A natural gas generator rents for roughly $500 a week at 20 kW and several thousand a week once you are at 200 kW, and none of that includes the gas connection. Sites choose gas over diesel where refuelling is a nuisance, where fuel storage is not allowed, or where a main with spare capacity is already in the ground.
Why a site picks gas over diesel
Nobody has to schedule a fuel truck, nobody watches a day tank, and there is no bunded storage to arrange or spill to clean up. On a long hire beside a live main that adds up. What you give away is portability and a slice of output: the same frame makes less power on gas than the diesel version of it does.
The gas supply is the hard part of the job
The machine needs volume at a stated pressure, and a domestic meter will not feed a large set. The utility or a licensed fitter sizes the tap, the regulator and the run, and that work is quoted separately from the rental and often takes longer to arrange than the generator does. Start there, not with the machine.
The motor that starts last sets the size
Rated output covers what runs continuously. Starting a compressor or a large pump draws a multiple of its running current for a moment, and a gas engine recovers from that step more slowly than a diesel. Give the yard a list of loads with the largest starter named, and let them size the set rather than adding the nameplates up yourself.
What the yard charges beyond the machine
Delivery and collection are separate and charged each way. Cable, distribution boards and a transfer switch are their own hire lines. A weekly rate usually assumes normal running hours with an hour meter read on return, and a set left running around the clock is billed against that meter, so agree the expected hours when you book.
Questions people ask about natural gas generator rental
Can a rented natural gas generator run off a propane tank instead?
Many rental sets are dual fuel and will run on propane vapour with a different regulator and jet setting, which the yard configures before delivery. Say which fuel you have when you book. Output and consumption differ between the two, so the sizing conversation changes with the fuel.
Is a gas generator quieter than a diesel one?
Usually a little, and the exhaust is cleaner, which is why they turn up inside buildings and in residential work more often. Both are hired in acoustic canopies at this size. If noise is the constraint, ask for the sound rating at seven metres rather than the fuel type.
How long does the gas connection take to arrange?
Longer than the rental booking, commonly a few weeks where a new tap or a meter upgrade is involved. Yards will hold a machine on a date but they cannot speed up the utility, so treat the gas work as the critical path and the generator as the easy part.