Quiet? Well, yes a Listeroid can be made quiet. Mount it solidly, put it away from living quarters, and fit it with a decent muffler. Not too bad.
Warning, unpopular outlook to follow...
But reliable? That may be a dream.
... thinking a Listeroid can't be beat for economic reasons, or represents the epitome of a 'reliable' power source is a bit of a stretch.
Jim Mc sounds like a man who knows what he is talking about. Listers may not be for everyone, but my hope is that it is simple enough to repair when things do go wrong. I have never taken on any project that went completely according to plan. The keys to my success on projects in the past, have been to be adaptable to the unforseen wrinkles that always happen at the worst times.
Reduncancy is the only way to mitigate service interruptions. If you can't afford service interruptions, then plan for outages by having options available when outages occur. Thats why we have 2 vehicles, because one is going to quit when you need it most. Often in the winter, the truck will start, but the bosses van can be stubborn. So I start the truck first, then she tries the van, and we boost it if required.
Solar, wind, a second lister, battery banks, can all be part of the plan if you are relying on yourself. What the heck, keep a gas generator around for those times with everything else craps out. Things are going to break. As dad used to say, " its not what happens, its how you handle it that matters".
My thinking is, listers may not be the best choice, but if its going to break, get the one thats easiest to fix. If you can fix one of these engines with basic tools and some baling twine, then this may be the biggest advantage to listers over other prime movers. If I could use nothing but solar and batteries, then that would be great, but who can afford the solar array big enough to run the compressor?
Another lesson learned. Stop looking at the lister as a cheap, reliable power. Start looking at a lister as a maintainable prime mover.
Point taken Jim MC, I still have lots of homework to do. Fortunately, iI have some time to invest in the planning.
Mark