First off I want to thank everyone on this forum, especially ar-jedi(your place and setup are awesome).  His post about his setup and experience made me stop window shopping and do something.
I have learned a bunch and want to post some of my first hand experience.

I got a Yamaha EF2000iS generator a few months ago and immediately got the trifuel kit from US carburation.
I set it up for propane as I hadn't gotten all the stuff to hook it to my natural gas line.
I went with the Yamaha over the Honda as the Yamaha has the built in gas cut off.   This drains the gas from the carburator and significantly cuts down on the chances of
old gas sitting in the carb and gumming up stuff as I only use a generator for power outages.  This is maybe once a year.

Well, low and behold about a month ago we lost power.  Big wind storm on a Sunday night.  Monday I got up early and broke out the generator and some propane tanks.
Hooked it up to a small 6500btu window unit and the fridge and freezer. It ran these just fine and off to work I went with a happy wife.
Power came back on about noon so I switched everything over to my Mom's house.  She was without power for 4 days.

Here's what I learned with propane.  It works just as good as gas and is easier to store.  It never spills or goes bad and my hands don't stink of I get some on me.
I do not plan on ever running gasoline in this generator except as a last resort.
A full 20 pound tank will run 12 hours powering a fridge, freezer and window unit.  

So fast forward to today and I finally get off my butt and hook up the natural gas.  I know that it has less "btu's" than propane or gasoline.  Roughly about half per cubic foot when compared to propane.
I had no first hand experience comparing the two so I figured I would do a little experiment.

Below are pics of the gas regulator setup and you lean the gas mix for max rpm and then richen it up just a bit, like an airplane, for maximum efficiency.
I had done this with both propane and natural gas for the test.

I hooked up a hair dryer which registered at 1500 watts running with my kill-a-watt meter.
With propane it runs this just fine but you can tell it is at about the max.  This makes sense as the generator is rated for 2000W peak and 1600W continuous.
With natural gas it just can't quite do it.  Somewhere north of 1000 watts is the limit or the generator starts to bog down significantly.  It ran fine on the "warm" setting which was 1000W
but when I switched it to "hot" )1500W, the generator would struggle and give power fluctuations.  It would cycle between 1000W and 1300W.  Never higher.

If you look at generator power output listed on Kohler's website comparing NG and LP, NG has about 80-85% of the rated power compared to LP.  
This puts this little generator at a max of about 1200W on NG which matches my real world experiment.

LP setup



Closeup of the regulator.  Notice the T fitting on the top of the regulator.  There is a bolt that is used to adjust the max gas flow.  Very easy to do.
I had to open it a little wider for NG.


Another closer pic


I got this handy tank meter from Ace Hardware.  Was pretty accurate.
I did notice that though the tank would show that it was close to empty, if I let the tank sit for a while the needle would climb.
I figure this is because of tank cooling from the loss of pressure.  I did not weigh the tank before and after which would be the most accurate measurement.


I did the conversion myself which was very simple.  Hardest part was deciding where to poke a hole in the case to run out the gas line.
It's basically just adding a spacer where the air intake goes into the carburetor.  Sorry, no pics of this but it's dead simple.


Pic of how I tied into my NG line.  1/2" line going to my grill.  Just put on a T and added the leg for the quick couple.  Easy.


My plan is to now get a larger generator to hook up for NG at my place and keep this one for portability and for LP.

I cannot express how much of  a hero I was to my wife and kids when I pulled out the generator and window unit. It gets HOT here in the summer.

I hope this was helpful.


(edited for spelling)

Thank you for the great write up. There is no substitute for hands-on experience.

Great write up, as i am in the procces of doing the same to my genny.
Nice to see pics of your set up, they are very helpfull to see.
The only thing is you should be using galvanized pipe outside of the
house not black pipe for gas.

I have the same generator which more than paid for itself during Sandy last year.  I was able to run the freezer/fridge, some lights, computer/internet, and satellite TV.  Power was out for a few days, I was amazed at how little gas the Yamaha used.  It's also very quiet.  My brother has the same unit with a cable to run these in parallel, so in a longer-term pinch, I can run larger appliances.  I actually plan on having an electrician install a transfer switch and using two Yamaha 2000's as a backup plan moving forward.

It's very rural here with no NG service, but if I had a reliable gas supply, I'd definitely look into the NG conversion.

Great write-up thanks!  I have a tri-fuel Honda and am a huge fan of using propane.  In addition to the points you make, propane remained available by me during Sandy when all the gasoline was gone.

