Plus 10 for you @Bing. Chances are it will be dark, stormy, windy and wet when the power goes out and without a good ground the generator can give you a thrill you won’t forget. I learned about the interruption in a water service ground the hard way. That was 30+ years ago. I’m not sure I could handle a jolt like that these days.
db,do you remember when prices started going crazy in the seventies?Parity is when you make a comparable wage or means and are able to engage the services or produced items from other people.If I make $3 an hour ,its hard for me to afford something produced by someone else who makes $15 an hour,that was always one the beefs non union workers had,they couldnt afford the services or goods made by people who had the union benefits and protections of the unions,and sometimes having triple the wages of non union people.Parity in a nutshell means I have similar buying power as you.
Always be very careful when meddling with electricity,ground faults and the such can be very dangerous,electricity will seek the easiest path to ground,as a rule.
I try to remember “A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing” when jumping into something new and very often when throwing out bits and pieces of knowledge that I have acquired over the years. It’s one thing to give someone the insight to get past some unfamiliar problem but quite another to give someone a false sense of mastery that results in them jumping in way over their heads. I often recognize the hesitancy of other regulars here to rush in too quickly with advice that is likely beyond the OP’s abilities. But compared to several other automotive help forums I visit there is more insightful, productive help given to the average poster who drops in here with a problem than even the vehicle specific sights.
But if anyone were to ask I’m all for bringing back Rand & Rave. excuse me, Rant & Rave.
Thanks . . . now I can say I learned something today
That might just be the high point of the day, because everything at work pretty much went to . . .
Work happens…
I’m sure it can be done. I’ve seen large whole house generators that is powered by a V8.
I’d choose propane/NG long before I used a gasoline engine. Noise during use, volatility of the fuel, complications of long durations sitting idle…
Several automotive type engines are used for boats and gensets,as TT said,the gaseous fuel is the perfect partner for a generator
A modern car engine won’t be easily converted to operate on natural gas or propane. The power train control system can’t be modified to deal with it.
you can buy a crate engine and put anything you want on it or use a rig like the Navy used on the Ford cars they ran on CNG ,a standard engine is pretty easy to convert.Fuel injection would cause some problems I would imagine,GM used the 8.1 litre engines on pumps etc,fairly recently,with different fuel options.
The best engine for a home generator is a diesel engine. One problem with home generators is that the engine spends a lot of time in a condition known as “high idle” in industrial engine terminology. The standby fuel consumption of most car engines is from .25 to .6 or more gallons per hour, depending on displacement, and that’s at a 600 rpm idle speed. Imagine what that would be if the engine was running at high idle, a governed 3600 rpm no load condition. Most likely anywhere from 1.5 to 3 gallons per hour.
Diesel engines have a much lower idle and high idle fuel consumption than gasoline engines do, even though their full power fuel consumption rates may actually be similar, which is one of the reasons they dominate large industrial engines.
That’s also why premium gasoline generators are going to the “inverter generator” design. Unlike AC, DC can be generated at any rpm and that DC is then converted to AC by an electronic inverter, 60 Hz no matter what rpm the engine is actually turning, this allows the engine to be in a low idle condition during low power consumption periods.
At full power, the fuel consumption of a regular alternator and an inverter generator are similar, it’s when thermostat turns the air conditioner or refrigerator compressor off where the inverter generator saves the fuel by not wailing away at a 3600 rpm high idle while it’s not really powering anything of significance.
The best engine for a home generator is a diesel engine
They now have slow turning propane and natural gas engines in standby generators for your home up to 48kW single phase.
They even have portable versions up to 10kW that can connect directly to a BBQ propane tank for around a grand!
I have a 275g fuel oil tank in my basement and a 500g propane tank buried in my yard. The issues with leaking fuel oil (diesel) tanks strikes fear in anyone that has ever owned a home with one buried in the ground…
With how infrequent it is needed, fuel efficiency isn’t really even a consideration. Convenience, low risk and quiet operation are the key factors in my book…
Great Idea working on the same thing myself! You can get a generator head from Central Georgia Generator and governor from Governors America. If you have a functional engine this route is much cheaper than the $8-10000 price tag for Briggs and Genarac products. A 25K head is about $1000 and the governor is less than $300 some much cheaper. The main problem I am currently facing is connecting the generator to the engine. Im currently leaning towards making a custom disk to bolt to the back of the engine and using off the shelf drive shaft parts for the rest of the connection. I initially had planned to bolt the generator straight to the back of the engine but decided if i didn’t get the alignment perfect it would wipe the bearings in one piece or the other Im using a Cheverolet 2.8L gas engine from an old S10.
Mcgiver would be disappointed in you guys that want to use generators as generators . The point is people are curious and sometimes can’t afford proper equipment or maybe are located more than a couple miles from Walmart. I will bet the guys who buy 2000 dollar Honda generators don’t play scrabble or put together 1000 piece puzzles … or do they ??? Did they play with Lego? Or Mechano ? Did they bronze-weld tomato soup cans together to repair an exhaust system? Did they pop-rivet sheet metal sub frames and cover it with tar? Probably not … live free or die …
I have a 17kw generator, and I played scrabble, put together puzzles and built many things out of legos.
No, I’m of the opinion that you perform a repair correctly or you do without. I’m sharing the road with others, I don’t want the liability that comes with jerry-rigging makeshift repairs. Maybe you do.
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