Small *diesel* generators
 

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

Small *diesel* generators
 

On Jun 8, 3:47 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

at alt.energyhomepower are alot of off grid users. for occasional use
a Tri power honda inverter EU would be my choise. Its rpm is load
dependant and 15000 hrs life is known, vs 2-3000 for 3600 rpm. With
Honda you pay but its worth it, Look at Yamaha, There is alot of cheap
chinese stuff but quality is not well known.

Small *diesel* generators
 

On Jun 8, 7:04 pm, Meat Plow wrote:
On Fri, 08 Jun 2007 17:47:48 -0500, 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.

And what are you going to do with 100 gals of diesel when you don't
use it? That's one of the problems with either gas or diesel, ie
having a sufficient supply of fuel when you need it and rotating it so
doesn't turn bad from sitting around. With a diesel, if you have a
heating system that used fuel oil, I guess you could tap into that to
run the generator. However, if you have natural gas available, IMO,
that is the best fuel.




Bob

Find a gas unit with a pressurized oil system and filter if you want to
spend a grand or so. They usually are 5000-7500 watts and the motor will
last decades if it's serviced and maintained.

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#1 Usenet Asshole, March 2007
#1 Bartlo Pset, March 13-24 2007
#10 Most hated Usenetizen of all time
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Pierre Salinger Memorial Hook, Line & Sinker, June 2004
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Small *diesel* generators
 

"zxcvbob" wrote in message
...
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.


I don't know a darn thing about diesel generators, but Mayberry had the
EU2000 for $850 free freight last week.
I settled on the Yamaha EF1000 though; it is just cute!

Small *diesel* generators
 

Meat Plow wrote:

On Sat, 09 Jun 2007 00:23:06 +0000, trader4 wrote:

On Jun 8, 7:04 pm, Meat Plow wrote:
On Fri, 08 Jun 2007 17:47:48 -0500, 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.

And what are you going to do with 100 gals of diesel when you don't
use it? That's one of the problems with either gas or diesel, ie
having a sufficient supply of fuel when you need it and rotating it so
doesn't turn bad from sitting around. With a diesel, if you have a
heating system that used fuel oil, I guess you could tap into that to
run the generator. However, if you have natural gas available, IMO,
that is the best fuel.

Yeh that is a very important consideration. Even stabilized, gas lasts
tops 8 months or so before it starts to break down. Natural or LP gas is
the best.

My supplies of stabilized gas regularly last well over a year with no
issues. Back when I had supplies of diesel with stabilizer it would be
just fine after several years.

Small *diesel* generators
 

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've got an EU2000 and it is a wonderful unit. No, it's not cheap, but
it's quiet, reliable and light weight. It will also run about 12 hours
under light load on it's internal 1 gal tank and there are adapters
available that let you feed it from an external tank. You can also
parallel two of them.

Small *diesel* generators
 

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.