Why diesel generator is better

Diesel Power? What about solar? What about the environment; don’t diesel engines use fossil fuels and create pollution? What about political correctness?
I would never suggest that anyone who has the capability of using solar power do anything but. Powering your homestead with free, non-polluting power from the sun or from a hydro-electric system is the ideal way to go. But for some of us, solar isn’t feasible. Some folks live where the sun rarely shows its face throughout the four or five coldest months of the year, coincidentally when we need the most power. Others operate home workshops and/or businesses that require more power than any affordable solar array could possibly develop. For those folks, diesel power can be a viable and efficient option.
Utilizing a generator to power the homestead doesn’t have to be an environmental disaster. A generator can be a very efficient component of your independent energy system. The key is to observe a few basics: make the generator part of the system instead of a sole source of power.
Making the generator “part of the system” means that it is always working in conjunction with the rest of the system. If at all possible, operate the generator only when lots of power is required, as on the days of the week you do your laundry, vacuum the house, operate your shop, pump irrigation water or any other heavy use. And during those times, the difference between the power you are actually using and the full potential of the machine should be going into your battery bank.
There are few solar installations that don’t require some generator backup occasionally. A generator is available in some of the best of solar homes for those times when the sky is grey for weeks at a time, and in many cases, for heavy-duty power needs. A lot of well-designed solar homes are planned for scheduled generator usage. Perhaps one day a week, all the heavy-power-demand chores are done. On this day, the generator is run all day long, and any surplus power (the difference between what the generator will produce and what is being used), gets sent to the storage batteries. Operating a generator at near its full potential is the most efficient use of the machine.
So since a generator will be required in just about any beyond-the-grid installation, why not have it be a machine that’s designed for serious use instead of a home-handyman unit that’s specifically designed for light-duty, intermittent use?
Why a diesel?
Why diesel-power instead of gasoline? Unlike gas engines, diesels have no spark plugs to replace, or carburetors to rebuild and service. Diesels generally burn less than half the fuel that gas engines do to do the same amount of work. Diesels regularly outlast gas engines ten-to-one.
For example, the average gas engine powering a generator will run for around 1000 hours before needing replacement or a complete overhaul. And that’s an average. Many don’t make it past a few hundred hours. The average diesel engine will run 20,000 hours before needing any service beyond routine maintenance, but many make it to 50,000 hours, and some a lot longer than that. At four hours a day, even 20,000 hours works out to nearly fourteen years!
Diesels are built to last. They’re built to produce their rated output for years on end. Most gas-engine generators are built specifically to be used for intermittent or emergency power. Almost all gas-engine generators run at a self-destructing speed of 3600 RPM. Most diesels run at half that speed.
The fuel-efficiency alone is a good reason for a diesel, plus off-road diesel fuel is cheaper than gasoline. It’s also a lot safer to store. It’s flammable, but not explosive like gasoline. And although diesels sometimes produce more visible exhaust, it is less toxic than the emissions from a gasoline engine. A well-tuned diesel, by the way, produces no visible exhaust except briefly, under severe load-changes.
Diesels sound scary to some people who are unfamiliar with them, but they are actually simpler in design and construction than gas engines. If you can service a gas engine, you can service a diesel. And it requires less service.
The only maintenance generally required is changing the oil, and changing the fuel, air, and oil filters. This much is the same as on a gas engine. What you won’t have to deal with is tune-ups. No carburetor adjustments, no distributor or magneto to burn out, and no spark plugs to need periodic cleaning and replacement.
Oil changes done on schedule are critical and make the difference between an engine that wears out prematurely and one that runs nearly forever.
The bad news
What about initial cost? Yep, diesels cost more initially than gas engines. But if you do the math on how the costs compare over a few years’ time, the diesel always comes out way on top. Plus, if you compare the initial costs of small diesel generators to premium-quality gas generators, the differences start to fade. Sure there are cheapo generators available, but these units just cannot be depended upon for any kind of constant service. They’re not built for it, and they won’t take it.
I’ve had neighbors who’ve bought those garden-variety generators for $4-500, and they used to tell me about how great the guarantees were. They smoked another generator every couple of months, and all they had to do was to haul it back to the dealer and he’d give them another new one. Now doesn’t that sound just like how you would like to spend your time? Not to mention being without power every time another generator died.
At the same time, we had our little diesel putt-putting away for years and years, without a single problem. The throw-away gas generators were screaming their little overworked hearts out, burning nearly a gallon per hour of gasoline, and our diesel was producing twice the power and running for five hours on a gallon of diesel.
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