Small *diesel* generators

 

Reposting this here.  Thanks.

Bob

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Small *diesel* generators
Date: Fri, 08 Jun 2007 17:47:48 -0500
Newsgroups: alt.home.repair

I was tempted to buy a Honda 2000 watt electronic generator at the state
fair last year because they were on special for $899.  (that's a great
price)  I decided not to get one because (1) I hate spending $900+ and
(2) the electric power here is very reliable.

But I'm still interested in emergency generators even if I may never get
one.

Does anyone have experience with 2kw to 5kw diesel generators?  Yanmar
makes them -- very expensive and hard to find -- and there are Chinese
knockoffs for less than $1000.  (If you search on "Yanmar diesel
generator" you will probably find more links for the Chinese generators
that just have the word "Yanmar" in the page somewhere.)

They run at 3600 RPM rather than the 1800 I expected.  So is there any
real advantage over gasoline?  How long do 3600 RPM diesel engines last?
Gasoline engines are sometimes only rated for a few hundred hours.  The
online specs never give this rating.  I guess it's safer to store 100
gallons of diesel fuel during the blizzard (or hurricane, or whatever)
season than it is 150 gallons of gasoline.

Bob

 

Per zxcvbob:

I went the Honda EU2000 route last year.

Same as you - pretty reliable electric around here.

Do you have natural gas where you live?

I'm short on actual experience, but it sounds to me like a nat
gas fired generator gets around most of the care and feeding
issues that we have with gasoline machines.

Besides storing gas and draining the carb/tank between uses,
another issue that I hear coming up over and over again is
consumption.   "Feeding the beast" in one person's words.

When the electric's out odds are that gasoline is harder to
obtain and the more capacity the gennie has, the faster it drinks
the stuff. Score one more point for natural gas...

My vehicle has a beeeeeeg gas tank (41 gallons) and if I try to
keep it at least half full I'm hoping that will take care of much
of the storage issue unless there's a *really* long outage.

The rest of my fuel storage consists of a couple of six-gallon
containers in the garden shed which I keep rotating through the
lawnmower.


Finally, think about how you're going to get that alternative
electric power into the house.  Right now I'm depending on a few
very robust extension cords (as in #9 wire...).

In retrospect, I think the first thing I'd invest in is a proper
cutover box:  something that would accommodate just an EU2000
(i.e. no 220) or a larger generator.  

The extension cord solution doesn't sound too bad when the power
goes out bco a summer thunderstorm.... but I'm thinking that an
ice storm in the middle of the night in the winter may make me
wish I'd gotten a cutover switch.
--
PeteCresswell

 



I've had two eu2000s.  The first one lasted about 12,000 hours and the
second only about 7000 hours.  Most of the time they were running at about
1/3 load so they engine speed was greatly reduced from the maximum, which I
suppose is 3600 rpm (though some people here have said that an eu2000 won't
start producing output until it reaches 2800 rpm--this I do not accept).
Honda made it pretty easy to drain the carburator for storage.  I always add
a little Sta-Bil to the last bit of gas, run it, then drain the carb and
spray it with carb cleaner by removing the float bowl.  You can also get a
conversion kit for propane and then you won't have to worry about fuel
spoiling.  BTW they are (were recently anyway) selling for $895 in South
California.

I know nothing about diesels.

 

Ulysses wrote:

What were the failures when the EUs died?

Pete C.

 



generators

which I

On both of mine the so-called "governor gear" broke.  This is a small
plastic gear that is in the same position as a governor gear inside, say, a
Honda GX engine but since the engine speed is governed by electronics
controlling the carburator the only real purpose I can see for this plastic
gear is to lubricate the engine parts by splashing oil everywhere.  It looks
like it could also dampen the engine speed a little because it has fins that
are partially immersed in the motor oil.  In both case the engine failed due
to, from what I can see, lack of lubrication.  I'm going to be taking eu2000
#2 to a third authorized Honda dealer to see if Honda will replace the
cylinder, piston, crankshaft, piston rod, etc.  If they don't fix it I
probably won't be buying any more Hondas.  I think for $900 I should get
something with an engine that can be rebuilt.

The really sad part is that I knew more about the insides of the eu2000
engines that either of the Honda Authorized Service Centers guys knew.  And
I don't think I know all that much.