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On Fri, 5 Jan 2018 16:36:21 -0500, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 1/5/2018 4:22 PM, wrote:
On Fri, 05 Jan 2018 15:40:14 -0500,
wrote:

On Fri, 5 Jan 2018 11:47:02 -0800 (PST), Its Me
wrote:

On Friday, January 5, 2018 at 2:15:45 PM UTC-5, wrote:
On Fri, 5 Jan 2018 09:29:32 -0800 (PST), Its Me
wrote:

On Friday, January 5, 2018 at 11:49:34 AM UTC-5, wrote:
On Fri, 5 Jan 2018 08:32:51 -0500 (EST), justan wrote:

Wrote in message:

My 5.5 KW burned about 0.5-0.6 GPH gasoline and more like 8 on propane
running pretty much 24 hours a day at close to full load. Once I
started running propane, it never turned off. I did trip the breaker
now and then when the loads ganged up on me. ;-)

8 what?
gallons of propane an hour

What is involved in converting to propane?

You remove the carb, install longer studs, slip the propane venturi
over the studs and reinstall the carb. Then you mount the regulator,
hook up the hoses and you are ready to rock. The whole thing takes
less than an hour the first time and I bet I can do it in 15 minutes
now. They give you the initial setting on the control block for nat
gas or propane and you dial it in from there once you get it running.
I may be able to improve the fuel consumption a little but I would
rather be too rich than too lean. I have it pretty close tho.

What are the advantages of running on propane other than the possibility of having a large, buried propane tank as your source? I have a 330 gallon buried tank, but at 8 gallons an hour and an ~80% fill, that's less than 2 days run time. That equates to about 20 gallons of gas, if my preacher math is correct.

I may have slipped a decimal point on you. The gas to propane ratio is
~5:8.
I had all of that stuff written down but I lost the paper. I just
remembered the 8, not that it was 0.8
5 gallons of gas ran me about 10 hours and that took ~8 gallons of
propane ... based on the gauge. I still have not refilled the tank so
I do not have the actual number and since I don't have my log, I doubt
I ever will know exactly what my burn rate was. The next time I feel
like working on my generator, I have an hour meter I will be
installing but it is hard to think about that stuff when the power is
on ;-)

Ah, gotcha. That makes much more sense. The propane is still more costly, but the ease of long term storage of large amounts far outweigh the costs.

I keep saying that I'm going to buy a generator, but in the last ten years we've probably lost power for a total of 4 hours or so. Hard to justify it, until you need it.

===

Yes, but once you go into a multi day power outage a generator is a
really nice thing to have. We're fortunate to have a good sized
diesel generator on the boat with 500+ gallons of fuel typically. With
a little red neck engineering we can power the entire house including
the central air, stove and hot water heater.

I have been here 34 years and Irma was the first time the power was
out more than a day and that one day outage was Charley.
The main advantage of propane for me is, it starts instantly and I can
put it away again just by unplugging it. No draining carbs, running
dry, stale gas etc.
I also have the kit to run off of a 20# tank if I want to take it
somewhere for a small job.

The only precaution I noticed about "DIY" conversions was the lack of a
detector to shut off the propane flow if the generator engine should
stall. Otherwise you could be in the making for a grand experience.

That is true but if the venturi isn't "sucking" there won't be much if
any gas going through the regulator. It works pretty much like a SCUBA
regulator. You have to use the "prime" button to get enough gas in the
throat to start it.

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