# New member with NG question



## rtm038 (Sep 16, 2013)

Hi all,
New to the site. I currently have a Briggs & Stratton Storm Responder generator and I'm thinking about upgrading to a Generac XG10000E. Since I live in northern NJ and had a real tough time finding fuel during my 14-day outage during Hurricane Sandy, I'm thinking about running the Generac off my home's natural gas connection. However, I've heard that you cannot run Generacs on NG and that NG tends to shorten the life of generator engines (any brand) because it burns hotter than gasoline which wears out the internal engine components faster. Is there any truth to either of these?


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## Dqalex (Nov 25, 2012)

I can't see why you couldn't convert it to run on NG. I've read the same stories that running it on NG will reduce the life of the unit. If there is a good side to a storm is its you usually get a warning of it a few days before. I can store enough gas now for a minimum of 10 days on my generator. If I run my two EU2000's in parallel I can run even longer. What I like about gasoline is that I can also use it for my vehicles if the need arises.


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## KRE (Nov 29, 2011)

N/G will not harm a engine "If the timing" is set correctly. You can not change the base line heat rate (fuel), and expect it to preform or have the life cycle with a fuel it's not properly set to run on.
One thing to remember unless you have an on site fuel supply you are at the whim or others. 
My setup is N/G fuel as primary but my unit (30kw) is an automatic duel fuel system. Should the primary fuel fail it will auto switch to propane. As my set up is 1800rpm the timing change is so little, that I have my base timing set between the correct N/G and Propane setting and at 1800rpm that small of off set means nothing in the grand scheme of things. You can not do that with 3600rpm units w/o problems. Many units were designed to run on the 3 different gas fuels, that is why they are more, up front. Can a liquid (gasoline) engine be modded to run on N/G, yes it can, but understand what is required.


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## PeterB123 (Oct 5, 2012)

rtm038 said:


> Hi all,
> New to the site. I currently have a Briggs & Stratton Storm Responder generator and I'm thinking about upgrading to a Generac XG10000E. Since I live in northern NJ and had a real tough time finding fuel during my 14-day outage during Hurricane Sandy, I'm thinking about running the Generac off my home's natural gas connection. However, I've heard that you cannot run Generacs on NG and that NG tends to shorten the life of generator engines (any brand) because it burns hotter than gasoline which wears out the internal engine components faster. Is there any truth to either of these?


Let's just go on the assumption that it will reduce the life. 

How often do you use the generator?

I run mine when my power is out; therefore, barring a hurricane, I might run mine 15 hours a year. Post Ike, I was without power for 17 days. 

My guess is that if my generator loses half it's life due to the extra fuel heat, I might only get a few dozen years out of it.

Now, if I were living off the grid or were a contractor and my genny were running everyday, it might be a concern. But in my case, and probably yours as well, any reduced engine life due to the higher temps of NG will have no negligible impact.


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## Jackruf (Nov 4, 2012)

I echo what Peter said. Like you, I live in NNJ and experienced the extended outages during Sandy. However, during the prior 17 years that I owned my old 5500W Generac, I did not need to hook it up once for backup power. All the hours logged came from testing. If anything, leaving stale gas in your generator will shorten its life much faster than NG. NG is the way to go. Both US Carb and Central Maine are very reputable manufacturers of NG conversion kits. Can't go wrong with either system.


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## rtm038 (Sep 16, 2013)

Thanks for the all of the great info. In regards to engine timing, can it be adjusted? If it can't, it's no big. I tend to think like the others in that the infrequent use will reduce the effect of potential reduced engine life. 

Thanks again
Ryan


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