Small *diesel* generators

[zxcvbob]

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

[ransley]

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.

[Meat Plow]

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.

[trader4]

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.

[Toller]

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!

[Meat Plow]

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.

[Pete C.]

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.

[Pete C.]

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.

[Meat Plow]

Well yeh there are a lot of variables. Personally I don't use it in small two stroke motors after 8 months because they don't run right. Luckily mine sit idle a max of 6 months.

[MarkL]

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.