Choosing the Right Generator: Gasoline, Propane, Natural Gas, Diesel, or Solar

In this episode, we explore the world of home backup power and break down the essentials of generators and solar power systems. From portable solar generators to gasoline, propane, natural gas, and diesel units, we explain how each option works and what it can realistically power during an outage. We also discuss generator sizing, wattage requirements, and how to determine the right system for your home. Whether you are preparing for emergencies or simply want reliable backup power, this episode gives you clear, practical guidance to help you make an informed decision. 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

We'll soon be coming up on the secondary tornado season in the southeast, and we've received some questions about generators. We were talking about that, and we can't remember ever covering an entire episode on generators. So stick with us. We're going to tell you what you need to know about generators.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Welcome to Practical Prepping. Today is August 3rd, 2026. And this is episode 564. This is the Prepping Podcast with no bunkers, no zombies, and no alien invasions. Just practical prepping, where we teach everyday people how to prepare for life's emergencies, disasters, and crises. And we're here to help you get prepared. I'm Krista.

SPEAKER_02 0:55

And I'm Mark. If you'd like the expanded notes for this episode, go to practicalprepping.info forward slash five six four. Now let's talk about a couple of terms so that we understand. And sometimes you see kilowatt and sometimes you see it in watts. Well one kilowatt or one kw is one thousand watts.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

Yeah, kilo is a thousand exactly. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 1:21

So 7.5 kilowatts equals 7,500 watts, or 15 kw equals 15,000 watts. So when we talk about watts or kilowatts, you'll have a little better understanding of what we're talking about there.

SPEAKER_00 1:37

Now there's different types of generators, as you can well imagine. You've probably seen advertisements for those big, large whole house generators. These are the kind that are installed on a concrete pad outside of your house. They're permanently attached into your utility system, and they're intended to operate, you know, when the power goes out, the generator kicks on, and that's the whole house thing. That's one kind. Then there's the portable generator. That's what we have. It's a rollarund cart, pull up, and use as needed kind of a deal.

SPEAKER_02 2:09

Yeah, and they run from large to small.

SPEAKER_00 2:11

They do, you know, depending on what your need might be. And then there's a product called a solar generator. Uh it's not actually a generator in the classic definition. It's more of a portable power station operated by solar energy. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_02 2:24

And we're going to get into that quite detailed in a little bit. Now the size of your generator is determined by the load requirement that you're going to put on that. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

Yeah, we want to remind you that the devices and appliances that you're trying to run all have different demand on the ampere, the voltage, the watts, all of that. So you've got to know what that is.

SPEAKER_02 2:45

And you have to figure out that power load requirement. There's a couple of ways to do that. One is you can look at the wattage listed on the appliance or the device. There you go. Or you can search online sources for power required for that device. Aaron Ross Powell For example, I don't want to be pulling the refrigerator out away from the wall to get to this information. Now, one thing that you can do is you can do a quick chat GPT request and get a list of various requirements for various devices.

SPEAKER_00 3:19

Trevor Burrus And they're going to approximate that because they don't know what kind of appliance you have. So they'll give you a kind of a range of the watches.

SPEAKER_02 3:27

Just as an example here for a few things. Refrigerator is generally going to run 600 to 800 watts.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 3:35

Microwave 1,000 to 1,500 watts, depending on the size of it. Very important piece of equipment is the coffee maker. Oh 800 to 1200 watts.

SPEAKER_00 3:47

I'm surprised that didn't make number one on your list.

SPEAKER_02 3:49

Well, it didn't. And you've got various things here. Wi-Fi router, it's going to use 10 to 20 watts.

SPEAKER_00 3:56

Even if you have like a window unit air conditioner, you know, those kinds of things draw quite a bit of power. Also, things like if you've got an upright freezer or a chest freezer, you know, we're looking at ranging watts from 400 to 800 for whichever one of those you might have.

SPEAKER_02 4:11

Right, but both of those are going to require twelve hundred to two thousand watts very briefly at the startup due to the compressor search. Now let's just look at the size of some of these generators that you might want to consider. And here again, we're talking about what do you want to run at your house if the power is out.