I have debated whether I should run some sort of NG hook-up.  Given the power loss you report and the already low output of the unit, it seems my money would be better spent storing more propane if I was worried about running out of propane.

On natural gas, anything more than a fridge and freezer and maybe a window unit it's going to be marginal.
It's nice to have the natural gas option but propane is really hard to beat.
Ideally I would get a larger stationary tank and if I lived outside of town that's what I would do.

I've got gasoline that is in jugs over a year old and though it should be fine the peace of mind of having the LP or NG option is huge.
I was surprised to have such a dropoff in power with natural gas though.

12 hours on 5 gallons of LP?
Seems a bit excessive even considering your load.

I know.  It seems like a lot.  I ran the first tank dry but it was not completely full.  I was going by the gauge on all the others.
All I know for sure is that a tank will run for 12 hours.
I plan on weighing a full tank before and after running the setup for a specific time.

I posted above that the tanks that were pulled after 12 hours now show well into the green after sitting.
My logic is that it condensed due to temp drop just like a large propane tank does when outside temps drop.
The amount of fuel in the tank has not changed, just the pressure.

I got about 40 hours to a 20 lb tank during Sandy, but based on your description I wouldn't be surprised if you were using 3X the load.  I mostly just had the fridge, plus a light at night and a radio and some gadgets charging during the day.  My Honda didn't really seem to be running higher than its normal idle speed, other than for a second when the fridge compressor kicked on.

When my power came back on I swapped my generator and window unit over to my mother's house.
Her fridge and freezer are older and larger and the generator struggled to keep up.  
In retrospect it would have been handy to measure the wattage but I just wasn't thinking about that.

I did weigh some tanks tonight.  A known "full" tank weighs 32.5 pounds.
After doing some research today I learned that the swap out tanks are not filled to the full 20# capacity.
These are usually only filled with 15# of propane.
A known empty weighs 18.5-19# so the math is pretty close.
Some of the other tanks that had been run for 12 hours weighed about 22# so I guess they are still about 1/4 full by weight.

I will be changing out these hardware store tanks for generic refillable tanks so I get the full 20# for future use.

awesome write up and pics!  

for my EU2000i i'm contemplating a tri-fuel kit, and luckily a guy at work just bought one so i can use him as a guinea pig!

ar-jedi

Thanks for sharing this okent.

You're welcome

At half load, my Honda eu2000i gensets will run for just over forty hours on a 20# BBQ tank. That figure is completely dependent on load obviously, as you know-but that duration has been my observation as well. If memory serves, there are 4.1 gallons of usable propane in a 20# tank.

Great write up OP! Glad it worked out for you. Yamaha makes a damn nice genset, and the output power is squeaky clean

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There is a way to convert pounds of.propane to available watts. My.old mind has forgotten the formula but it deals with how many BTUs are in a pound of propane then convert BTUs to watts.

OP to me that's a lot of propane for that run time.

I went to U-Haul today and refilled 5 tanks.  I had one "blue rhino" that was untouched.
Refilled tanks weighed in at 36.5 pounds each and the "blue rhino" was 32.  Each gallon of propane weigh's 4ish pounds.
It seems the tanks were 3/4 full, or 15#.  I went by Lowe's and checked and that's what is posted on the outside cages that hold the tanks too.(never paid attention until now)

I guess with 25% more fuel in each tank I should easily get at least another 4 hours or more.
I only ran 1 tank dry to begin with and I had used it to test and break in the generator.  Don't know for sure it was a full tank.

40 hours per tank would be awesome!  I guess I need to do another test.

I did pick up a 5000BTU window unit today and when set on high the compressor watts were only about 400 and fan only is at 50.
Should serve my purposes well and get me into the sweet spot for using natural gas for my needs.

What is the.wattage spike when the compressor start?

is there a universal tri fuel kit? I have 2 generators that I my want this attachment for. Mostly want it for my B&S 5KW generator.

The wattage spike was about 400 watts and stayed there as long as the compressor was running.  My 6500btu unit was about 600 watts with the compressor and 100 watts for the fan.

I have not found a universal trifuel kit.  All I have seen are specific as they are usually a thick gasket between the air intake and carb.  A small pipe is in the gasket and is directed into the carb.
There are some video's that show how to drill your carb and install a gas tube, copper, but it usually takes away the gasoline option.
Knowing what I know now I could make one in a pinch no problem but it's easier to just by the kit.

