Maybe 2.00$ a kilowatt as an example only, but possibly true for some .
The Generac air cooled HD is not designed for prime continous power,
Any 3600rpm units life is 3000-5000 hrs or 4 months or so, how it is
loaded is important. Im sure Generac has other prime power units, but
the cost. Figure only 1/3rd of the ng burned is converted to
electricity, heat and friction make up th other 2/3 . An 1800 rpm unit
lasts 4 times as long 10-20000 hrs. A 900 rpm Lister over 100000 hrs,
that is prime power. A cheap Honda or Yamaha inverter type with load
dependant rpm could theoreticly last 100,000 hrs. if you kept rpm under
900. The 3000w unit can do that developing only 1-200 watts. For
longest life get a Yamaha or Honda inverter converted to Ng and keep
rpms low. 10,000-12,000 hrs off them is common at medium 50% load , but
at 900 rpm 100000 is possible. Yamaha is heard to have superior
electronics, but I wonder if it isnt really that most people buy the
1600-2000 watts units and just overload them and never consider surge
load, effectively people just abuse them.

Did the math on this a while back when these things just came to market...

I found that i'd need to sell the power back to the utility and run the
generator all the time to break even. Then what I'd get is free heat from
the generator exhaust.

Some electric utilities (because of regulations) do have to buy back
power--your meter just runs backwards and you get a check.

You also need a source of cheap fuel! (Good luck with that, now...)

Check out microturbines; I believe a company called "capstone turbine" makes
them.

A fun project might be to build one yourself (Tesla turbine). Don't know
about efficiency as a gas turbine, but people still build (and even use)
these. It's kind of a hobby thing; google TEBA (Tesla engine builders
ass'n, or something.)

m Ransley wrote:

Maybe 2.00$ a kilowatt as an example only, but possibly true for some .
The Generac air cooled HD is not designed for prime continous power,
Any 3600rpm units life is 3000-5000 hrs or 4 months or so, how it is
loaded is important. Im sure Generac has other prime power units, but
the cost. Figure only 1/3rd of the ng burned is converted to
electricity, heat and friction make up th other 2/3 . An 1800 rpm unit
lasts 4 times as long 10-20000 hrs. A 900 rpm Lister over 100000 hrs,
that is prime power. A cheap Honda or Yamaha inverter type with load
dependant rpm could theoreticly last 100,000 hrs. if you kept rpm under
900. The 3000w unit can do that developing only 1-200 watts. For
longest life get a Yamaha or Honda inverter converted to Ng and keep
rpms low. 10,000-12,000 hrs off them is common at medium 50% load , but
at 900 rpm 100000 is possible. Yamaha is heard to have superior
electronics, but I wonder if it isnt really that most people buy the
1600-2000 watts units and just overload them and never consider surge
load, effectively people just abuse them.

You can`t break , the utility here buys back at 1/10 of what they
charge, then with initial cost, maintenance,operating cost and
depreciation you can never win. Unless you can dam a river.

"m Ransley" wrote in message ...
You can`t break , the utility here buys back at 1/10 of what they
charge, then with initial cost, maintenance,operating cost and
depreciation you can never win. Unless you can dam a river.

Some utilities have to pay MORE than they charge you, at least for
solar generated power. Would they also have to for something like this?

Bob