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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

17 Replies

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  • aruba5er's avatar
    aruba5er
    Explorer
    Jul 09, 2013
    Generac sell a 12kw for around 2400$. Complete less labor. AUTO START. who's going to be around to start it. Only trouble with natural gas, think Hurricane Sandy. No gas. Using it all to have spot fires and burn down houses. I have Natural gas and thinking of putting in Propane tank as back up. My fuel, my property. Not shared by anybody.
  • Chris_Bryant's avatar
    Chris_Bryant
    Explorer II
    Jul 09, 2013
    If it were me- I wouldn't fool around with adapting a portable to NG fuel, I would get a purpose built standby genset like this 14kw Kohler for $3500, which includes transfer switch, automatic starting, LP or NG vapor, etc..
    14 kw would run everything I have, and being automatic, nobody has to fool with it.
  • SaltiDawg's avatar
    SaltiDawg
    Explorer
    Jul 09, 2013
    mhoefer wrote:
    When you are in a hurricane, evac, the best fuel is the stuff you already have, gas or diesel. Ain't l,ely to have much NG or access to propane. At least you have gas in all your vehicle tanks. 3000 Honda would be the most miserly on gas, echo throttle, and run the essentials.

    May be true for an RV, however we homeowners in the DC area could not get gasoline last summer because most all of the gas stations were without power .... and everyone was lining up at the few stations that did have it.

    Propane was readily available and the competition for it was rather low. Propane lasts forever, is safer and easier to store, and will not gum up your carburetor. Again, these advantages are for a homeowner and may not be as important as to a RVer.
  • mhoefer's avatar
    mhoefer
    Explorer
    Jul 09, 2013
    When you are in a hurricane, evac, the best fuel is the stuff you already have, gas or diesel. Ain't l,ely to have much NG or access to propane. At least you have gas in all your vehicle tanks. 3000 Honda would be the most miserly on gas, echo throttle, and run the essentials.
  • Learjet's avatar
    Learjet
    Explorer
    Jul 09, 2013
    I have tested my Yamaha EF2600c to max load on Natural gas and propane and could get rated power on NG and LPG. It did seem to lose some surge capacity on NG and LPG.

    I look at it this way, If the engine has extra power margin to start, then any loss can be covered.

    For example, if you need 5 hp to produce 2600 watts, and the engine can make 6 hp on Gas and with a power loss still make 5 hp on vapor (NG or LPG) you can still pull full rated wattage on NG or LPG.
  • SaltiDawg's avatar
    SaltiDawg
    Explorer
    Jul 09, 2013
    Wayne Dohnal wrote:
    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.


    I see no reduction in power on my 7500 Watt home backup generator when I am using propane. Generally I see posts by people saying that they expect a 20%-30% reduction on LP or NG versus gasoline because the energy content per gallon on, say, propane, is less than gasoline. Well, if you use more gallons of LP per hour than gasoline that can make up for the lower energy density.

    Here is a discussion: Propane vs Gasoline Usage
  • 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.
  • mlts22's avatar
    mlts22
    Explorer II
    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.
  • 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.

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