Why is a Generac natural gas generator preferred by eight out of every ten homeowners who are prepared for a power outage? These whole-home backup generators have some of the most efficient fuel-consumption rates around.
In the past, homeowners had to rely on diesel to fuel their generators. Not only was this less environmentally friendly, but it also burned faster and produced limited energy.
Generac generators rely on propane and natural gas. The question is, how much does the Generac generator use and what are the associated costs?
Read on to learn more about natural gas use when using a Generac natural gas generator.
Factors that Impact Generac Gas Consumption
Having a natural gas generator is one of the best things you can do to prepare for a power outage. However, it’s important to note that there is no one-size-fits-all answer to the question of how much natural gas it will use. Let’s take a look at the key factors that will impact Generac gas consumption in your household.
Generator Size
Generac generators come in a variety of sizes to meet the needs of different households. The size of a generator is measured in the kilowatts (kW) of energy it can produce. Generac generators are available in 7 kW, 10 kW, 16 kW, 20 kW, 22 kW, and 30+ kW.
Most households go for the 20 kW or 22 kW Generac natural gas generator because they are capable of powering the full home as needed. Typically, the larger the Generac generator, the more fuel efficient. The best way to determine what size generator you need for your home is to talk to a professional generator installer.
Fuel Type
Another major appeal of the Generac generator is that it can run on either natural gas or propane. If you’re using natural gas to power your generator, you’ll hook it up directly to your home’s gas meter. If you’re using propane, you’ll hook it up to a line that connects to a propane tank.
A 22 kW Generac generator uses about 281 cubic feet of natural gas per hour when running at full power output. That same size generator will use about 3.67 gallons of propane per hour when running at full power output.
There are pros and cons to both fuels types. Propane is a much more efficient fuel for your home generator, meaning that you’ll use less fuel to generate the same amount of energy. However, natural gas is more affordable than propane.
Power Output
When you’re using your Generac generator, you have a few options regarding power output. While you can turn it on full-blast, you can also opt to run it at about 50% power output, which is often enough to provide power to individual appliances so long as they aren’t all in use at once.
In fact, we often recommend using your Generac generator at below full power as much as possible. This can help to preserve fuel and puts less stress on the generator’s internal mechanisms.
Costs Associated with a Generac Natural Gas Generator
Now that you know more about what can impact the amount of fuel your Generac generator uses, it’s time to talk costs. Let’s take a look at the primary expenses associated with Generac generators, from the cost of the generator itself to the cost of upkeep.
Generac Generator Costs
There’s no way to undersell the benefits of the Generac generator. Yet another one is the cost. Many whole-home generators cost upwards of $10,000 which can lead homeowners to put off protecting their household from a power outage-but Generac generators are much easier to fit into your budget.
The smallest Generac generator, providing 7 kW of energy, costs a mere $2,000. When you move all the way up to the 22 kW Generac generator, you’re only looking at about $5,000 in upfront costs. It isn’t until you get to the 30+ kW options (which most households don’t need) that you get into a price range of over $10,000.
Generator Installation
It’s in your best interest to work with a professional when installing your Generac generator. Because you’re dealing with volatile fuel sources, expertise is a must.
When hiring a generator installer, pay close attention to their experience, customer reviews, and costs. To find out how much generator installation will cost, talk directly with your service provider about your specific household needs.
Generator Fuel
Naturally, one of the main ongoing costs of using a Generac generator is the cost of fuel. When you’re using natural gas to power your generator, you can expect your gas bill to increase in the months when you needed backup power. If you’re using propane, you will need to make sure to keep the propane tank full for emergencies.
The cost of natural gas use varies by state. If you’re running a 22 kW Generac generator at 100% power output for a full 24 hours, you can expect to spend about $100 on natural gas. The same usage would cost about $200 per day if you’re using propane.
Generator Maintenance
You never know when you could be hit with a power outage because power outages aren’t always easy to predict. The last thing you want is to lose power only to discover that your generator isn’t working properly-especially if the outage prevents service providers from coming to your property.
Regular Generac generator maintenance ensures that your generator is ready when you need it. By investing in annual preventative maintenance, you can also avoid the cost of a premature generator replacement.
Buying a Generator? Hire a Generator Installer.
