Idling your diesel for home power.
 

We were lucky during the recent power outage that's affecting WV. Our power was only out for a day despite surrounding areas not expecting power until next week.

I'd like to be ready in the event of a "next time."

I know it's not exactly a best practice, but has anyone idled their MB for an extended period of time to power a small inverter or charge some deep cycle batteries?

If you were without power and petrol for your portable generator was unavailable, how would you incorporate your diesel into a small power scheme?

Also, what would the expected fuel burn rate be per day? Any modified services that might need to be performed?

I don't know the answer to the other questions but I have idled my mercedes overningt and all day on occasion in very cold weather. I wuould suspect your consumption for 24 hours would be no more than four or five gallons. If you put in an oversized alternator and step up the ilde speed a bit you could generate quite a bit of power.

As an example, a car air conditioner is in the neigiborhood of 12 to 18000 btu which would go a long way toward conditioning a modest well insulated home. I realize the car air conditioner uses mechanical power for the compressor of course but with a nice large alternator I think it would surprise how much you could run with it.

If you put in wheels to turn with the car wheels you could create a generator capable of making a lot of power. Come to think of it there might be a market for such a thing.

After Hurricane Katrina and the following 9 days without power I rotated 3 diesel vehicles to 1. run a 2200 watt inverter and 2. to charge a bank of 12V deep cells. This was to just provide some basic creature comforts I didn't measure any fuel consumption (sorry) but it was not anything substantial.

Did just that (idle a car) with my VW TDI over the course of 5 days when we were without power in 2007. Powered a modest power inverter to keep the freezer cold, TV on from time to time, and charge phones and re-chargable batteries. No issues...

The morning after the storm, we drove out of state and picked up a generator, small AC unit, and 40 gallons of petrol. Although our power came back shortly thereafter, we were the only area in several counties to have it. So gas lines were very, very long with reports of fisticuffs breaking out. Even then, if you didn't have cash you were SOL.

The diesel lines were predictably almost nonexistent.

Although we now have a small inverter generator and have plans to keep at least 5 gallons of petrol on hand at all times, I'm thinking about getting two deep cycle batteries , a charge controller, and a 1000w true sine wave inverter. With that I should be able to keep the phones and laptop charged and perhaps use the microwave for short periods of time. I'd normally keep them charged up with household AC, but in an outage crank up my W115 to top them off when the batteries reach 80% or so. This would free up my generator to power a deep freeze and a small AC unit.

Awfully hot weather right now to try idling one in the daytime...

MB has been making smaller slow idle engines to run pumps and generators since at least 1950.

The OM636 and 621 are just two of these, plus other derived industrial engines. They used to be made in the Marienfeld plant after the war.

I know whunter has idled 300D engines overnight at his house, with no ill effects that I know of.

There are several threads here about idling diesels all day/night due to freezing weather and no place to plug in a block heater (no problems noted and minimal fuel use). The ScanGauge on our '96 E300D shows fuel use at idle to be about a quart per hour.

Extended idling in very hot weather might present other issues but diesels tend to be cold-running engines anyway; as long as your cooling system is in good shape you should be OK. Not sure I would want to try using the a/c to cool the house. I might sit in the car for a break occasionally and then turn the a/c off when I got out.

I believe that a good working cooling system on any auto, gas or diesel should be able to run at normal operating temp on idle with the AC on in very hot weather. If your vehicle can't do that, and I know many can not, it is because the cooling system is not up to par. The problem areas are water pump and thermostat, then to the radiator and hoses. Calcification of pump and radiator are a number one problem. If a vehicle always uses high quality coolant you can really eliminate this problem and overheating.

Lots of cowboys around here idle their diesel one tons a LOT. They must think that it makes them look like old Cannon Ball the 18 wheeler driver or something. They THINK that it doesn't hurt a thing. In reality it's not the healthiest thing in the world for the engine, but in YOUR case it seems to be outweighed by the need for a temporary power source.

If you get in that situation again and the old diesel car can alleviate some of the discomfort, I say "go for it." If I were to put forth a wild guess, I would say it would burn a gallon an hour.

Your guess is completely OUT OF WHACK.
 

Assuming the diesel car is getting 25mpg, burning a gallon of fuel an hour means the car is going at 25 miles an hour. One would get much higher mpg when one runs the car at idle or at 25mph. An educated guess would be 1/4 gallon per hour or less at idle. Better to do your homework first before posting. Actually it is mentioned by others.

Last year we had a power outage. I hooked up one of the Harbor Freight Power Inverters directly to the Battery and ran the Refrigerator for about 6-8 hours.

Just take the Car out for a good hard drive afterwards to try to blow out any Carbon.

I think that if you Injectors are worn out and your Engine Compression is low; Valves are not adjusted and Camshaft and Fuel Injection Pump Tming are poor it is more likely to create an issue that if your Engine is in good Tune.

The fuel usage has been discussed on the forum. A past member posted 2/10 gal per hour at idle. I know that is not scientific but it sounds close enough for me.

Many thanks for the replies.

If anyone has anything else to post, please do. I don't see this thread as just an answer to my question but also for others down the line who need power in a pinch.