# If you have a generator that uses propane, a question!



## Annsni (Oct 27, 2006)

Hubby and I need a new generator and we're looking at either a diesel one or a tri-fuel one. We have natural gas and would get a tri-fuel one plumbed in but if our natural gas went out, we would switch it to the propane tank - if that can be done on the fly. So how long can you run a generator on a 20 lb. tank? Hubby wants to get a rough idea of how much we'd have to change the tank. After the experiences with Sandy, we want to keep our options open! LOL


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## Travis in Louisiana (May 14, 2002)

According to what I have been told by several people, generators use a lot of Propane. Now, how long a 20 pound will last, I cannot tell you.

I just typed in PROPANE GENERATOR FUEL USAGE in Google and there is one link that compares all the fuels used for generators. I did not read all the links.


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## dkhern (Nov 30, 2012)

in stoves and heaters to change between propane and natural gas you have to change the orifaces. i expect here as well.


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## Annsni (Oct 27, 2006)

OK - Let's add in diesel. Let's say it's a 5,000 watt generator. We'd be using it to run the freezer, fridge and furnace at the least (no furnace in the summer).


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

Fuel usage will vary depending on the generator type and the electrical load, but this might give you some ideas:
http://www.generatorjoe.net/html/PropaneNGUse.html


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## fordy (Sep 13, 2003)

Annsni said:


> OK - Let's add in diesel. Let's say it's a 5,000 watt generator. We'd be using it to run the freezer, fridge and furnace at the least (no furnace in the summer).


...................A 5 kw genset will only run your freezer , fridge , and Maybe......the Fan blower motor on your furnace , IF any (2) of them are running at the same Time . IF both electric and natural gas are NOT working then the furnace is only going to blow cold air !!!
...................The best solution would be to install a whole house 12kw diesel genset with transfer switch , then IF both electric AND natural gas are OUT , you still have enough power from the genset to use 1500 watt electric heaters in several rooms . You need to consider a larger genset in my opinion . , fordy


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## Annsni (Oct 27, 2006)

fordy said:


> ...................A 5 kw genset will only run your freezer , fridge , and Maybe......the Fan blower motor on your furnace , IF any (2) of them are running at the same Time . IF both electric and natural gas are NOT working then the furnace is only going to blow cold air !!!
> ...................The best solution would be to install a whole house 12kw diesel genset with transfer switch , then IF both electric AND natural gas are OUT , you still have enough power from the genset to use 1500 watt electric heaters in several rooms . You need to consider a larger genset in my opinion . , fordy


Furnace is gas with a pilot light as is our water heater. Our kitchen is NG too. It's never gone out in the 22 years we've been here.

I went with the 5000 kw because that was what I saw online as what they were using to give the info. We'd most likely look at no smaller than an 8,000 kw. Oh - and the house is already fully wired for it thanks to the former owners. It's just that the old genny finally gave up the ghost.


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## fordy (Sep 13, 2003)

Annsni said:


> Furnace is gas with a pilot light as is our water heater. Our kitchen is NG too. It's never gone out in the 22 years we've been here.
> 
> I went with the 5000 kw because that was what I saw online as what they were using to give the info. We'd most likely look at no smaller than an 8,000 kw. Oh - and the house is already fully wired for it thanks to the former owners. It's just that the old genny finally gave up the ghost.


.............I wasn't referring to the pilot light , rather , I was talking about the Supply of natural gas . It can be interrupted with outages just as electricity , although probably less susceptible to problems than electric . , fordy


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## where I want to (Oct 28, 2008)

If I remember rightly, I calculated that my 8000kw propane generator use a gallon and a half an hour. The one time I used it for a two week period, I only ran it 4-5 hours a day because it was so expensive.
But it was the only one running for quite awhile in the area. I almost ran out of propane before they got the road open enough for the truck to get through.


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## Allen W (Aug 2, 2008)

20lb tank of propane won;t last as long as 5 gallon of gas. For long term use a 250 gallon lp tank would be advisable.


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## Annsni (Oct 27, 2006)

fordy said:


> .............I wasn't referring to the pilot light , rather , I was talking about the Supply of natural gas . It can be interrupted with outages just as electricity , although probably less susceptible to problems than electric . , fordy


Yep, I know it can be interrupted but it's never happened in all the years I've been dealing with NG in this area. IF it's out, it's very temporary because of the utility fixing it quickly (due to the explosion thing - LOL). But I know in big situations, it CAN happen but then if our NG was out for weeks, we'd have bigger issues. LOL 

However, we have a KILLER fireplace in my house. Seriously, with no heat in the house and the outside at 20 degrees, we get the room to be about 80 degrees. WITH the heat on in the rest of the house, we have to open the door because it gets too hot. If we had no heat, we'd get that fireplace going and put a blanket up across the doorway. It wouldn't help the pipes but it would keep us toasty AND we can cook on it. However, I'm thinking about getting one of those Buddy heaters since we always have the smaller propane tanks for the boat's BBQ.


