Gas planta or Diesel planta

680680

On Vacation!
Feb 18, 2005
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What is the best deisel or gas planta. I have a small house that has an inverter and 8 batteries in sosua. I want to buy a small planta /generator to charge my batteries every other day or so maybe run 8 hours a day every second or 3rd day what size planta would i need and how long to run to charge mt batterys

Toronto Rick
 

Tamborista

hasta la tambora
Apr 4, 2005
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Too bad you insulted the Resident expert on Plantas/Invertors on here.
Maybe you will think twice about insulting someone's restaurant!
 

680680

On Vacation!
Feb 18, 2005
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You are funny

I guess expressing my own opion on a bussiness in Sosua is insulting people. I am Glad to see that the maturety level here has not changed. you faillied to mention the insults and name calling by the members on this board towards me but though my comments about Rockys i have insulted the owners.
What a joke this board has come to. Ok for now on i will only express the opions that are approved by the owners of Rockys and all his friends.

Rick Toronto
 

Chris

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Oct 21, 2002
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Tamborista said:
Too bad you insulted the Resident expert on Plantas/Invertors on here.
Maybe you will think twice about insulting someone's restaurant!

You're doing a disservice to people that generously share their experiences and will continue to do so. I think a restaurant review is not an insult....

680680 - About Plantas... there are all kinds of ways that you can work out which size planta you need. It is generally accepted that the smallest diesel is better than the biggest gasoline planta (diesel price).

Plantas come in all varieties... What you would need probably (and I'm sure Rocky or MrMike will be in here to answer) is a continuous use planta, and not one just needed for emergency use. (I may be wrong here with your 8 hours...) It also depends on how long you want the planta to last. We've in the past bought cheap, and accepted it would be a throwaway until we put the money together for a better one.

It is not an easy question to answer and I would suggest that you search on the words planta or generator and read the wealth of information that there is on this site on generators. I think we have sizing information, usage information, maintenance information, makes of plantas and everything you could hope to have, on this site.

Do a few searches, gather the information and then come back with a proposed plan. All the experienced members on the site, would help you to refine your plan, but make your plan first. The information is here, it is up to you to do some homework.
 

680680

On Vacation!
Feb 18, 2005
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Thank you Chris

Thank you for reponding to my post about planta. Because i am still making final plans here in Canada before i move to the DR on a more prement bases i value all the help good or bad that i receive on here and would never stoop to personal insults about anyone.

As for the planta i am hoping to use this more as an emerengy type syetem as i have already invested in back up inverters and 8 batterys. My house is small and at this point we do not have Ac but i hope to add it when i become a more perment resident. We where doing quite well for the last 6 months with local power and back up inverter but as of late the power in my area is not staying on long enough to recharge my batteries. This is why i have decieded to look at plantas.

I am not really sure how to calculate the amount of power i need but i do think i am on the low scale of power consumtion. Also i am a little concerned about noise levels. I will take your advise and do a search here and see what i can find.

Thank you
Toronto Rick
 

sweetdbt

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Sep 17, 2004
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I'm far from an expert,

but I've been researching this for future reference. The use you are describing (emergency backup to an inverter system) is the appropriate role for a gasoline planta, which is less expensive to buy than diesel, but less durable and more expensive to operate. If you need to run it more than occasionally and for brief periods, you want a diesel.
 

str8d0minikan

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Sep 18, 2005
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diesel it waste less than the normal gas i have a switched my gas planta for a diesel and im way better off with it
 

J D Sauser

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Nov 20, 2004
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Gas => Gasoline (Petrol for Brits)?

By mentioning Gas or Diesel, are you meaning Gas as Gasoline (Petrol in England) or are you meaning Gas like Propane and Butane. Because that's apparently an option too:
I have seen some nice 6 and 10KWh Propane/Butane "plantas" in Santo Domingo (I'm not sure if Ferreteria Americana or MFG on Kennedy). The thing to considder there is that Butane/Propane is subsidized, meaning cheaper than Gasoline or Diesel. You've certainly observed those large bottles that you see people haul on thier motor, pasolita or moto concho to refil, those are the ones they use for cooking (energia popular). There is also a larger industrial bottle which they will come exchange at your location but which is more expensive per pound of gas because it is less subsidized than the cooking gas. I am also by no means an expert with these beasts, but it seems an option well worth looking into.

