It’s not necessarily gasoline could be a diesel generator which would last significantly longer. I bought an RV that had been sitting for 8 years with a full tank of diesel and it fired right up. Smokey and smelly but it still functioned.
Diesel will last a while (way longer than 6mo) but it’ll get pretty nasty after a few years. As the other commenter pointed out you technically can still run it but it will ruin your shit and eventually things will just seize up and at best will need to be completely torn down and thoroughly cleaned, at worst scrapped
Not a hospital but I have a generator on my house. Runs on liquid propane. I live in an area with terrible infrastructure. I lost power twice today (only 20 minutes each time, thankfully) because it rained. It typically runs about 3-400 hours a year and we typically have at least 1 >6hr outage every 2 months or so and at least one outage longer than 4 days a year during snow season, two if there’s a nasty hurricane season in the northeast.
We have no services available to our house aside from internet (eg no gas, no sewer, no water, etc) so we just have a large tank for the liquid propane. We originally just had them come twice a year but that was insufficient. We then had them come after serious run times but that was a pain to remember to call. I now have an ultrasonic tank monitor on there, it was like $50 and connects via Ethernet to home assistant, uses some magic ultrasonic nonsense to detect the level of the tank, once the tank drops below 40% I have it ping me and I call them, repeats at 35%, 30, etc just in case I forget then more rapidly like 28, 26 because it’s really bad for the generator to run out of gas (so it’s also a reminder to just shut it off if I truly drag my feet). I wish I could send them an automated request but the companies around here are pretty “phone only” situations for the most part
I imagine the industrial solutions are fairly similar except they’re probably using the $350 generac (or equivalent) tank monitors
Someday I’ll have the money to just convert to solar. The house came with this setup and it works for now
Sounds like you can do the battery conversion now and wait with adding solar panels. Should be cheaper than your generator pretty quickly considering how much you use it.
There are ways to store fuel for a very long time, preserving additives you can put in, and filtration systems intended to preserve diesel for a long time. Also, apparently kerosene has an incredible shelf life.
Wait, so what happens if you try to run a car that’s been sitting there for more than half a year? Does the gas just not work? Or does it explode or something?
I bought a gasoline powered motor home that had been sitting for about 5 years unused.
I tried to fill the tank with fresh gas and hope it would offset the bad gas.
Although I did drive it some, it was hard to start and ran poorly. Eventually I just had to replace the diesel fuel pumps and get the injectors cleaned. Lot of work. In the end I wished I had just drained the tank and put fresh gas in before anything else.
In the end I wished I had just drained the tank and put fresh gas in before anything else.
Thanks for the info… I don’t think I can drain the tank myself, so… is that the sort of thing they can do on site, or would it need to be towed somewhere?
Depends on the site and the people you’ve hired to do it. Also I’m forgetting what vehicle we were talking about here, but I didn’t need to jack up the motorhome to work under it and remove the tanks. That could be an issue with a lower vehicle.
In general, gasoline and diesel can be stored for 6 months to 1 year without significant degradation if they are stored in a clean, sealed, and dry container or tank, away from sunlight, heat, and sources of ignition. However, fuel that is exposed to oxygen, moisture, or contaminants can deteriorate more quickly, resulting in reduced quality, lower octane rating, and increased levels of sediments or sludge.
So yeah, the trope of hopping in an abandoned car after the zombie apocalypse does not work 😂
In addition to the carbon monoxide problem, is there also not the issue that fuel last only for half a year (a bit more with some additives) ?
Btw, anyone know how entities (e.g. hospitals) with fuel-based emergency generators manage their fuel supply?
It’s not necessarily gasoline could be a diesel generator which would last significantly longer. I bought an RV that had been sitting for 8 years with a full tank of diesel and it fired right up. Smokey and smelly but it still functioned.
Diesel will last a while (way longer than 6mo) but it’ll get pretty nasty after a few years. As the other commenter pointed out you technically can still run it but it will ruin your shit and eventually things will just seize up and at best will need to be completely torn down and thoroughly cleaned, at worst scrapped
Not a hospital but I have a generator on my house. Runs on liquid propane. I live in an area with terrible infrastructure. I lost power twice today (only 20 minutes each time, thankfully) because it rained. It typically runs about 3-400 hours a year and we typically have at least 1 >6hr outage every 2 months or so and at least one outage longer than 4 days a year during snow season, two if there’s a nasty hurricane season in the northeast.
We have no services available to our house aside from internet (eg no gas, no sewer, no water, etc) so we just have a large tank for the liquid propane. We originally just had them come twice a year but that was insufficient. We then had them come after serious run times but that was a pain to remember to call. I now have an ultrasonic tank monitor on there, it was like $50 and connects via Ethernet to home assistant, uses some magic ultrasonic nonsense to detect the level of the tank, once the tank drops below 40% I have it ping me and I call them, repeats at 35%, 30, etc just in case I forget then more rapidly like 28, 26 because it’s really bad for the generator to run out of gas (so it’s also a reminder to just shut it off if I truly drag my feet). I wish I could send them an automated request but the companies around here are pretty “phone only” situations for the most part
I imagine the industrial solutions are fairly similar except they’re probably using the $350 generac (or equivalent) tank monitors
Someday I’ll have the money to just convert to solar. The house came with this setup and it works for now
Sounds like you can do the battery conversion now and wait with adding solar panels. Should be cheaper than your generator pretty quickly considering how much you use it.
Seems multiple times more annoying than solar with a big lifepo. Hope you can switch to solar sooner than later!
There are ways to store fuel for a very long time, preserving additives you can put in, and filtration systems intended to preserve diesel for a long time. Also, apparently kerosene has an incredible shelf life.
They use diesel
Wait, so what happens if you try to run a car that’s been sitting there for more than half a year? Does the gas just not work? Or does it explode or something?
I bought a gasoline powered motor home that had been sitting for about 5 years unused.
I tried to fill the tank with fresh gas and hope it would offset the bad gas.
Although I did drive it some, it was hard to start and ran poorly. Eventually I just had to replace the
dieselfuel pumps and get the injectors cleaned. Lot of work. In the end I wished I had just drained the tank and put fresh gas in before anything else.Thanks for the info… I don’t think I can drain the tank myself, so… is that the sort of thing they can do on site, or would it need to be towed somewhere?
Depends on the site and the people you’ve hired to do it. Also I’m forgetting what vehicle we were talking about here, but I didn’t need to jack up the motorhome to work under it and remove the tanks. That could be an issue with a lower vehicle.
So yeah, the trope of hopping in an abandoned car after the zombie apocalypse does not work 😂