Which kit are you going to buy?

Grove

 

I push a 6000 BTU Frigidaire A/C, a 26 cu ft refrigerator, and a stand up freezer with my nat gas converted Champion Inverter Generator. Yes, it is nearly tapped out at that point. I did a step by step pic thread on the install last year, or maybe it was the year before. Didn't seem like anyone cared about it back then...





These conversion kits work well. They are not hard to install.

Interesting, I wonder if mine is running a little rich.  I got 40 hours too, but I think I was at a bit less than half load, probably more like a 1/4 load.  Then again, I never confirmed how heavy the tanks were to get a good idea of how much propane was in them, so that's a real variable too.

But I never tinkered with the richness because it ran fine from CMD, and both times I've used it were actual blackouts, so I was not inclined to start fiddling with anything while the lights were out.  Now would be a good time to get it running and put a load on it and see if it'll run a little leaner.

If it stays at 400 watts while the compressor on, there should be some likely substantially higher figure to get the compressor to first start moving, and I think that is what was being referred to.  I don't think this spike can typically be detected with a Kill a Watt device, but if memory serves me it is estimated as something like 2-3 times the compressor running wattage.  Whatever it was, sounds like your Yamaha didn't have a problem with it.

Understood.  I would see a spike up to about 650 watts with the 6500btu unit and then it would settle down to the 500's .
For some reason this one doesn't do that.  May be that the kill-a-watt meter doesn't read it.

I have a Champion 2000 inverter generator and reading this thread got me thinking. Is it possible to run a hose right into the air intake outlet on the carburator? There's a little rubber tube between air filter and the Carb. Of I was to unplug it and install a line from the propane regulator straight in there, would it work?. Another way would be to put a splutter on the tube so both propane and air are going in. Pardon my technical ineptness, just something that popped into mu head while looking at pictures of your setups.

When I first got my kit it came with the wrong gasket/tube.
I took the black hose that goes from the regulator into the generator and just fed this into the carb.
It would run but was kind of rough and would never smooth out, if that makes sense.
Once I got the correct part, which basically had a small straw instead of the larger hose, it ran just fine.
Also, it placed the tip of the hose farther into the carb which I think acts to draw more gas as more is required, just like it does with gasoline.
The larger hose, I reason, interfered with the venturi effect.

Thank you for your reply. I now understand why the gasket with a straw is needed.

The reason I asked in the first place is because I saw regulators only being sold for $90. Nothing else comes with it. So I thought with a propane tank hose and a little tubing I could make it work and avoid spending $300. Possible?

Excellent write up.  

I've got a 2400 from US Carb.

Great set up.

Love my genny and tank.

I absolutely think it is possible.  I would use some small copper tubing, about like a soda straw or slightly smaller.
The magic is in the regulator and then an adjustable gas flow nut on the top of the regulator.

I'm planning to get one of these to supplement the bigger generator when I build my next house.  

I would like to run mine off propane (nat. gas isn't available where we'll build the house).  

Is your conversion capable of also running gasoline?  

Which kit did you buy?  What accessories did you need to also purchase with the kit to make it work?

Does the idle down feature work with the propane/nat gas conversion?

Thanks!

The reason the gen is straining on NG is it is starving for more NG and the supply is to far from the regulator/meter.
Is the meter on the house set up at .5 or 2 or 5 pounds?
I bet its at .5 pounds since I don't see a pressure regulator near the Quick dis connect.
I will post my gen and setup in the next day or two and try and help.

I'm bringing this post back.
I'm curious how far the OP has his quick disconnect from his meter.
And is he running regulator between the meter and quick disconnect?

Interesting thread as I've been contemplating a LP gas conversion.  This gave me a lot of info.  Thanks for all for posting this.

I would like to see a comparison on the following kits. Does anyone have an info on the last two?

Central Maine Diesel

US Carb/Propane Generators.com

Propane Carbs  Haven't heard much on here about these guys but their kit looks nice.  

PNG Technologies

Grove

I only have experience with US Carb and they are top notch.
The kits they offer seem excellent, the only small concern I may have
About their eu2000 kit with the snorkel kit like I have (I did not have my carbs drilled).
The rubber snorkel nipple that sticks in the carb could wear out over a period of time if you use the choke
A lot when using gasoline. Of course if you use natural gas or propane no choking the engine
is necessary. Here is a post I did on my conversion.


http://www.survivalistboards.com/showthread.php?t=313481






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