There’s a reason that the Generac natural gas generator is the most popular with prepared homeowners. In fact, there are many! The fuel efficiency of these natural gas and propane generators are just one of the factors that lead homeowners to choose Generac.
Generator Supercenter Heartland has multiple locations across southern states. We offer the best generator models, factory-certified repairs and maintenance, and turn key generator installation for your peace of mind. We treat each client the way we treat our own family: with respect, care, and devotion.
To get started, contact us and let us know how we can be of service.
During a power outage, a natural gas generator is your best friend. Without access to electricity from the grid, we have to burn natural gas to generate electricity. We looked into how much does it cost to run a generator on natural gas.
The running cost of a generator depends on 3 primary factors:
If we know all these parameters, we can adequately calculate how much does it cost to run your natural gas generator per hour, per day, per week, or per month.
Running a generator on natural gas will cost you anywhere from $0.02 to $2.41 per hour (1,000W 25% load generator to 30,000W 100% load, respectively). It will consume anywhere from 1.86 ft3 to 222.90 ft3 of natural gas per hour.
Running this 10,000W generator at full load (100%) consumes about 74.30 cubic feet of natural gas per hour. At the cost of $10.83 per 1000 cubic feet, this results in a $0.80 running cost per hour.We have designed a Gas Generator Fuel Consumption Calculator that estimates the running costs of any natural gas generator. You just enter the size of the generator, price of natural gas, and average load, and the calculator returns how many US dollars per hour worth of natural gas such a generator is consuming.
Further on, we have calculated the running costs of 1,000W, 2,000W, 3,000W, 4,000W, 5,000W, 6,000W, 7,000W, 8,000W, 10,000W, 12,000W, 15,000W, 20,000W, 25,000W, and 30,000W natural gas generators at average price and at 1/4, 2/4, 3/4 and full loads.
First of all, however, we need to look at how to calculate the running costs with a gas generator fuel consumption formula (this derivation is a bit mathematical, you can just skip to the easy-to-use calculator and calculated tables if you wish):
With this formula, we can determine how much natural gas does a generator use per hour. On top of that, if we know the price of natural gas, we can also calculate the dollar amount of natural gas we use to operate our generator per hour.
Note: By extension, we can calculate the running fuel usage and cost per day, week, and month.
Let’s derive the natural gas generator fuel consumption using a 10,000W generator example. Let’s also take the 2020 average residential price of natural gas ($10.83 per 1,000 cubic feet, according to Statista).
How much natural gas do we need to keep a 10,000W generator running at full load for 1h?
We will need an equivalent of 10 kWh (kilowatt-hour) of natural gas. According to EIA, we need 7.43 cubic feet of natural gas to produce 1 kWh (74.3 cubic feet for 10 kWh).
Note: If you wondered about natural gas generator fuel consumption per kWh, it’s 7.43 ft3 of natural gas or about $0.08 per kWh. That’s lower than the national average cost of electricity ($0.1319/kWh) by a hefty margin.
If 1,000 cubic feet cost $10.83 then 74.3 cubic feet cost:
10,000W Generator Running Cost = $10.83 × (74.3 cubic feet ÷ 1,000 cubic feet)
= $0.80 per hour
Here is a formula for calculating gas generator fuel consumption:
Fuel Consumption Per Hour = Max. Wattage × Load × 7.43 Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas ÷ 1,000
We know the max. wattage of the generator, as well as load. We know that we need 7.43 cubic feet of natural gas to produce 1 kWh of electricity. The factor ‘1,000’ is there to convert Wh into kWh (watt-hours into kilowatt-hours).
With this equation, we can calculate how much fuel does a gas generator consume per hour.
Example: Let’s say we have a 5,000W generator and we run it at 0.6 load (that’s 60% of max. load). How much natural gas does such a gas generator consume per hour? Let’s calculate:
Fuel Consumption Per Hour = 5,000W × 0.6× 7.43 Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas ÷ 1,000 = 22.29 Cubic Feet Of Natural Gas
That means that a 5,000W generator running at 60% load will consume 22.29 cubic feet of natural gas per hour. That’s:
Now that we know how much natural gas does a generator consume, we can also calculate how much does running such a generator cost in US dollars:
If we know how many cubic feet of natural gas a generator will burn through, we can easily calculate how much that quantity of natural gas costs.
