How much propane should a generator use?

I doubt he got 50 hours on 20 gallons of LP. I think he miscalculated. The best he could get would be about 35 hours on 1/2 load. Look at the stats for LP usage from Onan. With a Diesel, you can run almost a month on a full Diesel tank. With LP, you have to pack up and then go get LP to refill every few days. That means the COST of the Diesel fuel to drive to the LP filler and your time. You cannot legally add a GAS tank to Diesel motorhome that has an LP system/tank. There is a 3 fuel rule. Any 2 but not 3. THAT is why you see LP gensets on older Diesels versus the OEM adding anothe GAS tank for a Gas APU. I do not know the reason for 2 fuels only (supposed to be a federal rule/law), just the reason OEM's told us 20 years ago when we optioned the Motorhomes. Doug

booty51 wrote:
usage sounds good try to find a bulk supply try the yellow pages while traveling might be cheeper than buying at an rv park.If you are paying road taxes on it you are getting short changed since your rv does not use propane but diesel. Unless you have a propane injection on your motorhome.

Booty

Almost all the Flying J's sell propane. Price at the closest FJ is the extremely close to what the bulk dealer charged me. And that way just yesterday. But the bulk dealer came to me!! But not all of them will do that.

Berner2 wrote:
Mine was plumbed to run off of liquid which leads to the system gumming up and hard or non starting. Once it was fixed I re plumbed it to the vapor outlet like the appliances. I read about it on the Onan web site and was a little disappointed that the service guy at Cummins didn't suggest it as a way of avoiding problems. It starts and runs like it should and there are no more propane odors.

X-2. Mine is converted to run on the vapor side also. Runs much better than it did on liquid. Took it to a Onan dealer, for tune up, and he did not like that one bit. Was going to change it back, but after a bit of research on his part, he left it on the vapor side. When I got it back, it runs like a top! If you look at the current Onan LP generators, you will see that they are all running off the vapor, and not liquid. My only grip is that the LP regulator has been discontinued by Onan, and there is no recommended substitute. So when the regulator goes???

Problem I had with my propane 6500 gen. was here in Canada finding a place to buy propane? I now have a new coach with a 7500 Onan diesel quiet gen. no more problems.
rebel

my LP 6500 Onan uses right at 9/10 a gal per hour running both roof 13.5k ACs and various other 120v items. I have a 40 gal LP tank. Running out of LP during hot summer days when parked can be a problem. Gasoline or Diesel is more convenient to obtain when parked than LP. LP in the STL area runs $2.50-$2.99 per gallon. Based on gas and diesel prices in this area....it would be about a wash to try and swap genny to gasoline or swap genny out for a diesel. The benefit of the swaps would be more convenient fuel sources.

usage sounds good try to find a bulk supply try the yellow pages while traveling might be cheeper than buying at an rv park.If you are paying road taxes on it you are getting short changed since your rv does not use propane but diesel. Unless you have a propane injection on your motorhome.

Booty

I'd say that 50 hours on 20 gallons is not too bad. But there are many variables.

As far as the smell when it runs out, I am not sure on that one...I don't think I have ever been around a propane generator when it ran out of fuel.

Pepperoni wrote:
If your stovetop still lights, you are not out of propane. Your propane tank should have a visible level indicator, too.

If you have propane, the genset may have shut down due to low oil level.
Frequent oil level checks is a good habit.

You may have found the number one complaint with propane gensets.
Inconvenience of short tank life. It may be cheaper to stay in campgrounds with electric service.

I have a 25 gal propane tank for the generator, and 35 gal for the appliances.

Duckiee asked, How much propane should a diesel generator use?

He went on to say he has a Cummins diesel with a propane generator. Give the guy a break for not wording the heading correctly. Sounds like a very legitimate question to me.

I have a Cummins and a propane 6.5kw Onan. I don't find LP consumption to be an issue, if the generator was to take a dump I would probably go back with a diesel, but, I wouldn't change for the sake of price or availability.

The fact that he smells propane might indicate that he has a fuel delivery problem. I recently had a similar problem and there was an issues with the fuel lines etc to the tune of $1200. Mine was plumbed to run off of liquid which leads to the system gumming up and hard or non starting. Once it was fixed I re plumbed it to the vapor outlet like the appliances. I read about it on the Onan web site and was a little disappointed that the service guy at Cummins didn't suggest it as a way of avoiding problems. It starts and runs like it should and there are no more propane odors.

I estimate 40hrs or less on 25gal with my 6200w LP onan generator when powering the A/C

i try to use my gasoline portable as much as possible

it depends on the price of LP vs gasoline

right now i can get propane for $1.70 gal, which makes it cheaper to operate the onan for A/C vs $4 gal for gas

camping in the midwest last summer it was more cost effective to use gasoline than LP at $3 gal