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Fuel Usage
I know I’ve seen a thread on generator fuel usage, but I can’t find it right now.
I believe Jon stated his generator burns 1/2 gallon of diesel per hour. Last night I ran my gen for 14 hours and after fueling up the coach this morning, I determined I burned around 12 gallons of fuel. Or, about .85 gallons per hour. At times I had everything in the coach running, but throughout the night I had one or two ACs operating.
Would it be correct to say the more load on the generator, the more fuel you’ll burn or, is it not relevant?
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8 Replies
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You are correct, Tim. The more load on the generator, the more fuel it will use. Pretty much all generators are set up that way.
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I have dry camped for 6-9 days each year in August at Louisville and have averaged between .65-.85 per hour.
2005 XL Thompson Coach
Rarely tow anything behind us.
Sold: 1993 Liberty that we loved for 12 years. -
I dry camped for 10 days, ran the generator somewhere around 170 hours and used somewhere around 71 gallons. I have ther exact numbers written somewhere. That calculates to a little more than 4/10 gallons per hour.
I had two Cruiseairs on at all times and it was July in Oshkosh where the temps during the day were in the 90’s. I would have used more fuel if I loaded the generator more, but I was gone from the coach all day from about 7:30 to about 5:30. I kept he shades down all the time. If Di had been with me and if we had been in and out of the coach during the day we would have had greater loads and fuel burn. I did grill out every night, watched TV, used lights, had hot water, etc. but no exceptional loads.
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We dry camp on a regular basis, depending on AC load….4 to 7 gal/hr. Geo.
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The rule of thumb for generator fuel useage is 1/10 gal per hour for friction loss in the engine, generator etc. Then and additional 1/10 gal per hour per KW of load.
Hope this helps.
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I’am with the majority at 1/2 gal per hour with air conditioner use being the increase consumption factor. I think your numbers are realistic based on load cycling.
AL
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The Kohler website has a spec sheet for the 20 kw diesel generator (20EOZD) that list the following:
100% Load – 1.49 gallons/hour
78% Load – 1.24 gallons/hour
50% Load – 0.83 gallons/hour
25% Load – 0.57 gallons/hour
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100% Load – 1.49 gallons/hour 166 amps total current draw
78% Load – 1.24 gallons/hour 125 amps total current draw
50% Load – 0.83 gallons/hour 83 amps total current draw
25% Load – 0.57 gallons/hour 42 amps total current draw
Those fuel flow values are pretty realistic. They may b e a little on the conservative side but that is OK for fuel planning purposes.
In the FWIW Department we often discuss one of the best things we can do for our generators is to run them loaded and I can honestly say I cannot remember ever seeing my total amps of current draw approach 100 amps and most of the time the total for both legs is under 50 amps. Except for air conditioner start up loads it appears our generators are just coasting along.
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