SPEAKER_00 4:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 4:35

Now, if you're running just the bare necessities, these are going to be your 2,000 to 3,500 watt generators. You can run a freezer or you can run a refrigerator.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

Can you run both?

SPEAKER_02 4:48

Not together.

SPEAKER_00 4:49

Oh, see, that's important to know.

SPEAKER_02 4:51

You can run the TV, you can run Wi-Fi, you can charge devices, you can run some lights, you can run a small window air conditioner, depending on its startup wattage. Gotcha. A lot of folks have sump pumps and you can run those. And you could run a microwave, but you may need to turn off other large loads while it operates.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

I see. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 5:16

So you could run your refrigerator, and then you could run your freezer, but not together.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

Ah.

SPEAKER_02 5:22

And then we move up to the essentials only. And we're talking 5,000 to 7,500 watts here.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 5:30

You can run all of the things we just talked about, but here's where you can run the refrigerator and the freezer.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

Oh, okay. So that's good to know.

SPEAKER_02 5:38

Both together.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 5:40

You can also run a gas furnace blower if you have gas heat.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

Oh, that's an important detail because what if you're losing power in the middle of a blizzardy winter? So know what your power needs are going to be season.

SPEAKER_02 5:54

And with this, you could run the furnace blower. Now you're not running the furnace.

SPEAKER_00 6:00

Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 6:00

Although that would draw some power, but you're heating with gas there, but you're able to run the blower. Now let's get up to the partial home generator. This is where you're just going to do part of the home, maybe not the whole home. But it could be that you live in a very small home and this is adequate to run most of your house.

SPEAKER_00 6:23

Could be.

SPEAKER_02 6:24

And this is your 10,000 to 14,000 watt generators. This will power your most essential household systems at the same time and some major appliances, but not necessarily everything at once.

SPEAKER_00 6:41

Okay. So it's got more capability, but you're still in a position where you might have to pick and choose who's running right now, but it just it elevates you to a little bit more things can be powered.

SPEAKER_02 6:54

Right. And we're still not running air conditioning.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 6:57

But we can run that blower or we can run that small window air conditioner.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

I see. With any of these. I see on the list too, it's added things like a well pump or perhaps a garage door opener. You know, that takes a lot of power. So just, you know, and of course we'll have all of these detailed notes, you know, in the show notes so someone can go down these lists and realize what's going to be the best fit for them.

SPEAKER_02 7:18

Right. And this one you can run your dishwasher.

SPEAKER_00 7:21

Yes. I can run you anytime I want.

SPEAKER_02 7:25

Yes, you could.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

It's funny you say that because our dishwasher is running right now. And I like that.

SPEAKER_02 7:32

Yeah, when we're talking about heating and cooling, we mentioned that you can run the blower for the gas furnace, especially at the higher end around 14 kw or 14,000 watts. But you can also run one central air conditioning unit depending on its size and starting load, especially.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 7:54

But you could actually run that with 14 KW.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

So here's some things that may need a bit of load management. So here's a small list of some things that you may need to put on a load management, kind of an on-off relationship. That would be an electric water heater, electric range, oven stove kind of thing. Your electric clothes dryer, your large central air conditioning system. For example, if you've got a very large square footage or a two or three-story home, you know, you're talking about lots of square feet. And if you've got multiple air conditioning and heating systems in some larger homes, I've been in some homes where they've had zones of, you know, a wing of power. So there's an air conditioner unit over there, and then there's an air conditioning home unit on the other side. So those we're going to have to give some thought to if you're running it with this level of generation.

SPEAKER_02 8:47

And what we're talking about here with load management is that you're not going to be able to run very much with an electric water heater. But in this category, you could run the water heater, but only the water heater at by itself at that time.

SPEAKER_00 9:02

And in our case, too, the water heater, which ours actually is an electric, but if it was, I'm not likely to run out to find that and flip that on and off all the time. But I would definitely unplug, you know, a range or an oven and maybe I'd do my cooking outside.

