Natural gas addition to genset

[HiTech]

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

[mena661]

You figure out what you want to do here Jim?

[aruba5er]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

[christopherglen]

how long do you have to run the fridge? Maybe an inverter/charger with a battery bank would work for short outages..

[HiTech]

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

[msiminoff]

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

[MEXICOWANDERER]

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.