BurnerBunny wrote:I have a honda eu2000i generator, and I plan on running it 3-4 hours a day to keep the hexayurt cool enough to sleep in late mornings to noonish using a portable 8000btu AC unit (800w), plus an hour or two at night for charging things or powering lights. I'm having a hard time figuring out how much gasoline to bring, but my estimates are somewhere in the 2-5 gallons per day (I'm doing some test runs next weekend to narrow that number down).
For the week, that gives me a range of 14-35 gallons. I'd like to only bring a 6 gallon extended tank I have for the generator, and an extra 5 gallon can and get them refilled as needed, but having a hard time finding information about buying fuel on the playa.
- Do the fuel delivery companies only do diesel, and only for large orders?
Can you get regular gasoline (87 octane) delivered for small orders on the playa?
if so do you need to figure it out in advance, or can you get it setup once you're on the playa?
searching for "buying fuel" sent me to this thread, but so far I don't know anything more about buying fuel on the playa and now I'm more confused about what kinds of fire extinguishers and containment I'll need. oh well, if it wasn't an adventure just to get prepared it wouldn't be as fun
Bunz: You may not need to worry about getting fuel delivered at all.
An EU2000i will burn about one gallon of fuel in 4 hours at 1600 watts of load. At 800 watts load, you will get about 7 hours per gallon. Just to be safe maybe figure you need about 1.5 gals per day, but I have a feeling this will be overkill. Maybe you could pack this much in without much effort?
Thinking out loud here: If you have the extended run 6 gal tank, and the Honda itself starts out the burn with a full tank (1 gal), then adding just one more 6 gallon gas can gives you 13 gallons... or about 90 hours of runtime at your loads. That should be plenty of power, something along the lines of 12 hours per day, even after your neighbors decide to raid your powerstrip for "just one more quick charge".
Quick suggestions for you to maximize whatever you decide to bring, fuel-wise:
1). Switch to the best synthetic oil you can find. On a lightly loaded generator, this can make quite a difference on fuel economy.
2). Change the spark plug before you go. Best five bucks you can spend IMHO.
3). Add a little Marvel Mystery Oil, or other top-cylinder lube to your fuel.
4). Use only the freshest gas you can find and keep it out of the sun.
5). The "Eco" setting, if your AC will tolerate it, makes a big difference in burn rate. Use it if you can.
6). Start your Honda up on the "Eco" setting, and let it warm-up for a couple of minutes before you put a load on it. When shutting it off, reverse this order. This isn't a fuel-economy thing, but it makes for a happier Honda in the long-term.
Good luck at the Burn!