SPEAKER_02 9:15

Now we move to the whole house with a central air conditioning. That's going to take 18 to 22 KW.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 9:24

And a large home or an all-electric home could require 22 to 26 KW.

SPEAKER_01 9:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 9:32

So we're getting into fairly large generators at that point. Let's talk about the types of fuel that we can use for different generators, and we're going to cover four here primarily. The first and most common is probably gasoline.

SPEAKER_00 9:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:48

Propane, natural gas, and diesel, which is generally the large commercial and industrial generators.

SPEAKER_00 9:57

It's not likely the homeowner would have a diesel generator.

SPEAKER_02 10:01

Not likely. These are pretty good size. I mean, some some folks do. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

Okay. Especially Well, some people may live on an agricultural setting and they may have a large agricultural business that requires a diesel generator.

SPEAKER_02 10:16

And I think my uncle had a diesel generator for his chicken houses.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

Yeah, those are huge.

SPEAKER_02 10:22

But he had to be able to run heating and air for those.

SPEAKER_00 10:25

Of course.

SPEAKER_02 10:26

Moving up from there, you go to dual fuel.

SPEAKER_00 10:29

Oh, okay. And these are So one generator can use either one.

SPEAKER_02 10:33

Gasoline or propane. Got it. And then you've got tri-fuel. They can burn gasoline, propane, or natural gas.

SPEAKER_00 10:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 10:42

Now let's break these down individually. Gasoline.

SPEAKER_00 10:45

It's the most common. Easiest to get.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

Easy to get under normal conditions.

SPEAKER_00 10:50

Right.

SPEAKER_02 10:51

And it typically allows the generator to produce its full rated power.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

Oh, I see.

SPEAKER_02 10:58

When you go to from gasoline to propane, you actually cut down some of the efficiency of the generator.

SPEAKER_00 11:06

I didn't actually realize that there would be a trim in the output. I see. But what's the one of the advantages of propane?

SPEAKER_02 11:17

Well, propane burns cleaner than gasoline.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

Oh, that's good.

SPEAKER_02 11:20

And it stores a very long time as long as the tank remains sealed.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

Okay, I see.

SPEAKER_02 11:26

You can bring home a 20-pound container of propane and store that. You don't have to worry about that for years and years and years as long as the It's all sealed up.

SPEAKER_00 11:37

So unlike gasoline, propane can be stored for years, but after several years, gasoline stored can go kind of blinky.

SPEAKER_02 11:45

It really can. And I got into that. I was trying some five year stored gasoline just to see what it did.

SPEAKER_00 11:52

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:53

Don't do that.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 11:54

Didn't work.

SPEAKER_00 11:55

Didn't work.

SPEAKER_02 11:55

Didn't work. I tried it in the little lawn tractor and it quit working. So I had to siphon all of that out and put fresh gasoline in and go again. But I wanted to test it. I wanted to try. I knew it was a a gamble. It didn't ruin anything. It's just a little bit inconvenient.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

Just a test drive.

SPEAKER_02 12:14

But now one thing about the propane is you don't have to worry about the carburetor gumming up from gasoline that's in it.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

I see.

SPEAKER_02 12:24

With a gasoline generator, you need to run that thing at least a monthly basis.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Keep that carburetor clean.

SPEAKER_02 12:31

To keep that carburetor from gumming up. And that's even using something like stabil or sea foam in it. But the generators running on propane, as we mentioned a minute ago, usually produce slightly less power than when they're running on gasoline.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

Trevor Burrus, Jr. Well, you know, it's just a trade-off. Longer stored fuel, cleaner burning, propane may come out ahead of gasoline.

SPEAKER_02 12:54

In my estimation, it would.

SPEAKER_00 12:57

So let's talk about the natural gas factor for the tri-fuel ones.

SPEAKER_02 13:01

Trevor Burrus Usually natural gas is supplied through the home utility line.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

Trevor Burrus Does it have to be like permanently attached?

