Time to upgrade our old reliable, she’s got over 1200 hours now over the last 19 years. Our longest outage here has been 19 days, scads of 12 hour to a few day outages. Still starts on the second pull, just like the day I brought it home. It’s a 12000/9000, Honda motor with a Briggs generator. Looking at the Kubota Lowboy diesel generators, either the 11,000 or 14,000. The 11 would work but the 14 would be a whole home type deal(well, septic, water heater) no picking and choosing breakers and wouldn’t work as hard. Any thought, ideas, experiences or opinions? What do you have and how has it stood up with what kind of maintenance? Gas or diesel, no propane or natural gas reasonably available. Owl
Don't own one. Diesel fuel systems will be much happier sitting around for extended periods and fuel can be stored long term. If I ever do it, I'm going this route and calling the power co to come disconnect. https://www.pdgenerators.com/product-page/30-kw-general-motors-lp-natural-gas-generator
If you are replacing it seems your best bet would be to buy one to run the whole house If you choose diesel and the fuel might sit you have to run fuel treatment in the fuel or the diesel will grow fungus
I have a small 6500w Kubota "low boy" I think it's a solid unit. I built this "doghouse" for it for moving in around with the forks on the tractor, keep it out of the weather, keep out the mice and it's got 3" of foam insulation surrounding it. I wired in a light for heat and 100w bulb ensures easy starting but the glow plugs do fine normally. A buddy has one and complains about the fuel usage @ +/- a gallon per hour. I can't verify that myself. Having concerns that it was a bit under powering the house, when I found my current 20kw (diesel) with a 190g tank/base. All I had to do was build a building for it. I do treat the fuel with a biocide just in case. Alge growth can cause problems with larger tanks (longer storage times possible) . I've kept heating oil (diesel fuel) in 275 & 1000 gallon tanks and for decades and have never had a problem so don't be overly worried about it. It's just that in the winter, it's very possible that a power outage can constitute an "emergency" where you want your chit to work! No sence in being mostly prepared! That photo (in the snow) was a couple of weeks ago (4-5-24) and we were "out" for 4 days running 24/7!
I think "reasonably" is the key word. I'm guessing that means as in price. At least, that is what it means around here. Sure, I can get it, but it is usually over $5/gal for me since I don't use much, so I wouldn't want to buy enough to keep a generator going for days if I don't use it otherwise.
Just keep an eye on consumption rates. Propane has lower btu's per gallon and tanks are filled to 80% (for expansion) and (check me on this) can only effectively vaporize down to about 15-20% . This means that you have 60-65% of your tanks gallon rating available for use. I am not a propane expert so make your own inquiries about tank size and expected run times. After 3-4 days with a widespread outage earlier this month, lots of propane tanks ran out around here with around 2' of wet snow and hundreds of lines,poles and trees down across the roads. This eliminated delivery trucks, even IF they had a generator to fill (electric pump) their trucks!
We have a 20 KW Honeywell Standby Generator, completely automatic, not really a Luxury for us, my Wife is dependent on an oxygen concentrator, since she had Covid in 2021. I am a truck driver, and often away from home for 5-6 days, so a portable generator isn’t an option, the Wife wouldn’t be able to set up a portable generator, especially at 2:00 am in a snowstorm. our’s runs on propane, we have Three 420# tanks, that have a usable capacity of approximately 100 gallons each. At half load, the generator is rated to burn 2 gallons/hour. I also have Two 100#/25 gallon tanks, that I can transport, if the propane company can’t refill us when needed. At half load, that is approximately 7 days of continuous running. To extend our run time, we will cycle our generator on and off, at 2-3 hour intervals, this lets her concentrator recharge her oxygen tanks, and keeps the refrigerators and freezers cold wow, $5.00/gallon , that’s Legalized Rape and Sodomy, in the last year, we have paid $2.18-2.61/gallon delivered, not Cheap, especially compared to grid power, but you do what ya gotta do. We have had our power “De-Energized” for over a week for Fire Danger (we weren’t home), plus some shorter safety outages, and we have been without power many times due to weather, a couple times of about 5 days, just part of Life where we Live “Downtown Brightwood” Doug
Nah, it is just a reflection of our prices around here since everything is trucked in - and I'm sure rental of my tanks figures in on it too. Actually, I was taking a guess and I looked at my account today and they are saying $4.55/gal. But I'm still at 55% so I'm good (I have two 100 gal tanks). If I lived further east and/or south so was closer to a big town, I would pay more like the average shown below - but my housing costs would be much higher.
My propane company says at 30% you should call (if they don't automatically catch it - my tanks send the company my levels). With my old 500 gal tank that I had removed, I was still using at 5% - but that was not during winter. They won't truck larger tanks away with more than 5% of propane in there and will charge you if they have to transfer the propane to a truck before transfer (IDK if that is state law or fed law for transportation)
You have a catch 22 I myself would rather pay a little more to live as I would consider it out in the country
I’m sure you had your reasons but for most people’s needs, 20kw is a monster overkill generator. 10k would be more than enough for my all electric house and lp use might be near half as much. Our propane is 2.09$ per gallon today. It really varies across the country and of course all propane is trucked in everywhere. Some places support a higher market price, just like firewood.
