Pellet heads!! What's up today?

I did some surfing and read the reviews on the Ryobi Propane gen set...
The reviews were not at all bad.....but the run time on the small jugs was about 2 to 2-1/2 hours at mid power levels (Should be able to handle a pellet stove without the auto start feature)

Add a 5 gallon tank (BBQ GRILLE TYPE) and it should be able to run nearly a day.

Good points are that propane does not go sour like gas and the Gen set can be stored in the house and not STINK UP THE PLACE.

A handful of propane jugs can be stored easily in a box with the unit and be ready to go when the power goes off.

As far as a LONG TERM outage goes, you would need a large tank or be able to access a fill up location.

Spotty outages like we see here at the ranch in the winter would be no worry, but a wide spread outage due to a large disaster could be a real problem.

On a cold dark night though, this little beast might be very welcome indeed.

Looking at the various propane tanks that are available, the larger BBQ tank seems like a winner and having at least a couple tanks would be a real plus.
More research needed

 

More research says that the adapter hose that comes with the gen set is toooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo short and a real PITA.....

Here is an affordable solution

Propane Adapter Hose 1lb to 20lb Converter Replacement Gas Extension 4 Feet | eBay

The included hose will work, but the reviews were not that sweet on it.

And....if ya decided to get a much larger tank, then the 4 footer would gitterdone handily with no issues.

I am thinking that if a 1 pound bottle can run 2.5 hours then a 40 pound cylinder would be sweet.

The depot sells 40# tanks reasonable

That's 4 days of run time..... maybe a touch more...

 

I want it, but it’s just not enough power.

Very cool though.

 

I dug out my "KILL A WATT" METER AND FIRED THE STOVE UP.

The little Prodigy 2 runs as follows

120 volt line in
1.83 amps running (Fans only...during feed off cycle time)
2.19 amps while feeding fuel

About 260 watts

I am thinking that the little Ryobi can deal with two stoves with ease.

The big Whit should be similar power draw as it uses basically the same fans and does use the same feed motor.

Likely be safe using 300 watts for the big stove.

I will check the big stove when I can run it again (Weather is warming up)

With two stoves it should be safe to assume approx 600 watts....

Generator can handle 700 steady.
Still think a 40 pound jug of LPG can run us for 4 days....

 

Pulled the string and ordered one of the Ryobi Gen Sets

 

My igniter would blow through this gen but I could always use a torch to get the pellets going. The other big item is the fridge.

Tough weighing what you need and also being a cheapskate

 

OH YEAH BUDDY.

The 700/900 Ryobi will certainly run my big stove upstairs..

My big issue is my downstairs rental has a Quad 1000 and it would likely be too much with both on the Ryobi.

I really need a 2000 watt.....

 

After more reading, more calculations and more thinking I have concluded that for us the little Ryobi Gen set is not gonna GITTERDONE...

Decided to send it back once it arrives and go slightly bigger so we can run our large Whitfield and the QUAD 1000 downstairs at the same time.

Dual fuel unit by PULSAR
Pulsar 2,200-Watt/2,000-Watt Dual Fuel Gasoline/Propane Powered Recoil Start Inverter Generator with 80 cc Ducar Engine-PG2200Bis - The Home Depot

We can set this up with one 100# propane tank and it should be able to give us 5 days of continuous run time

Specs say 75 minutes per pound of LPG

5 Days is 7200 minutes
7200 minutes divide by 60 minutes (1 hour) = 5 days

7200 minutes divide by 75 minutes per pound = 96 pounds per 5 days of run time.

These numbers are such that I am going top say they are reasonable.

To be safe....lets say 4 days easily.....

 

$529 on Amazon.

 

I saw their ad....

Sadly though I'm gonna put it on my Depot card.....
The prices are a fair spread even on ebay.

When the little Ryobi shows up I'm gonna turn it back.

JUST NOT THE BEST SOLUTION....

I think the Ryobi is a good unit, but not for two stoves.

 

Lori is retired and isn't able to get the generator hooked up. One of our sons was staying with us so he could do it while I'm at work. He isn't around all the time now. Thanks to Dataman showing his setup over at the other place, I got an AIMS 1250w inverter/charger and a couple 12v 100aH AGM/SLA deep cycle batteries so the P43 will keep running if I'm at work or if the power goes out at night while we're sleeping.

A bit expensive but worth it for the ease of use and me not worrying about it at work now.

sam

 

If the plan works well...ya can't beat it.

We have looked at just about every conceivable plan to keep the pellet stoves operational during a power outage (Our primary heat sources)

Inverters with battery backup and solar panels, a small wind turbine with the battery backup/inverter setup, generators...... Etc.