SPEAKER_02 13:09

Well, you're going to need to be able to access that incoming gas line.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

Kind of like a natural gas at a grill, like in an outdoor kitchen. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 13:18

You could have it several ways, but most folks that are running a natural gas generator are going to run it on natural gas all the time. But propane is a backup or gasoline is a backup.

SPEAKER_01 13:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 13:33

But one of the advantages is you don't require refueling as long as the gas service is active.

SPEAKER_00 13:40

Trevor Burrus, Oh, that's good. I mean it's just like any other gas appliance at that point.

unknown 13:43

Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_02 13:44

Exactly. And it burns cleanly, but it does typically produce the lowest power output of the three fuel types. And a proper gas connection and a regulator are required.

SPEAKER_00 13:58

Aaron Ross Powell Well, I would think so.

SPEAKER_02 14:00

We have a friend in Louisiana that during this last year the regulator froze up on their propane tank. And he wound up having to construct something over that with a light bulb in it to generate heat to keep that thawed out enough for the gas to flow.

SPEAKER_00 14:21

Oh, the old chicken cube warmers. You know, people have done that for their dog houses too. They've put light bulbs in the doghouse.

SPEAKER_02 14:28

I remember as a kid, Dad put a 200-watt light bulb in the utility room for our dog.

SPEAKER_00 14:36

Well, that's there's reasons for that. Now let's talk about some diesel generators. We do have some listeners that this might pertain to, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 14:43

Yeah, or you might want to consider it, but it's good to understand it. Now these really carry higher fuel efficiency.

SPEAKER_00 14:49

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 14:50

What I've researched says you get more energy per gallon out of diesel than you do from gasoline.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 14:58

And it's also very durable and a long engine life. You think about tractor trailers, these these things go a quarter million miles without having to have an overhaul. I mean, these are designed for high compression and continuous operation.

SPEAKER_00 15:16

Oh, I owned six RVs. Class A. I'm very familiar with diesel uh fill-ups and their durability and their long engine life for sure.

SPEAKER_02 15:26

Yeah. They do tend to last longer and they handle heavy duty use better than gasoline engines do. They do perform well when running at higher loads for extended periods. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 15:40

There's also a lower fire risk, I understand. Obviously, compared to gasoline, diesel is going to be the safer fuel. It's less volatile, it's less flammable. I don't believe that diesel is vapors of diesel areas.

SPEAKER_02 15:52

Not the vapors of diesel. It takes a lot more heat or compression. But they're very reliable for continuous power, and that's one of the reasons that you see them in hospitals and commercial buildings that they use diesel generators because they are very good for long duration backup or even the prime power.

SPEAKER_00 16:17

Well, let me ask you this question. Is a diesel generator, is there one that is small scaled for the home user? I don't think I've ever seen that.

SPEAKER_02 16:26

I don't want to say there's not because then somebody's gonna send me here's one.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:32

But like you, I've not seen one.

SPEAKER_00 16:34

Yeah, okay. I think that's I think I answered my own question, but I just wanted to float that out there just in case some company makes a diesel generator that's not an industrial scale, but certainly a lot bigger than the you know, let's say it's uh it's uh maybe like a neighborhood set of shops or something, if there was a group that went in for the diesel generator for that.

SPEAKER_02 16:54

Or or maybe you're running a farm and your house and you and you're running equipment for the Trevor Burrus, maybe a large barn, you know, livestock operations.

SPEAKER_00 17:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 17:05

Now let's move to our final one, and that is and there's a lot of question about this for a lot of people.

SPEAKER_00 17:13

Well, we're gonna be looking for a lot of answers.

SPEAKER_02 17:15

And it's solar generator.

SPEAKER_00 17:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:18

Now solar generator is really just a battery-based power station. That's really what it is, and it can be charged by solar panels or from a wall socket.

SPEAKER_00 17:31

So instead of generating power, you're just drawing out of the power that it's already stored.