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## Annsni (Oct 27, 2006)

Allen W said:


> 20lb tank of propane won;t last as long as 5 gallon of gas. For long term use a 250 gallon lp tank would be advisable.


That's what we're thinking. After Sandy:

Propane was easy to get
Natural gas supply was peachy
Diesel could be gotten easily

Gas - you had to wait on hours long lines and still the amount you could get was limited. 

So we would like to stay away from gas.


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## unregistered353870 (Jan 16, 2013)

I dont think you can switch from natural gas to propane on the fly it would probably take a few minutes of switching out parts but I may be wrong. But natural gas going out for any length of time is extremely unlikely anyway and if it does it means something really bad has happened that you wont be staying at your house anyway if you survived whatever caused the outage.


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## Annsni (Oct 27, 2006)

jtbrandt said:


> I dont think you can switch from natural gas to propane on the fly it would probably take a few minutes of switching out parts but I may be wrong. But natural gas going out for any length of time is extremely unlikely anyway and if it does it means something really bad has happened that you wont be staying at your house anyway if you survived whatever caused the outage.


Exactly. That's why if we were to go the tri-fuel, we'd get it professionally connected to the NG and be happy.


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

Propane usage is all dependent on the engine size of the gen.
and if that heavy load is always 'on'. then it will suck out a 20 pro tank in about 3 hours.
A 500 gallon tank would be far better.

Carb jets need to be changed to go from nat gas to propane just like on a stove.

Hard to beat nat gas if you already have it.


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## Callieslamb (Feb 27, 2007)

It all depends on how much wattage you use. We have a whole house propane generator. We filled a 500 gallon propane tank just for it, but both of our tanks are linked together. If we are careful, both tanks will run our house for 12-18 months - depending on how cold it is and how long it's cold. This will work as long as we only use what is necessary ( no TV). DH wired the circuit box so we can easily switch what we want on and off and can't overload the generator If we tried to run everything in the house at once, that 20 lbs wouldn't last long at all. The answer to your question depends on you.


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## ChristieAcres (Apr 11, 2009)

We run a Propane 13K Genset with Auto-Swith. That said, it is due to having to power up the well pump, also just run it long enough to get everything set up the way we want, then switch over to a 1KW Honda gas generator. We can go fairly long periods of time without power, just due to doing this, running our larger generator no more than one hour/day (for fridge/freezer). Any prolonged outage of any kind, I'd can up everything we had in the freezer without delay. As it is, I am now canning almost all the meat, fish, and crab we catch. I freeze berries, but will be discontinuing very much of that this season. The less we have in the freezer, the better! We heat with a wood stove, which also heats all our water in the Winter. In addition, we hang dry our clothes all year around (suspended steel racks DH built for the Winter and a line in warm dry weather). Today, we hung sheets outside to dry, but had a fire in our wood stove in the evening. Most of our appliances are Propane.


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## Ramblin Wreck (Jun 10, 2005)

I have a 7500 watt Honda duel fuled (gas or propane) generator. The book says it will use about .9 (9/10ths) gallon per hour of usage. Not sure how that translates into bottles of gas. Mine is plumbed to run of a designated 250 gallon tank. I wish I had a 10-12 KW PTO generator to run off the tractor. That would provide more mobility, and the Kubota tractors are very fuel efficient, at least I've found them to be so.


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

> The book says it will use about .9 (9/10ths) gallon per hour of usage. Not sure how that translates into bottles of gas.


It takes about 10% more propane (in gallons) than gas, and a 20 lb tank is about 4.5 gallons


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## Studhauler (Jul 30, 2011)

lorichristie said:


> running our larger generator no more than one hour/day (for fridge/freezer).


Is this a long enough run time to keep a refrigerator cool?

My gut feeling it would take two hours twice a day to keep a refrigerator cold inside. I have never had to test it; I got a generator for the Y2K scare and haven lost electricity for more that a few hours since then.


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## Ozarks Tom (May 27, 2011)

I put a tri-fuel kit on our 8.5kw, and put in a 250 gal propane tank, in series with our regular 500 gal tank. It runs the entire house, 2 freezers, 2 fridges, lights, and well pump. No reason it wouldn't run the furnace blower motor too.

Freezers will hold their cold 6-9 hours if not opened, while fridges only hold 4-6 hours. A little planning allows us to just run the gen set for about 1/2 hour 4 - 5 times a day during extended outages.

We just bought a 4k set for backup, which is enough to run the well pump, and the fridges, or a variation of appliances by throwing breakers. 

You can change immediately from propane to gasoline, and back again if needed.

As has been said, fuel usage will be dependent on motor size, and load.


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## Studhauler (Jul 30, 2011)

Thanks Tom; very informative.


