oil is a
cheap low grade oil that they supply, as it doesn't take much to burn in a
furnace. Diesel fuel is more refined and has a specific cetane rating,
similar to gasoline's octane rating, so your engine will last longer and not
have ring/cylinder damage. The reason you need to check your fuel supplier
is because some areas actually use diesel fuel for heating oil, some areas
don't. I found this all out when I bought a diesel generator and checked
with several major oil companies.