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Natural Gas CFH

14 years ago

Because gasoline is hard to come by following hurricanes, I want to run my 5500 watt 10HP generator using natural gas. I have an available gas stub out (thought it was 3/4") near the desired location of the generator, so I ordered a 40' 3/4" hose to connect my generator.

My house has two 100,000 btu furnaces, hot water, dryer, and stove gas appliances. Given that hurricanes aren't winter events, the furnaces will not be running when the generator is running, so my system capacity isn't an issue.

The problem is the stub out is 1/2". The length of the 1/2" pipe is ~10 feet (the height of the wall).

I am told that the generator will consume 100 CFH of gas. This would be fine with 3/4" supply, but the 1/2" line is causing me worry.

The kit conversion company provided me with the following chart of CFH capacity:

Pipe Size 10' 20' 30' 40' 50'

1/2"......174 119 096 082 073

3/4"......363 249 200 171 152

At the stub out, I should be getting 174 CFH, but how much more loss should I expect at the end of the 40' of 3/4" hose? Is it reasonable to think I might not have as much loss (through the 3/4" hose) as the above chart depicts, and therefore get 100CFH at the generator?

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Comments (3)

manhattan42
14 years ago
If I am reading your conversion company's table correctly, you can only expect to get 82 CFH with a 1/2" supply pipe and 40ft of extension.

That is clearly too small for your generator.

You would either have to:

1. Reduce the distance between the generator and the supply to 20ft or less OR

2. Increase the hard piped supply piping to 3/4" or larger.

No other choices....except perhaps to install a large enough propane tank near your existing generator...one large enough to have ample supply in the event of power loss for weeks or more.

Might be your best option considering the flow of natural gas by utilities is not 100% guaranteed after a natural disaster like a hurricane.

Just ask the residents of New Orleans.
-----------

My personal option would be to stick up on enough gasoline to keep the existing generator going for several weeks OR install a propane tank (several thousand gallons).

I wouldn't rely on natural gas as a back up at all.
User
Original Author
14 years ago
>> I wouldn't rely on natural gas as a back up at all

Based on my experience living in the Gulf south for 49 years and witnessing quite a few hurricanes, natural gas is very reliable. In fact, I have never had, nor know anyone that has, a hurricane related natural gas outage. Nothing in life is 100% guaranteed, except death and taxes. And, I've relied on storing gasoline in the past, but I don't care for all of that gasoline lying around, and propane is not an option.

So, back to the question:
With 50' of 1/2" pipe, the table says I can only get 73CFH.
With 50' of 3/4" pipe, the table says I can get 152CFH.
So, with 10' of 1/2" and 40' of 3/4", I expect to get somewhere between 73 and 152CFH. My question is how many CFHs in this scenario?

I may end up having to run hard pipe, but maybe the existing stub out is worth a try.
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manhattan42
14 years ago
All due respect, but having experienced death and taxes and hurricanes and floods...natural gas is very often one of the FIRST utilities to be interupted in such disasters.

And one of the LAST to be restored...

Do what you wish, but what you wish doesn't make a lot of sense in my professional opinion.

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