How do fuel burns compare on a 500kw generator set, constant use.. Natural gas vs propane vs diesel Talking roughly comparing fuel expense per hour, how ever you want to explain, doesn’t need to be exact, which is cheapest and how odd are they? since different fuel types are different costs per unit. Natural gas most convenient but will take a public utility connection which comes with cost, propane and diesel pretty easy to get going. Thanks
I have no numbers off the top of my head for natural gas by the cubic foot. Diesel weighs ~7 pounds per gallon. Gasoline weighs 6.1 pounds per gallon. Liquid propane weighs 4.24 pounds per gallon. Given equal efficiency, those numbers can be used in ratios to determine your local costs per pound. Given equal efficiency, pounds of fuel are what counts. That weight difference between diesel and gas is a significant portion of the economy of diesel>gas, as well as the typical efficiency of the diesel engine>gas engine.
There are a lot more moving parts to this decision than just what type of fuel. In this size genset, all the big vapor fuel engines are set up internally for natural gas. If you want to run on propane, you will have to get an engine one or more sizes larger than what you actually need. Diesel engine will have to be a full tier 4 crazy stuff engine. Natural gas, only you know what the degree of difficulty is there. We are in this business. Maybe contact off list and can help you with this.
I have a 10kw genset. 5 gallons of gas goes about 25% longer than a 20lb propane cylinder (gas grill size).