petrol vs diesel generator for mobile home

cathal1988

I have a mobile home on some land with no mains electricity hook up. I was useing a honda 6.5 hp 3200 waat petrol generator to power it. I felt it was hard enough on petrol but I never took note on the figures. Eg litres per hour.

I know some1 selling a 6kva diesel generator and I'm thinking of buying it.

Can anyone help me and explain what would be better on fuel consumption? or am I better of staying with my owl honda.

Calahonda52

Diesel jennies, like all diesel engines, are best suited to long run times so if you are stop-start then maybe not.
Also if the one being sold has been stop-start then it may be all choked with carbon.
Cant comment on elec efficiency of either

Irish Steve

If nothing else, a diesel unit can be run on gas oil, (green diesel) which is less than half the price of petrol. I've used both, and for me, unless you are only running for very short periods of time, diesel will be the better option, and for the same power usage, is likely to be more economic in terms of fuel burn also, as well as the saving from using green diesel.

Having said that, look closely at the diesel unit before committing to buy it, and see what the starting performance is like from cold, as smaller diesels can be tortuous to start from cold, depending on the condition, the best would be an electric start, but not many have that option.

There's a significant difference between a 6.5 Hp and 6 Kva in terms of capacity, it will mean that you can run larger appliances at the same time, which may not have been possible on the petrol unit.

cathal1988

Usually I would have it on for at least 1 hour and anything up to 4 hours.

cathal1988

Thanks irish Steve I found your reply helpful. I can only get green diesel for 98c litre. Is that the right price? and petrol being €1.35 l. I'm trying to work out what will be cheaper. I can't get the marked gas for half the price.

Yes the generator has an electric start.

2011

+1
There is also the safety aspect to consider.
Petrol can be far more dangerous than diesel.

Irish Steve

cathal1988 wrote: »

Thanks irish Steve I found your reply helpful. I can only get green diesel for 98c litre. Is that the right price? and petrol being €1.35 l. I'm trying to work out what will be cheaper. I can't get the marked gas for half the price.

Yes the generator has an electric start.

The price on green diesel is higher than it would be if you were using larger quantities of heating oil, but it's still a good bit less than petrol. I'd be happy with that. My last green diesel price was in the low 80's per litre, so my previous comment of half price was slightly adrift, it's a while since I checked.

If the diesel generator is electric start, that solves the issue there, and makes it a lot simpler, in my book, it's a worthwhile upgrade, and as has been subsequently mentioned, the safety factor of diesel compared to petrol is significant, and worth making the change purely on that basis.

I used to have a much larger (30 Kva 3 phase) petrol generator here for standby, and changed it to a lower rev diesel unit a number of years ago, the difference in running costs is massive, and so is the reliability.

The most important thing with the diesel unit will be to watch the oil levels, keep the oil on the higher end of the level using the recommended oil, a good quality, and change the oil and clean the oil, fuel and air filters on a regular basis, and be scrupulous about keeping the fuel transport containers clean, and always use a filtered funnel to fill the tank.

air

What kind of loads are you powering with it, what wattage are they and how long do you use them for?
If you're happy enough with the power output of your current generator then it doesn't make much sense to get one double the size even with the possible fuel cost savings from diesel.
A much better option may perhaps be to invest in some batteries and an inverter with low voltage disconnect. This way you will be able to run loads even when the generator is off and only run the generator intermittently at full power every so often for heavy loads or when you need to recharge.
It also lets you easily incorporate solar panels which will save you a lot of fuel if you primarily use the mobile home during the summer.