Diesel Generators Will Save You Money!
After the last snow storm we found ourselves joining the queue of a large number of people waiting to purchase diesel generators. We had been without power for six days and most of us were running high on frustration and anger at the slow response of the repair teams. There were several families in our street who had diesel generators running and they were able to keep their lights and appliances running the whole time. Depending on the size of their generators some of them were able to keep the furnace going as well as their refrigerators and televisions. To these people, owning diesel generators meant the difference between a miserable existence and one that was certainly not desirable but manageable. Some of ourr friends asked us why we preferred diesel generators over the more common gasoline units. We decided to go with the diesel generators because we have had a lot to do with trucks in the past. We know how robust the diesel engine is. Diesel generators use less fuel consumption per kilowatt produced. Not only this but lower maintenance costs are also a feature of diesel generators. The experts say that the overall operating costs can be anywhere up to 50% less than gasoline units. High levels of noise have always been associated with older models, but the diesel generators that are made today seem to have the noise levels in check.
We were lucky that day that we got there early enough to have a pick of the diesel generators. I would say that at least two thirds of the people missed out. There just wasn't enough to go around. Fortunately we did go armed with the necessary information to be able to choose the model that will best suit our needs, and fortunately again they still had a unit big enough for us. We hardly had the generator home and installed on the veranda then we had another bad run of whether, and this time over the next week we had several days that we lost power for quite a few hours at a time. We could hear the diesel generators all down the street quietly working away and bringing light and warmth into the homes of their owners. We have been advised by friends that diesel generators should really be connected to the electricity system by a transfer switch. So far we have been running extension cords from the unit to the various appliances that we want to keep running. This has worked okay but we realise that it is not the best way to use generators. What we didn't know was that there is a risk for serious damage to our home, or to any linesman working to repair the powerlines if any diesel generators were connected incorrectly. It is going to cost us as much as the diesel generator itself, to have this installed but we feel that it is an essential safety measure. We do realise that with diesel generators you must use the correct size of extension cord otherwise there is a potential to overheat the unit and this could cause a fire. We have been advised that these diesel generators oare OK to run computers from. Hopefully this is going to be okay or we will be in for an expensive repair job. The salesman said that other people in the town were running their computers from these types of diesel generators. What we did learn is that it would have been much better for us to have purchased our generator way before the storm season as we would have paid at least another 30% more during this peak time. It is all a matter of supply and demand and during a severe snowstorm when the power is out, there is huge demand for diesel generators and as we found out, very limited supply. |