We can use the 2020 average natural gas price for residential users:
1,000 cubic feet of natural gas costs $10.83.
If we use the quantities of consumed natural gas from the previous example, we can determine that a 5,000W generator running on 60% load costs:
The general formula for calculating the running cost of a generator looks like this:
Running Cost = Quantity Of Gas Consumed (in ft3) × Price Of Natural Gas (in 1,000 ft3) ÷ 1,000
We divide by 1,000 because the price of natural gas is given in US dollars per 1,000 cubic feet. Let’s solve an example to illustrate how this equation works.
Example: How much does it cost to run a whole house generator on natural gas? Let’s say that such a whole-house generator burns through 1,200 ft3 of natural gas per day. Let’s calculate the running cost per day:
Running Cost = 1,200 ft3 of natural gas × $10.83 per 1,000 ft3 of natural gas ÷ 1,000 = $13,00/Day
Such a whole-house generator will cost $13,00 per day to run.
Now that we have the theory with examples covered, let’s look at how you can easily calculate how much does it cost to run a generator on natural gas yourself with a help of a calculator:
This calculator will calculate how much does it cost to run a generator on natural gas per hour. You have to input the maximum running wattage of the generator (in watts), the price of natural gas (average is $10.83 per 1,000 cubic meters of natural gas, and the average load (if you have a 5,000W generator and use only 3,000W of power, that’s a 0.6 or 60% load, for example).
You can play around with numbers, this consumption calculator will dynamically calculate the resulting running costs per hour:
For running costs calculation, we used the 2020 national average residential natural gas price of $10.83 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Notice: This is a big table. You can scroll down and use the slider to slide it from left to right:
Generator Size: 1/4 Load Consumption 1/4 Load Running Cost 2/4 Load Consumption 2/4 Load Running Cost 3/4 Load Consumption 3/4 Load Running Cost Full Load Consumption Full Load Running Cost 1,000W 1.86 ft3/h $0.02/h 3.72 ft3/h $0.04/h 5.57 ft3/h $0.06/h 7.43 ft3/h $0.08/h 2,000W 3.72 ft3/h $0.04/h 7.43 ft3/h $0.08/h 11.15 ft3/h $0.12/h 14.86 ft3/h $0.16/h 3,000W 5.57 ft3/h $0.06/h 11.15 ft3/h $0.12/h 16.72 ft3/h $0.18/h 22.29 ft3/h $0.24/h 4,000W 7.43 ft3/h $0.08/h 14.86 ft3/h $0.16/h 22.29 ft3/h $0.24/h 29.72 ft3/h $0.32/h 5,000W 9.29 ft3/h $0.10/h 18.58 ft3/h $0.20/h 27.86 ft3/h $0.30/h 37.15 ft3/h $0.40/h 6,000W 11.15 ft3/h $0.12/h 22.29 ft3/h $0.24/h 33.44 ft3/h $0.36/h 44.58 ft3/h $0.48/h 7,000W 13.00 ft3/h $0.14/h 26.00 ft3/h $0.28/h 39.01 ft3/h $0.42/h 52.01 ft3/h $0.56/h 8,000W 14.86 ft3/h $0.16/h 29.72 ft3/h $0.32/h 44.58 ft3/h $0.48/h 59.44 ft3/h $0.64/h 10,000W 18.58 ft3/h $0.20/h 37.15 ft3/h $0.40/h 55.73 ft3/h $0.60/h 74.30 ft3/h $0.80/h 12kW 22.29 ft3/h $0.24/h 44.58 ft3/h $0.48/h 66.87 ft3/h $0.72/h 89.16 ft3/h $0.97/h 15kW 27.86 ft3/h $0.30/h 55.73 ft3/h $0.60/h 83.59 ft3/h $0.91/h 111.45 ft3/h $1.21/h 20kW 37.15 ft3/h $0.40/h 74.30 ft3/h $0.80/h 111.45 ft3/h $1.21/h 148.60 ft3/h $1.61/h 25kW 46.44 ft3/h $0.50/h 92.88 ft3/h $1.01/h 139.31 ft3/h $1.51/h 185.75 ft3/h $2.01/h 30kW 55.73 ft3/h $0.60/h 111.45 ft3/h $1.21/h 167.18 ft3/h $1.81/h 222.90 ft3/h $2.41/h