Diesel Generator | Emergency Preparedness | Forums

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I have been living in my current house for fifteen years. During that time frequent, sometimes long term power failures have been the norm. My neighbor (mile down the road) is the last house on the grid before a different utility picks up the houses on the other side of the mountain. Dealing with gas engine generators and 10% enthenol fuel SUCKS! They are loud and very hungry for fuel. Storing enough fuel for long term power outages involved 16 of the Euro steel 20L Jerry cans. I kept them full of Mogas, (low octane avgas from the airport, current price $4.05 per gallon) It can be stored for years without issue. The gas generator, 5.5K would only run the essentials. Living this far from everything made it a big hassle.

I run a local trucking company from my home and have several diesel tanks here to fuel the trucks and other equipment. Also my wife's car and my pickup is diesel also. I always wanted to go with a diesel generator because it was a better fit for us, but the total system cost was prohibitive. I could never get the wife on board with that kind of an investment. After a series of particularly nasty winters filled with long power outages, my wife caved and gave me the green light.

Lucky for me I had been doing my homework for years and pounced before she changed her mind. I went with a three cylinder Perkins engine and an Italian (I forget the name, starts with an M) 14K generator head all assembled by a local generator shop. Lots of time and research went in to the selections of the components. Both ends of the generator were over engineered (heavy winding) for their purpose and had a track record of bullet proof reliability. The Perkins is rated at 30K hours between major overhauls and the generator head is rated for 35K hours. Originally I was going to go 10K but the fuel consumption difference between the 10 and 14 didn't amount to anything. There was a small price increase for the larger unit. The 14K would allow me to run the generator without concern of power management, dryer, well pump, lights, TV all at once as if we were on the grid. The generator running at 25% capacity uses less than a quarter gallon an hour and still less than a gallon at wot.

The generator is installed in my fuel shed about 100 yards from the house and fed from a 500 gallon off road diesel tank. The tank preexisted the generator and its primary role is as an off road fuel storage with its own AC pump for my other off road diesel powered equipment. It has a large muffler and is piped outside with black iron pipe. At full load, you can barely hear it from the house. All the wiring is run underground to the meter where it is mated with the controller. The main line then continues underground into the house. Installation costs were more then I expected, but figured if I had come this far I didn't want to skimp on aluminum wire from the generator to the controller.

So, it was installed, tank was full and ....... nothing! We experienced a pathetically mild winter. The power never even flickered. I kept checking on it and every Tuesday, the controller would start the generator and run for 20 minutes at 9 AM. I had to look at it everyday when fueling trucks without satisfaction.

Winter passed and spring arrived. This past Sunday afternoon the family had gone the farm to do chores and we had some sustained 40+ mph winds going on outside. I was home watching some TV and half doing some computer work, and it happened! The power flickered and went out and I waited. I figured this was it to see if all that money was worth it or not. About 45 seconds passed and boom! We were in business. The auto transfer switch worked just like it should have. The family came home and everything continued just like nothing had happened. At some point after dark the lights flickered once just a little. I didn't think anything of it at the time. Before I went to bed I figured I would go outside and check on it, and to my surprise the power had come back on. The switch had transferred back to grid all by itself and the generator had shut itself down. 

Now, not everyone has a need for such an elaborate setup and I could have taken lots for short cuts to save money. My thinking is if I live another 40ish years (if I am lucky) the next owners of this property will still be using this generator. I have no concern if I am away that my wife will have to deal with worrying about the generator and it takes one more thing out of my stress bucket when things go to crap. I have just under 10K invested in the whole set up from beginning to end. About 2 to 3k more than I was planning when I started. Doing almost all of the work myself, I would guess it saved me an additional 5K+ verses hiring the total job out. An electrician friend of mine did the final wiring and barely charged me anything for his time.

For years prior I searched Craigslist and the swap magazines for such a setup without success, after ordering this one I have seen at least three low hour comparable setups for less than half of what I paid for my unit itself. The total cost stung, but now that the money is spent I am pleased with the outcome.