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[Shop-talk] Generator thread

To: <shop-talk@autox.team.net>
Subject: [Shop-talk] Generator thread
From: "David C." <cavanadd@verizon.net>
Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2007 13:52:56 -0700
Is it time for the generator thread again?  Maybe past time for the Gulf 
Coast/hurricane-prone folks....

Anyway, I am going through my annual quandary whether or not to replace my 
old Hobart 8KW welder/generator.  I live in the rural PNW and just about 
every year we get at least one snowstorm that takes the power lines down 
for a while.  Last year it happened three or four times.   I have two 
manual transfer switches, one for the pump house and one for the house, and 
I run the well pump, propane furnace, fridge, freezer, microwave and some 
lights.  We also have a big woodstove, and so things go along fairly 
normally once I get the generator fired up.  The generator has a big Onan 2 
cylinder air cooled engine, and it had just been rebuilt from the block up 
when I bought it about 10 or 12 years ago.  It has never failed me (yet) 
but it's starting to get old, and it uses a LOT of gasoline, which is the 
main problem.

The generator uses more than a gallon an hour, and it has a seven or eight 
gallon tank, and uses a crankcase pressure/vacuum operated fuel pump 
(potential failure point).  I also keep three or four five gallon gas cans 
filled up during the winter (w/Stabil), and so far I haven't had any 
trouble refililng them on my way to work.  However, a widespread power 
outage could also take the local gas stations out, and once I went through 
my fuel stash, and the fuel in the motorcycles, I would be stuck.

We had considered a diesel, as I also have a couple of diesel tractors, and 
diesel is a lot easier to store (and probably...er..."find"... in a SHTF 
situation), but low speed (1800 rpm) diesel generators in the 10Kw size are 
hard to find and very expensive, $10K on up.

Yesterday I saw this in the Northern Tools 
catalog: 
http://www.northerntool.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_6970_398826_398826

Honda engine, gas or propane fueled, way more compact than the Hobart, and 
probably has better fuel consumption, too.  I could run it off my shop 
heater propane tank for quite a while, and still have gasoline for a backup.

Any thoughts or feedback?

Thanks
Dave C
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