Heating with wood...but

[sb47]

You wouldn't think gas millage is important with generators, but it is. I had 2 gens, one was a TS 5500 watt unit and the other was a Honda eu3000i 3000 watt unit.
Power went out for 14 days after a hurricane and I ran two houses. One house had the TS gen and the other had the Honda. The TS gen burned 3 times what the Honda did. Now I know they are not exactly equal, power wise but fuel efficiency can make a big difference. Not only is it cheaper to run the Honda but if fuel is hard to get, it's even more important.

 

[NSMaple1]

I think this is a bit funny. I have a 500 gallon propane tank and propane is my enemy. However if I had natural gas then yes I'd have a stand by generator and all gas appliances. When you are limited to the supply of propane, because it's expensive and in a tank, it's no different than having a gas or diesel generator. Some may disagree. But I'll trade convenience for a few days of harder work because let's face it if I lost power in the middle of winter my propane is already half gone so I'm not making it more than a few days with a stand by generator running 24/7 so I can watch TV and pretend nothing is wrong.

If I had a big LP tank here, it would have LP in it and I would also be using it for a stove, etc.. If I had a gennie hooked to it also, I would be sure to keep quite a bit in the tank - having 500 gallons of LP on hand would sure beat slinging 5 gallon jugs. Especially if the local gas station couldn't pump gas in a more widespread prolonged outage.

My gennie also wouldn't be a big one or running 24/7. Far from it. Heck, we had a 2 day outage in November and I didn't even get mine out until into day 2.

In reality, I would likely have a small diesel gen hooked up to a fuel oil tank, before I went the LP route - don't think many right around here have LP, so the oil truck goes by way more often than I see an LP truck.

 

[MAD MARK]

You wouldn't think gas millage is important with generators, but it is. I had 2 gens, one was a TS 5500 watt unit and the other was a Honda eu3000i 3000 watt unit.
Power went out for 14 days after a hurricane and I ran two houses. One house had the TS gen and the other had the Honda. The TS gen burned 3 times what the Honda did. Now I know they are not exactly equal, power wise but fuel efficiency can make a big difference. Not only is it cheaper to run the Honda but if fuel is hard to get, it's even more important.

I believe the TS5500 is a regular generator, and the Honda is an inverter generator.

That makes all the difference in the world talking about "gas millage"

 

[NSMaple1]

You wouldn't think gas millage is important with generators, but it is. I had 2 gens, one was a TS 5500 watt unit and the other was a Honda eu3000i 3000 watt unit.
Power went out for 14 days after a hurricane and I ran two houses. One house had the TS gen and the other had the Honda. The TS gen burned 3 times what the Honda did. Now I know they are not exactly equal, power wise but fuel efficiency can make a big difference. Not only is it cheaper to run the Honda but if fuel is hard to get, it's even more important.

Absolutely. Fuel consumption is my number one factor in running a gennie in an outage.

 

[Mustang71]

I only heat with the lp and supplement with wood so one tank of propane a year is all I get. Sometimes it lasts 2 years. Like many others my generator was free and it will run my whole house including my electric water heater. It's some Chinese brand but has worked for me when I need it and is close to 15 years old.

We have a Honda at work that ships fuel but doesn't run much for power . If I were to buy a new one I'd get a dual fuel one that runs on gas and lp they are pretty cool. As usual I'd be out of 20lb propane tanks and gas lol.

 

[timbrjackrussel]

I like gasoline and propane for powering a backup generator. Natural gas, not so much. Call me overly concerned, but I like the idea of having the fuel in my possession, not relying on someone (or someone's system) to deliver the fuel as needed.

In the event of a MAJOR event (storm, earthquake, zombie apocalypse) where there could be wide spread damage, the first public services to get turned off are usually electrical and natural gas. If your backup genny runs on natural gas, it's worth little more than its scrap metal value until gas service is restored - which may take only hours or take many days depending on the level of damage needing repair.

Exactly what happened here Aug. 2011. A tornado ripped apart the town and the natural gas was shut off to the whole town for many days. The natural gas generator at the town hall wouldn't run. A large portable diesel unit was trucked in. I like having the fuel in my yard, be it wood, diesel or gasoline. And I can move them as needed.

 

[Haywire Haywood]

My plan is to be really smelly when they find me and then invade their dreams for weeks afterward.