Fuel burn rate, do you really care, for me i dont and will not let that be an influence of any consideration,
I believe "fuel burn rate" can end up becoming a "consideration to some" depending on certain factors:
1. If a person lives in a location affected by significant events (Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Ice/Snow Storms, Earthquakes, Fires etc.) that take out power for an extended time, a week or so plus, it can indeed present a fuel issue. If one is unable to get off their property or can't navigate impassible streets due to downed trees, street flooding, snow drifts, fires, etc. in order to make a re-fueling run its an issue. That is...unless one is fortunate enough to have a large diesel farm tank, home heating oil tank, very large auxiliary genset tank or can manage to stash several 55 gal drums of diesel in reserve. If one does have a large fuel source on hand and you don't use that fuel annually you face a fuel rotation dilemma or it will eventually go bad.
2. The other potential issue is cost. Unless you have deep pockets, or manage to set aside a chunk of change for an extended outage "refueling budget", you might be in for a shock after an extended outage. For those of us on the West Coast States diesel is currently just above $3/gal and can approach or pass $4/gal depending on the oil market. Just to keep the math simple, let's say one's generator burns 1 gallon of fuel/hr and you are required to run around the clock for 10 days due to an extended outage. That's going to burn through 240 gallons of fuel. If current price of diesel were $3/gal your fuel bill just for the generator during that event alone is $720, (@ $4/gal one is nearing a $1,000 refueling bill). However, if it was 1/2 gal/hr @ $3/gal that's a much more palatable $360 out of pocket expense due to an unforeseen event.
I only want to point this out because a couple years back I experienced a week long ice storm outage with downed trees & pwr poles across roads and the thought of running out of fuel if it went longer became a factor. For me, that was with a fuel burn rate of just a 1/2 gal/hr. Since that weather event lesson I have since increased my fuel reserves on hand.
Therefore, I would advise anyone looking for a backup generator to seriously consider matching the generator to the required electrical load you intend to service. Bigger is not always better in the case of home standby generators.
