@SidecarFlip - good stuff. I don't live/work on a farm, so I don't have all the big equipment around, but I worked in the ag industry for about 8 years and was over-the-road in a semi for a bit. I've had 2 diesel pickups of my own - a 6.4L powerstroke and the current one is a 6.7L powerstroke. Some years before I ran a 6.0L powerstroke for work over-the-road (as bad of a rap as they get, I never had any issues with it aside from it being a PITA to start when cold in the winter). My current one went down a couple weeks ago with a blown high pressure pump (the grenade of death for a number of these engines). Just shy of 175k miles, all original to me (only miles on the title are from my test drive). I just got out to the dealer this afternoon and went through a few things after the initial tear-down and evaluation. I was prepared to load it up and haul it home to park it for a while, but it is looking like we're going to get it right back on the road.
I do like my trucks and equipment also - some day I hope to have an off-grid homestead. That thought isn't necessarily for the environmental aspect, rather energy independence. I can't really articulate that thought and be "politically correct", though I assume you know what I mean. I do like alternative energy, from a hobby stand-point, and I have dreamed of making my own wind turbines (look up
www.otherpower.org for some examples - that group is based, I believe, out of Colorado - they implement a lot of Hugh Piggot's designs). With the combination of solar and wind power it is conceivable to have a robust off-grid set up. Though, I am not sure how easy it would be to get enough electricity to run AC during the summer. Maybe some form of geothermal would be more appropriate so as to drop the electrical requirement. An alternative power system designed to produce usual power requirements in low production periods would produce an enormous amount of surplus power in peak periods (specifically with wind power) - so if AC was needed and it was windy that probably wouldn't be a concern on the energy demand, but if power production is down and AC is needed that would be a hard row to hoe on alternative energy.
I picked up a 15kw generator this season. I have a smaller 2600w or so rotary as well. Both of those I converted to natural gas and propane. Since we have natural gas piped in it only makes sense to use it. However, we have options if we loose natural gas also. My main generator is actually a Honda EU2200i inverter. It only runs gasoline. I've been tempted to convert it to natural gas and propane also, but the gen is so efficient on fuel I am having a hard time justifying it. All of them (and our outboard boat motors) use the Johnson/Evinrude style 2 prong fuel ports. That makes it easy to swap tanks around. I have 2x 12gal's and 2x 6gal's that use that connector, and a few other cans and tanks for north of 50 gallons. I suppose if I put all the tanks together I might have enough to hold around 65-ish gallons, but never have that much. If we lost natural gas and had, say, 40 gallons that would get us power for all the essentials on the EU2200i for a good couple of weeks or so. Fuel consumption is around .14 gallons per hour with a light load - on Gasonline. Compare that to 1.5 gallons per hour (gasoline) on the 15kw unit (Honda GX690 engine).
With gas heat we can run the whole house on a small generator. The EU2200i is actually a stronger generator than the rotary 2600w, but doesn't run NG. So if we lost electrical power the 2600w rotary would be the one to use (and we have - it was my only generator for about 4 years, only gasoline - natural gas/propane conversion was new this season). If we lost natural gas and electricity then we can run the whole house on the EU2200i. When I say "whole house" - I mean essentials while being energy conscious in that we can meet our energy requirements - refrigerators, fans, lights, some consumer electronics, ham radio, and - furnace fan. We can't run the microwave unless it is the only load, but at that point we can cook on propane or one of my backpacking stoves - white gas or isobutane.
Heating is the next thing to square away. If we lost electricity and natural gas we don't have the generator power to run electric space heaters. We have enough generator power with the 15kw unit - from an electrical output perspective. It will run the central AC and electric clothes dryer (2 highest loads we have). Its the fuel consumption - where are we going to get the gasoline to supply 1.5+ gallons per hour to it in a long-term outage? We can't even get through 2 days with it if I stocked up every tank and can we have with gas. So thats where wood heat comes in. That is a different topic than the pellet stove deal here, and something I am trying to untangle. That isn't a question of environmental stewardship, rather energy independence. If the "switch is turned off" (think "politics") or "the supply is forced off" (think storm and down power lines and uprooted gas lines) - how to we keep on keepin' on? With generator power we're good on electricity for a good couple weeks or more. We have wooded property to harvest wood from, so if we don't have enough here already split theres plenty more not too far away. That reminds me - I needed hard wood blocks for working on my truck a several years ago so I cut a large maple down. I need to get back over there and coin it + split it. That would get us a good month or more of heat I'd think.
As far as pellets go - I would be curious if there are any wood products vendors around that make them from their sawdust. There is such a place I know of that sells split firewood by the ton. They do cabinetry and other furniture as their main business so I am sure they have a lot of sawdust they create. It might be worth a call to them to see if they make pellets also, or sell sawdust to a vendor that does mill pellets?
Though, without much information.
