Is a Nat Gas Generator alone practical power?

[fwillison]

The cost of running electrical from the road to my shop, about 300 feet, is looking to be pretty expensive.
I have natural gas close to the shop, and I've thought in the past it would be nice to have a back up generator for power outages.

What if I just put in a generator for electricity?

 

[Stuart in MN]

Sure it can be done, but you have to compare the costs of each method - chances are having the electrical service installed is going to be less expensive in the long run. Just guessing on the size, a 20kw natural gas generator is probably going to have an installed cost of $15k or so, and then you have to estimate how much the monthly gas bill will be as well as maintenance on the generator (for oil changes and so forth.)

 

[FJ 432]

It certainly can be done.

It would require a generator that is probably beefier than the average home standby generator. But it would depend on the usage you would need. Is the plan is to run it 8 hours/day Monday through Friday. Less? More?

Generators are like everything. They require maintenance. Are outages acceptable? Planning on regular maintenance? The costs associated with the maintenance can be high.

Just thoughts...

 

[CNGsaves]

Drill for your own natural gas well on your property . . . . . then YES it makes sense to burn NG to create your own electricity.

Once you have your own NG well, you could also DRIVE for free by installing a natural gas compressor like Fuelmaker FMQ2-36 - - - connects to vehicle and fills CNG tank at night !!

Purchase a bi-fuel pickup like this Dodge 2500 hemi at Frontier Dodge in El Reno, OK and you'd be all set !!
http://www.autotrader.com/cars-for-...d=65909551&searchRadius=0&listingId=338868916

Without your own NG well, no it's not economical to pay ONG (Oklahoma Natural Gas) the cost of NG, even at current low rates. Go ahead and pay OG&E for electric as most of their plants are burning NG anyways!

 

[A_Pmech]

No, it doesn't make any sense.

Generating your own power with a small reciprocating internal combustion engine is going to run 3x the cost of commercially produced power in fuel alone.

Add in maintenance and amortization of the capital equipment expense and you're closer to 6x the cost of commercially produced power.

 

[fwillison]

Answer: not a practical source of power

Thanks for the input, guys.

Fred

 

[sberry]

I am going to double down, 300 ft is minor and sometimes there ways around up front cost. A genset would be a last resort.

 

[rsanter]

First be sure That the local county and state will allow you to do that.
There can be air quality restrictions you have to deal with.

If you do it you need to look at cogen, where the waste heat from the generator supplies the hot water for the house and shop too. You can use this for radiant heat in the floor as well as drinking and showering...etc

Bob

 

[Joe G.]

On top of the reasons above (costs much more to run per KWH than utility provided electric service, most of the resi-grade generators (even the 20kw "whole home" versions) are not rated for continuous use and may void the warranty.

 

[soj]

On top of the reasons above (costs much more to run per KWH than utility provided electric service, most of the resi-grade generators (even the 20kw "whole home" versions) are not rated for continuous use and may void the warranty.

One example is Kohler. The standby warranty is 5 years or 2000 hours. The non standby (defined by Kohler as "where a utility source is unavailable or unreliable) warranty is 18 months or 1000 hours. And you can forget the 18 months, since only 8 hours use a day puts you out of warranty in appx. 4 months.

This is why off-grid folks rely on solar and/or wind, with maybe 1800 rpm generator backup.