SlowBro wrote:
Gdetrailer wrote:
At least you do now realize the gen you already have will use far less fuel..
No it uses far more, because it's not an inverter genny. It's a cheap inefficient Chinese genny. Uses at least 50% more gas per hour, maybe as much as 300% more.
However, the cost difference for such a small amount of usage is what convinced me. Not worth saving eight bucks or so.
Fuel usage on portable gens are typically are for HALF LOAD or FULL LOAD, need to read pretty closely. They don't typically give no load figures since for the most part you WILL be putting some sort of load on the gen..
Found some info on fuel typical useage at idle for vehicles..
HERE2 liter engines .16 Gal per hr
4.6 liter engines .39 gal per hr
5-7 liter engines .84 gal per hr
Although, those numbers look suspiciously low, but I will humor these folks by using the the numbers above for comparison..
It takes a certain amount of fuel to air ratio to keep any ICE engine just running, period. Even with the use of fuel injection, idle cannot be sustained if you do not supply enough fuel for the air in each cylinder.
The more "displacement", the MORE fuel you will use just to keep the engine running at idle with no load.
A typical non inverter 4Kw portable gen uses a 6.5HP 212 CC engine like
THIS one. While this gen doesn't "idle" and it runs at 3600RPM all the time it is better on fuel than you think.
The gen in the link is rated at 16hrs of run time at 50% load, the fuel tank is only 4 gallons which comes out to only .25 gal (ONE QUARTER OF A GALLON)of fuel per hr at half load!
a Lighter load on that gen than half will most likely result in even a slightly lower amount of fuel used per hr.
Another example is a smaller 2Kw gen I used to have yrs ago, a "Buffalo Tools" Gen154, 2.4 HP engine, had 1.32 gallon tank and was rated at 9hrs run time at half load..
That is only .15 Gallon per hr at half load..
You can find some info on that one
HERESo, for a car to use less fuel idling than what that a 4Kw gen uses you would HAVE to have a displacement much smaller than a 2.0 liter engine and to find a car that uses less fuel than the old school 2Kw gen you would have to have a car with nothing more than a 2.0 HP lawn mower engine!
ANYONE that says else wise is only kidding themselves and totally ignoring physics.
