Fuel consumption at Barrington Diesel Club
This webpage is about Issues, formulae and tables concerning fuel consumption in diesel engines.
Specs for diesel engines and technical data provided courtesy of Barrington Diesel Club's Advertisers and Members
Simple really, the more power you produce the more fuel you use.
Fuel consumption rate for many makes of Diesel Engines can be found in a range between 0.380 & 0.450 lbs/hp hour.
This does not represent a big difference in fuel consumption per power unit between most normal
diesel engines.
Fuel consumption for diesel engines is normally more difficult to express than for petrol engines
because of the vast variability in possible applications. Applications like stationary industrial,
marine, automotive, and earthmoving are examples of this variability. So it is normal to express
this fuel consumption as a rate in terms of the weight of fuel consumed per unit of power produced. A real headache
for plant managers!
Now even if an engine operates for long periods at a constant speed it seldom operates at its full rated power.
On a dynamometer, engines seem to operate best at about 70% of expected maximum power, they seem quite tireless when operating there.
Still, asset control may be critical for profitable operation so we trust the following formulae & tables may be of some use.
| Table based on fuel consumed at 0.400 lbs per hp hour. |
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| hp | Kw | KVA | Fuel lbs/hour | Fuel kgs/hour | Fuel liters/hour | US gallons/hour |
| 1.00 | 0.75 | 0.93 | 0.40 | 0.18 | 0.213 | 0.056 |
| 1.07 | 0.80 | 1.00 | 0.43 | 0.19 | 0.228 | 0.060 |
| 1.34 | 1.00 | 1.25 | 0.54 | 0.24 | 0.286 | 0.076 |
| 5.00 | 3.73 | 4.66 | 2.00 | 0.90 | 1.066 | 0.282 |
| 7.00 | 5.22 | 6.52 | 2.80 | 1.30 | 1.492 | 0.394 |
| 10 | 7.46 | 9.32 | 4.00 | 1.80 | 2.130 | 0.563 |
| . | . | . | . | . | . | . |
| 12 | 9 | 11 | 4.80 | 2.20 | 2.56 | 0.676 |
| 15 | 11 | 14 | 6.0 | 2.7 | 3.20 | 0.845 |
| 18 | 13 | 17 | 7.2 | 3.3 | 3.84 | 1.014 |
| 20 | 15 | 19 | 8.0 | 3.6 | 4.26 | 1.125 |
| 22 | 16 | 21 | 8.8 | 4.0 | 4.69 | 1.239 |
| 25 | 19 | 23 | 10.0 | 4.5 | 5.33 | 1.408 |
| 35 | 26 | 33 | 14.0 | 6.4 | 7.46 | 1.971 |
| 50 | 37 | 47 | 20 | 9.1 | 10.66 | 2.816 |
| . | . | . | . | . | . | . |
| 55 | 41 | 51 | 22 | 10.0 | 11.7 | 3.09 |
| 60 | 45 | 56 | 24 | 10.9 | 12.8 | 3.81 |
| 65 | 48 | 61 | 26 | 11.8 | 13.9 | 3.67 |
| 75 | 56 | 70 | 30 | 13.6 | 16.0 | 4.23 |
| 80 | 60 | 75 | 32 | 14.5 | 17.1 | 4.52 |
| 100 | 75 | 93 | 40 | 18 | 21.3 | 5.63 |
| . | . | . | . | . | . | . |
| 120 | 89 | 112 | 48 | 22 | 25.6 | 6.76 |
| 150 | 112 | 140 | 60 | 27 | 32.0 | 8.45 |
| 200 | 149 | 186 | 80 | 36 | 42.6 | 11.25 |
| . | . | . | . | . | . | . |
| 220 | 164 | 205 | 88 | 40 | 46.9 | 12.39 |
| 300 | 224 | 280 | 120 | 54 | 63.9 | 16.88 |
| 310 | 231 | 289 | 124 | 56 | 66.1 | 17.46 |
| 350 | 261 | 326 | 140 | 64 | 74.6 | 19.71 |
| 400 | 298 | 373 | 160 | 73 | 85.3 | 22.53 |
| 450 | 336 | 419 | 180 | 82 | 95.9 | 25.33 |
| 500 | 373 | 466 | 200 | 91 | 106.6 | 28.16 |
| . | . | . | . | . | . | . |
| 600 | 447 | 559 | 240 | 109 | 128 | 33.8 |
| 750 | 559 | 699 | 300 | 136 | 160 | 42.3 |
| 1000 | 746 | 932 | 400 | 181 | 213 | 56.3 |
An engine producing 310 hp at constant speed using 0.350 lbs of diesel per hp hour
uses the following amount of fuel:
310 x 0.350 = 108.5 lbs of diesel per hour
or
310 x 0.350 ÷ 1.8766 = 57.8 liters per hour
An engine at constant speed producing 231 Kw at that speed, & using 0.350 lbs of diesel per hp hour
uses the following amount of fuel:
231 x 1.341 x 0.350 ÷ 1.8766 = 57.8 liters per hour
| Diesel engine Fuel Consumption | ||
|---|---|---|
| Basis: Specific Gravity of Diesel = 0.853 @ 15.5°C | ||
| Unit | Multiply by | To get |
| lbs/hp hour | 0.533 | liters/hour |
| lbs/hp hour | 0.1408 | US gal/hour |
| US gal/hour | 3.7854 | liters/hour |
| liters/hour | 0.2642 | US gal/hour |
