Forum Discussion

HiTech's avatar
HiTech
Explorer
Jul 06, 2013

Natural gas addition to genset

Anyone know a good source for dual fuel or tri fuel converted gensets? I am more concerned with a quality conversion than which brand, model or quietness of the genset. Price is always a concern of course.

My application will be power outage use to run a garage fridge with an RV style transfer switch, from natural gas as a fuel source.

Alternate use would be to run the camper 30 amp service in the event of a hurricane evacuation.

3000 watts is the minimum I would be looking at. Larger would run more things which is nice up until the point it is o big nd heavy it is hard to move around even on wheels.

Jim
  • Old___Slow's avatar
    Old___Slow
    Explorer
    Jul 06, 2013
    Wayne,

    Glad to see a post from you, old timer to RV.Net.


    Sal,

    Where are you. You have some great answers on this subject.


    O&S
  • MEXICOWANDERER's avatar
    MEXICOWANDERER
    Explorer
    Jul 06, 2013
    Hi Tech,

    Natural gas burns a lot hotter than gasoline or diesel. And provides about 30% less horsepower. So oversize your selection by 30% KW wise. I play a 400 CFM 120vac fan on an air cooled NG genset engine. Natural gas is sometimes harder to fire off in some air cooled engines. More difficult starting. But the energy source is only limited by your pocketbook. A nice feature.
  • msiminoff's avatar
    msiminoff
    Explorer II
    Jul 06, 2013
    HiTech wrote:
    Anyone know a good source for dual fuel or tri fuel converted gensets?
    Hi Jim,

    I have the Triple fuel kit from Generator Sales on my EU2000i. They have a kit for the 3000i and 6000i too.

    Runs great on LPG, natural gas, and gasoline.

    Cheers
    -Mark
  • HiTech's avatar
    HiTech
    Explorer
    Jul 08, 2013
    I will look at these sources. I knew natural gas derated output, but not by that much. The big reason for it vs gasoline is convenience and availability to run the insulin fridge, especially if I am not home and they have the need.

    Yet another power outage in the neighborhood while not home. This is getting old, fast.

    Jim
  • christopherglen's avatar
    christopherglen
    Explorer
    Jul 08, 2013
    how long do you have to run the fridge? Maybe an inverter/charger with a battery bank would work for short outages..
  • mena661's avatar
    mena661
    Explorer
    Jul 08, 2013
    If it was me, I'd spend that generator and conversion money on 4 or more grp 27's (a few days worth of power without any sun) and three 230W solar panels. BTW, if you need 3000W minimum, a Honda EU3000 isn't going to do that with it's 2800W continuous rating. You'd probably need two Honda EU2000's for 3200W.
  • mlts22's avatar
    mlts22
    Explorer
    Jul 08, 2013
    If I were getting a three-way conversion, I'd not go with a 3000 watt model. I'd go for a converted Yamaha 4500 watt unit or even the Honda 6500 watt unit. There is significant power loss in using CNG or even propane compared to gasoline, so might as well have a safety margin, especially when dealing with the A/C's startup current.
  • Wayne_Dohnal's avatar
    Wayne_Dohnal
    Explorer
    Jul 08, 2013
    With some quick preliminary testing my eu2000i had the same maximum power output on propane as it does on gasoline. Having heard otherwise I was surprised.

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