Looking at diesel gensets.  A 004A just popped up locally, but after a little reading that looks like major overkill for my uses, so I started nosing around at alternatives.

I have a 3000ish square foot home, natural gas heat, stove, water heaters, dryer so not much draw there.  That said, I would like to, if necessary, be able to run the central A/C if we end up without power in the middle of the summer. It get's pretty dang miserable here in the summer.

Would a 002A be suffiicient?  I currently have a small gas (6500) Honda generator with a transfer swtich setup that would work fine for an ice storm.  I'm looking more at something bigger that II could power the house with, and also move out to our cabin at our deer camp if need be.  DIesel makes sense from a fuel availability standpoint.  Looks like if I can find an 002A on a trailer that might be about the right size without being overkill (keep my fuel consuption down).

Any imput or suggestions?

I have five 002As so have a bit of experience.

If you are going to buy one I suggest buying one which is ready to go
and needs nothing. Normally the fuel tanks are nasty and need cleaning
out. I've seen various gauge issues but that is not as big a problem now
with alternatives available. The units are stupid heavy, 1000 pounds.
So a trailer is a good idea. But I've moved them with a Harbor Freight truck
crane mounted to my truck's hitch.

I have seen sources state they have the equivalent of a 8,500 to 9,000
watt at start up

If possible, I highly recommend one with a noise suppression unit.
I have two like this and they make a huge difference in noise.

What the hell are you powering?

I have experience with both. For a house your size, if you want to run the AC get the 003.

ETA,, the 003's fuel consumption at load is just slightly less than 1 gal an hour. Oil change every 100 hours/ 4 days.

That looks very nice.

Yep, beautiful...

A 003 is gonna require a lot of diesel.  You're looking at 15-20 gal/day.  

For the cost (and considering you have NG service), you should consider a standby NG generator.  You could get a kohler (or even a cheaper generac core power unit) that would run the central AC, and never require a refuel.

I doubt a 5kw unit will start the AC
I have 3600 rpm 10kw lombardini diesel that will start and run
my 2.5 ton heat pump, then my 1.5 ton basement AC plus freezer, fridge, lights, etc
The trick is to turn off all other loads and not start everything at once
That said
I have a 23kw liquid cooled 1800rpm nat gas unit sitting by the garage waiting to be installed for the
reasons the above poster stated

Did you have to upgrade your NG service line to run the 23kw unit? That's gotta draw a good amount of gas to operate.

Surprisingly no
This particular generator has a ford inline 4 cylinder turning at 1800 rpm
It uses around 160k btu at 1/2 load and 320k btu at full load
The 250 meters in use around here are good for 390k btu
The only time I may see full load is in the summer with all AC unuts running and a 40k btu water heater
In the winter it will be running at a partial load and 120k btu of heat
That's the plan at least
I did check and I do have the infrastructure for a 600k btu commercial heater at no install cost
But, my minimum bill goes up, so for now I'm holding off on the larger meter
Op, sorry to hijack

Good info there.  Actually live next door to the parents, and Dad just picked up a 30K NG unit for their house.  I was looking at diesel units simply as a way to have a generator that runs on a different fuel (in case our NG supply, for whatever reason, ceases to be available).

Diesel is common around here (farm country) and we could move the diesel unit out to the little cabin in the woods if need be.  That said, 20 gallons of diesel a day would be prohibitively expensive.  


Maybe the thing to do as far as a diesel gen would be to get an 002 and if the power goes out in the summer slap a window unit in one end of the house and shut it off to keep it cool.

You might think about getting a honda eu3000 with a trifuel kit
That would run a window ac, fridge,etc or fridge, nat gas furnace blower, etc.
a mep002 weighs 960lbs dry so 2 guys can't exactly throw it in a truck and bug out to the cabin

Wet stacking can be an issue with these gensets if you go to large for what you need.





 

Yeah I would plan on permanantly mounting it to a trailer.  That said, given what ya'll have said I might be better off going with a civvy unit.

I had a 002A I bought as a refurb from a reputable company In Kansas.   Mounted it in an M101  trailer and put probably 500 hours on it using it at our BOL in Far West Texas.

It is a massive brute of a machine and never failed to draw a crowd when in view, starting it up or when it was running.  Might be sorta cool to have this monster but OPSEC sucked.

It was reliable for the most part.   I still sold it and I was not sorry to see it go.

There is an ungodly number of junk 002A's floating around.  They are not that easy to work on and a shade tree mechanic with little knowledge of this unit can turn one to junk on a few hours.  

Parts are $$$$ and not plentiful, many being pulls from salvage units.  Quality is always questionable.

It is a BIG LOUD UNGAINLY unit and unless you plan  on mounting it permanently it is not a good option.  Most of the noise generated from the generator is due to rotating mass-- not exhaust.  The only effective way to deaden the noise is with a sound enclosure.

FWIW,  I went with 2X Yamaha EU2000is units and would never go back.