... J-D.
 

Aguayo

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Oct 11, 2003
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Although a 10 KWh diesel may more than enough to charge a 3.6 K Trace unit, the price difference with a bigger planta may not be great.
My 20 KWh Perkins consumes 0.5 gallon hour (I was told that is the same than the 10 KWh unit) when charging my inverter.
I need to run it about 6 hours each 4 days to charge my 8 batteries, but I reckon I don't consume so much electricity as other people, so your figures may be different.
The 20 KWh Gesan unit price was U$S 12.900 + $ 5000 for shipping it from Santiago to Maimon.

Ben
 

Hillbilly

Moderator
Jan 1, 2002
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Rick

Diesel is the way to go.

There will soon be 6.5 and 10 KW gensets available in Santiago. Extra quiet and very well priced.

Depending on just what appliances you have in your house in Sos?a, you can figure out how much you need to have on "standby" . However, a 6.5 kw set should do you fine, unless you have central A/C and a 100 gallon electric water heater...:p:p


As soon as I get details, I'll let you know more about these new gensets.

As to why diesel over gasoline?
1) Safety
2) Long term economy and
3) Ease of maintenence
4) Great re-sale value

Diesel is safer to handle than gasoline.
A diesel engine will run for years and years with no headaches
Given, of course, that you change the oil and filters regularly, and maintain the starter batter up to par. No points, no plugs, no distributor to worry about

Gensets with good maintenence records are always fast sellers.

HB :D:D
 

Heythere

Member
Feb 24, 2005
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You might consider economy.

In Canada I have a cabin that is powered by a Honda EU1000.

This is a small 1000 watt generator that is light weight, portable, very quiet, uses very little gas, has an econo-throttle (runs faster the more load you put on it and slower the less load - thus saving fuel. They are also "computer safe".

I run a tv, vcr, sterio, lots of lights (low watt florescent bulbs), and fans all at once. I also can run a drill, circular saw, etc. on it.

The Honda name is quality and it should last you a long time. I have been using mine for 5 years and it still runs great. In Canada they sell for $900 - $1000 Canadian. They sell them here for the standard rip off price.

They also make an EU2000 and I think an EU3000. These models are very quiet but will burn more gas, cost more and are larger in size. Of course you can run more stuff on them.

The only downside is that they do not have the option of electric start and shut off on any of the EU models. So you have to manually start and turn them off each time you want to use them.
 

221

New member
Jun 28, 2004
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the honda 1000 is good
the yamaha 1000 is better (mine has about 6k hours with 1 ring job)

for a small load diesel cant touch the buyin and operating costs
 

221

New member
Jun 28, 2004
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i did

i ran a 6 x 2v system w/ 20A charger

when it was time to replace the batteries it made better economic sense to just run the generator. if gas stays this high i may have to do the numbers.
 

FireGuy

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Aug 21, 2002
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Chris said:
IN CANADA... do you power a battery bank?
Chris,

I will of course not speak for Heythere, but inverters are quite rare in Canada (I'd never heard of them until I learned of their use in the DR) so I would speculate that because of Heythere's use of the word "cabin" that this is a small hut (perhaps a hunting or fishing cabin) back in the woods where ther is no electrical service whatsoever. Everything needs to be backpacked in or brought in by boat or ATV (four wheeler) so small is good and lightweight is better.

This would be my inference from Heythere's posting, but of course I defer to the correct answer, if I am wrong.

Gregg
 

Mirador

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Apr 15, 2004
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I haven't read this thread, but I wonder if anyone has had experience with a propane powered planta?
 

FireGuy

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221 said:
inverters in canada are about as rare as Canadian Tire stores
221, I'm not sure how to take this - are you saying they are rare or common; since Canadian Tire stores are relatively common.

Gregg

P.S. - I'm not talking about the tiny "Eliminator" inverters which are more of recent phenomena and are more of a toy compared to the Trace and Trace-style units which are common in the DR (at least amongst the DR1 crowd).