The Benefits of Diesel Generators

Do you have a backup power source for your home? You may want to learn more about diesel generators!

Diesel generators have far more applications than serving as a backup electricity source for your business or home, though that is among the most popular uses of these systems. They can be put on a trailer and used to provide electricity for power tools at the worksite. Let’s look at a few of the benefits of diesel generators over the alternatives.

Reliability

Diesel generators don’t have spark plugs or carburetors. This means they’re free of one of the biggest points of failure for gas powered generators. They have fewer parts that can break or need to be replaced. The only major service they need is changing the oil. Diesel generators also last much longer. If properly maintained, they may last three times as long as petrol generators. Note that the rugged components are heavier and generally bigger, so they are more expensive to service when that’s required. All of this is true whether you’re picking out a 10 kilowatt generator to power your home if the power lines go down or an industrial grade generator to keep operations going if the power grid is shut down or utility providers tell you to turn off equipment to prevent brownouts.

Portability

Diesel generators are sometimes carried on the back of diesel truck. This means you don’t have to get a separate trailer to pull the generator. Better yet, it can use the same fuel as the diesel truck. Now you’ve eliminated the need to carry two types of fuel with you. This makes a major difference when you’re using a generator on a ship or remote worksite. A side benefit of diesel generators is that they use proven technology. You can almost always find someone to service it no matter where you are.

Efficiency

Some people think that diesel generators are less efficient than gas generators because they are louder. However, diesel generators are more efficient than generators running off of gasoline. Yet you can get more fuel for it at the gas station, something you probably can’t do if you were running a generator off natural gas or propane. The diesel generator’s greater efficiency means it will run longer, too, for the same amount of fuel. A side benefit of diesel is that it is cheaper than petrol, so you’ll have lower operating costs than if you ran it off gasoline. The diesel generator is also not very expensive. A common man can easily afford to a buy diesel generator.

Safety

An underappreciated benefit of diesel generators is their safety benefits. For example, diesel fuel has less risk of igniting than petrol. If you can use the same fuel cans for the truck as you do the generator, there are fewer gas cans being lugged around, and that means fewer fuel containers that could leak or spill their contents on the ground. The lack of spark plugs or spark wires eliminates one of the potential ignition sources for generators, too. Now you only have to keep heat sources and smokers away from the generator and its fuel.

Conversely, diesel generators burn cooler than natural gas generators, so they are less of threat in this regard than natural gas generators. And diesel generators don’t require you to deal with tanks of compressed gas that could explode if punctured, whether or not they catch fire. It is important you take a look at what you need your generator to do as it will cost you more in the long run if you don’t buy the right generator in the first place.