The sporadic nature of power outages (Some winters we never lose power, and others a few times)
Generators that use gasoline always seem to be unreliable after sitting for any length of time due to the gas going bad.

Even adding stabil to the tank I have had units fail to start up.

LPG (Propane) or natural gas is clean, no residue and leave the engines ready to go when ya need it.

Storing a generator in a cold damp garage will almost guarantee there will be issues over time.
A propane gen set can be readily stored in the house without bad smells (Tank unhooked)

I am still not sure what the best answer is.....

I would love to install a simple wood stove in our family room..... but the cost of a stove that can meet new code and hacking a hole in my new roof weighs heavily.....

All my pellet units are direct vent (Out the wall) so no worries about the roof.....

I want a simple, quick and readily available option to keep the heat on during an outage.....

I keep coming back to a modest sized propane powered Gen Set (Inverter type) that can be set outside, plugged in and fired up, with a run time of a week (5 days) without needing to worry about getting up at 2 am to fill a fuel tank........


Also, ...... I don't want ongoing costs to maintain consumables (Batteries and such)

In search of ELDORADO ????? Likely so...

 

Snowy,

In the same boat. What I have found is that for certain name brands like honda that have an established presence, there are good after market kits to convert them to propane. I may go with that.

 

Today was definitely Friday the 13th with a couple of Mondays thrown in for good measure at work. Glad I took Monday as a PTO day since I ended up with 50 hours anyway. Love getting to work in the dark and getting home at almost dark too.

Got any cheese to go with that wine, err, whine?

 

Did some serious digging this morning...
Back in 1994...shortly after we built this place my folks were living in the downstairs (Their apartment)

Dad decided that we needed a large generator in case of a power oputage.

We bought a large portable...THAT I thought was a Generac 6.5 KW

The gen set was set up for propane.

We ran the unit once to check it out....
It has been sitting in the back of the basement coved up since 1994.....

With my renewed interest and a stable fuel gen set I decided to drag the beast out of the darkness......

Turns out that this generator is a GILLETTE GEN PRO 12 KW
"KLEEN POWER"

20 HP KOHLER V TWIN ENGINE
12000 WATT....11000 WATT CONTINUOUS


I called Gillette this morning and the fella had to dig into the achives to find the data on the unit.

Brushless KLEEN POWER generator.

Four 120 volt plugs.
One 4 pin 240 volt plug
One 3 pin 24o volt plug

Aside from being a fuel hog (2.5 pounds of LPG per hr) this is a sweetheart..

My plan at present is to get it on a rollaround so I can move it easily.


Since we own it.... lets use it.


I need to get a battery for it..

We have a couple BBQ fuel tanks, so I want to get it running and make sure it is OK.

Electric start too

If this beast is OK...Then its just a need to scare up a propane tank or maybe I will look at three 100# tanks

I will get some piccy's

 

Hey, found treasures in the basement are great - especially whe you find them before you go ut and invest in a new on! Hope no mice or anything else got in there and made a mess.

 

Mice are a constant issue.

The basement has a 6 foot wide roll up door and the little buggers manage to get in around the rubber seal.

Not really much mice can do to the gen and engine though.

The plan is to get the Gen set on a little wheeled furniture dolly and roll it outside so I can get at thing easily.

I have the sheet metal covers off the thing, so I can see pretty much all the machinery.

I'm going to blow out the generator as well as the engine cowl really good.

After sitting for 25 years I suppose anything is possible

I am definitely looking forward to seeing what the old girl will do.

After digging it out, it seemed like a shame not to give it a try...

WE have a 20Kw Gen set in a little "Gen shack" with a huge transfer switch and such, but it is diesel and the large fuel tank is getting sketchy... plus long term storage of diesel is not a good plan.

Back when I was in the trucking business I would fill the big rig off the tank periodically and then call for a fill up so the fuel was kept fresh.

We also had diesel Suburbans and a diesel pickup that could use the fuel too....

Now after my retirement this plan is not available......

We put the 20 KW set in back in 1999 ahead of the Y2K scare (Another fiasco)


I wish we had set up the big gen set with a propane powered engine.....

I went with diesel as they are far more resilient to damp weather and they have minimal electrical parts to fail due to time and the elements.

Ah well....such is life..

 

"Not really much mice can do to the gen and engine though." .... don't know if west coast meece are as hungry as their east coast cousins... but we found out the hard way that the bastages like the plastic jacket on wiring... they totally destroyed the wiring harness in our Honda 2000i genny. It would cost more to fix that to buy a new gen. If we put another one there, at our cabin, I'll make a 1/4" hardware cloth (screen mesh) cover for it. I hates mice!!! ... ...

 

100% agree

 

Absolutely... and also some hydraulic lines!!
They ate through two of the lines on our lift! 400 dollar replacements..

Dan