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## Annsni (Oct 27, 2006)

You guys are such a help with this! I'm clueless but fortunately, hubby understands the electrical side of it. Just need to figure out experience for what would be best for us. I'm so grateful that we just haven't had to use a generator much in the last 20 something years! Even with Sandy, we were only out for 2 days! With no generator for the freezer, my Italian ices hadn't even thawed! LOL


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

I've been on free natural gas for 20 years. IF it goes out, I walk my line first, as usually I've got a break in the line. If not, I go to the well... usually if it's 'off' for me, it's off for them too, and there's someone already there trying to fix it, asap. Usually can go several years with zero interruptions (on the company's fault), and it's back up by the next day. If it's something like a shut in on the pipeline, we have workarounds so I can still get gas.

What I like about ng is 'it' is EMP and TEOTWAWKI proof... most wells around here are under pressure and flow freely, without any assistance from compressors or other mechanical/electrical devices. Compressors are to feed into pipelines to maintain the same pressures as the rest of the gas flowing thru them.


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## Annsni (Oct 27, 2006)

I just found this while looking to see if I can pay our village property taxes with a credit card ($4700 - we also have double that for town taxes!!).

http://www.northportny.gov/docs/gas_propane_generators_permit.pdf

I think we'll go diesel.


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## wannabechef (Nov 20, 2012)

fordy said:


> ...................A 5 kw genset will only run your freezer , fridge , and Maybe......the Fan blower motor on your furnace , IF any (2) of them are running at the same Time . IF both electric and natural gas are NOT working then the furnace is only going to blow cold air !!!
> ...................The best solution would be to install a whole house 12kw diesel genset with transfer switch , then IF both electric AND natural gas are OUT , you still have enough power from the genset to use 1500 watt electric heaters in several rooms . You need to consider a larger genset in my opinion . , fordy


I run a lot more than that on my 5500 watt gen...fridge, freezer, lights, fans and a burner on the stove...maybe even two.


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## wannabechef (Nov 20, 2012)

Bearfootfarm said:


> It takes about 10% more propane (in gallons) than gas, and a 20 lb tank is about 4.5 gallons


I was gonna mention propane on an engine designed for multi fuel is not as efficient. A dedicated fuel unit would outperform any tri fuel unit.


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## Annsni (Oct 27, 2006)

wannabechef said:


> I was gonna mention propane on an engine designed for multi fuel is not as efficient. A dedicated fuel unit would outperform any tri fuel unit.


Read my post above. No way are we going with propane or natural gas due to village regulations.


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## wannabechef (Nov 20, 2012)

Annsni said:


> Read my post above. No way are we going with propane or natural gas due to village regulations.


The same would apply if running any tri fuel engine...their performance is designed for all three fuels, each with a different btu output, hence lower output or more fuel consumption depending on fuel...NG being the lowest of the three if I recall.


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## lonelytree (Feb 28, 2008)

wannabechef said:


> I run a lot more than that on my 5500 watt gen...fridge, freezer, lights, fans and a burner on the stove...maybe even two.


I have a buddy that runs a lodge on 7500W backup genny. Full up he is running 16KW, but that is washer dryers, water pump, beer coolers, 20 rooms, music, lights, boiler pumps and fans...... He had a 30KW before that wouldn't run it. He had a bad leg in the ground. For years. I wonder how much that cost him at -50.


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## wannabechef (Nov 20, 2012)

lonelytree said:


> I have a buddy that runs a lodge on 7500W backup genny. Full up he is running 16KW, but that is washer dryers, water pump, beer coolers, 20 rooms, music, lights, boiler pumps and fans...... He had a 30KW before that wouldn't run it. He had a bad leg in the ground. For years. I wonder how much that cost him at -50.


5500...and 7500 watts is a lot of power...and newer appliances are generally pretty efficient...even my washer is energy star.


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

Annsni, . . If you have all those kind of restrictions for a natural gas gen, you best nose around and see their restrictions for a diesel gen. The storage of more than a five gallon can of gasoline / diesel fuel .......??

Long term storage of diesel gets you into alge and goop problems........there ain't no free lunch there.

I am so glad to live where there is not those kind of silly grits zoning restrictions..


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## Annsni (Oct 27, 2006)

Jim-mi said:


> Annsni, . . If you have all those kind of restrictions for a natural gas gen, you best nose around and see their restrictions for a diesel gen. The storage of more than a five gallon can of gasoline / diesel fuel .......??
> 
> Long term storage of diesel gets you into alge and goop problems........there ain't no free lunch there.
> 
> I am so glad to live where there is not those kind of silly grits zoning restrictions..


Fortunately, there are no restrictions on a diesel genny - and we can store the diesel without public knowledge. I wouldn't store a ton anyway and from April through October, we can cycle it through our sailboat (50 HP diesel engine, 38 gallon tank) to keep it fresh.


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## ronbre (Apr 26, 2009)

too many variables .. love mine


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