Quote:
Originally Posted by Dolores
Seems like this is the way to go for those interested in purchasing power generators in the DR. Especially, now that in 2008 natural gas will be available for distribution to households, in the way propane gas is now.
Does anyone have any experience with natural gas generators? Are they less noisy than diesel generators -- talking here of from 40 to 150 kilo generators.
These are now available on order in the DR. They operate with propane or natural gas, and from what I understand, pricing is similar to that of diesel plants. The advantage (aside from the possible less noisy operation) is that natural gas is being promoted as costing about half of what diesel goes for, thus operation costs will be much less.
Those with experience, please share your knowledge here.
|
Dolores, for all intent and purpose a natural gas (or propane or gasoline) 'spark' internal combustion engine is the same animal; Only the fuel and and method of fuel delivery to the cylinder differs. The noise produced by an engine is a product of design and not due to the type of fuel used. The diesel (spontaneous internal combustion) engine is much more efficient and build of better grade materials because of the higher compression ratio it needs to operate in (~25:1). For applications in the 100kW+ (@ ~2hp per kW) the diesel engine is hard to beat for continuous duty or even 50% duty. However, in the 10-20kW range petrol (or natural gas) generator are a good choice, albeit less efficient.
Here an interesting observation, in the DR, the worst of it solar zone receives 1kW/h m2 of solar energy. That means that a piece of land 5x5 meters or 25 m2 receives ~25kw of energy per hour. wow! If only 10% of this energy could be recovered....
NotLurking
(31)
Natural gas plants