SPEAKER_02 17:38

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 17:38

So, okay, so the word generator is a little bit of a misnomer.

SPEAKER_02 17:42

Well uh yes. I like solar power station.

SPEAKER_00 17:46

Yeah, almost like a power bank. Yes. We don't consider a power bank a generator.

SPEAKER_02 17:50

No, just a giant power bank.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 17:53

Typically they consist of these main components solar panels, charge controller, battery, inverter, output ports, battery management system, cables and connectors.

SPEAKER_00 18:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 18:09

Now when we talk about the solar panels, these capture the sunlight and convert it into direct current or DC.

SPEAKER_01 18:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 18:17

And it uses those photovoltaic I learned that years ago.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

That's a nice new big word. Photovoltaic.

SPEAKER_02 18:27

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 18:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 18:28

And and what it does, it takes sunlight and converts it to energy. Voltage, yeah, gotcha. And then the charge controller really regulates the electricity coming from those solar panels to keep it from overcharging and to protect the battery.

SPEAKER_00 18:44

Makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 18:45

And it makes sure that the battery is charged safely and efficiently. Now here's where the expense comes in if you start trying to do like a whole house with solar is the batteries. The battery is what stores the electricity generated by those solar panels or by a wall socket if you charge it that way. But it stores the electricity so it can be used later.

SPEAKER_00 19:12

Obviously, it can't direct anything during storms or overcast or at night. Right.

SPEAKER_02 19:17

Cloudy weather, nighttime, it has to draw out of there. And the way it does that is with an inverter. An inverter converts DC or direct current to AC alternating current.

SPEAKER_00 19:33

Yeah, we've used inverters.

SPEAKER_02 19:35

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 19:35

It's basically a regular plug.

SPEAKER_02 19:37

We've got several. Yes, it does give you a regular plug.

SPEAKER_00 19:41

Right.

SPEAKER_02 19:41

And we connect it to the battery and we plug the extension cord into the inverter.

SPEAKER_01 19:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 19:48

Well, a lot of the solar generators, it's built in. It's just a component of that. But it converts that DC to AC, which powers most of your household appliances and devices, your television, your Wi-Fi, your computer, your lamps, all of those things generally going to run on AC. The output ports on these inverters. If we're talking solar generators in particular, okay.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

That's where we are.

SPEAKER_02 20:22

You're gonna have AC outlets on there. You're gonna have some DC ports where you can plug in for DC. Some of them have USB ports that allow you to plug in and power various devices. So we're back to just a giant power bank.

unknown 20:39

Right.

SPEAKER_02 20:40

And then you need the cables and connectors, and these connect the solar panels to the generator, and they distribute the power within the system. You have to plug the panels in and you can get various size panels.

SPEAKER_00 20:56

You've got to allow them time to be able to allow them gather the light.

SPEAKER_02 21:00

And the larger those panels are, the faster they will charge.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

Makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 21:05

And they too are measured in watts of what they're able to output.

SPEAKER_00 21:10

Watts or kilowatts.

SPEAKER_02 21:11

Watts. Okay. But some of the systems may also include a display screen to show you the battery level, the input and the output power, and the system status.

SPEAKER_00 21:22

Aaron Powell So, in short, talking about the solar generator, or as we have now coined the solar power bank, it's a battery-based power station. And it can be charged by solar panels, and that just varies depending on what system you're buying. Or it can be from a wall outlet and it uses an inverter to provide that AC power to the electrical devices that are in your home. Alrighty, friends, today's cup of coffee comes from a new supporter, Cody. Cody, we really do appreciate that support. And friends, you too can go to practicalprepping.info slash support, where you can show us a little bit of love by buying us a few cups of coffee at once, or you might even consider a coffee membership. It's only five dollars a month, but it really helps us offset the expenses of the show. So friends, please consider doing that at practicalprepping.info slash support.

SPEAKER_02 22:14

And we really do appreciate you being here today. And as Krista always says, Stuff happens.

SPEAKER_00 22:21

Stay prepared. And we'll see you next time.