Generator noise examples

The power will go out, the generator won't start, and you won't have enough light to work on it.

jsw

Yup. As with the snow blowers. Except, in that case, the snow was just too deep to get to the snow blower, but that was moot, since it wadn't gonna work anyway, and my hands were too frozen to mess around.....

Seriously, I gave up on snow blowers, and just consider shoveling the day's exercise. Fugit. That's the nice thing about nat gas, as well: start-up reliability..... or so I think. One of the conversion kit sites had about 10 good reasons for converting.... the 11th being their bottom line, of course.

Nat. gas units are certainly not problem free, and many of the same problems that can affect gasoline or diesel powered units affect them as well:

- Dead starting batteries

- Critters nesting in intakes due to lack of regular exercise cycles

- Deteriorated windings and the like from moisture due to lack of loaded operation

- Critters chewing on wiring

Nat. gas units have some unique issues as well:

- Lack of onsite fuel supply. Nat. gas service does get interrupted on occasion and some natural disaster events frequently affect both utility power and utility nat. gas service.

Nat. gas units are usually immune to issues of fuel contamination, but that's about it.

In all my 57 years, I don't remember a single day when we did not have a natural gas supply (except for an hour or so when the pipe from the street to my house was being replaced). We've had dozens of electrical outages, lasting as long as a week.

As long as the nat gas supply is uninterrupted (se above), you can just start the generator and let it run until it's time to change the oil. My gasoline generator requires a refill every 8 - 15 hours, depending on the load. And then, you have to find a gas station that has power to refill the gas cans. Nat gas won't gum up your carb if you let it sit.

I've seen conversion kits that allow the use of nat gas, gasoline or propane, just by turning a valve. I may consider one of those kits - I'd much rather deal with swapping propane tanks than spilling gasoline on my hands. Running a nat gas line out to the generator shed also shouldn't be too big a deal.