Starting a Generator

[steve_earwig]

I knew there was a reason I loved DC (damn you Nikola tesla!)

I'm lovin' the idea of running a diesel genny on cheap oil and using the cooling system to run radiators *wanders off to check prices*

[Bailes1992]

I'm not sure how well modern synthetic oils burn but you could always get old engine and gearbox oil from garages to run the engine on! Maybe a few gallons of petrol to thin it out!

I wonder if it would be cheaper to have an old XUD9 running a DC generator and an inverter. I think having a DC generator would be better because otherwise the engine would have to run had a constant 3000rpm.
How easy would it be to heat your hot water tank on exhaust gasses I wonder?

[steve_earwig]

It depends on how close it is to the water tank I guess, although I'm not sure if it would be possible/practical to run the exhaust through a worm inside the tank, probably better to use a water jacket on the exhaust and run water from this through a worm in the water tank with a pump.

I dropped off here really, when I first started living here there was an old electric hot water boiler on the bathroom wall with a worm from the c/h running through it, it didn't work and the wife said the plumber had been out to it and condemned it. I didn't know much about them then so I just bought a new electric only water heater to replace it but when my brother-in-law and I were pulling it off the wall we found one of the flexible feed pipes had collapsed and that's probably why it didn't work. But we had a new electric tank ready to go on and the old one drained and half off the wall so we carried on. Wish we hadn't now, they don't make them any more either

Been looking at ads - this could get serious http://www.njuskalo.hr/elektromotori-ag ... as-6176852

All we really need is a genny to run a couple of freezers & the c/h pump, the pc would be nice, plus a few lights. The power her is off quite a lot but mostly only for a few minutes. It's just when it's off for a few hours maybe once or twice a year I wish I had that Honda with me here.

Btw there's a bit of an odd story behind my genny, about 15 years ago a mate of mine was a gardener in the grounds of a museum. One day the chap in charge told the gardeners to clear out a room they were using as a storeroom. What are they meant to do with the contents? He didn't know, didn't care either and told them to sell it. So they did... It cost me 100 quid.

[FarmerPug]

Ive seen in my cousins house using a wood burning stove, he made a stainless steel tank to fit round the chimney, i.e. a water jacket, as soon as the fire is lit it starts heating the water from the heat that would otherwise be lost through the chimney, the radiators throughout the house are warm within 5 mins. So it should be possible to do the same using the exhaust coming from an engine.

On the subject of generators, what do you think of this setup:
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[Doggy]

Believe it or not, I have been toying with an almost identical design for a couple of decades. The principle is sound, but for me the potential cost of batteries was the stumbling block.

At work, we installed a 25kVA UPS in the early 80's to power all the control circuits on our production lines and compressors. water system etc, enabling them to keep going through the common mains disturbances that make your lights flicker, but not really go out. (Our lines are costly to set up and can run for weeks or months at a time). The system worked brilliantly in the early days, but as we migrated to digitally controlled drives, it no longer worked as these beasts detected the out of spec mains supply and immediately tripped. Analogue thyristor drives and inverters were fine, but the newer stuff couldn't hack it, (a bit like common rail diesels and veg oil).

Anyways, this inverter was equiped with a no-break changeover switch, which would in the event of an overload, feed the output direct from the mains, until the load current dropped below the maximum inverter output. Picture a scaled-down version of this technology feeding everything in your house during the day, only swapping to mains when you boil the kettle or use the shower, automatically, without any user intervention.

If you look at a typical electricity bill and calculate your average consumption it will be something like 200W or less. The inverters you get to power a biggish PC / server are relatively cheap and big enough for the job, but the batteries typically only have a few minutes capacity, (enough time to effect a safe system shutdown). What it needs is a separate charger and something like 250 - 300 Ah of batteries, (assuming your inverter runs from 12V).

Car batteries are not really any good for this - they'll work but only for a limited time. Batteries for standby power applications are typically much more expensive. I haven't done the sums in a long while, maybe it's now worth another look.

[steve_earwig]

Interesting

I had a quick Google earlier, the batteries they guy is using (the big red jobs) are Rolls Solar 4000, 6V, 600Ah and you won't see much change out of 300 quid. Each. Then there are the chargers, inverter, yadda yadda yadda so I reckon you're looking at something like 3 grand for that system. How long would it take to recoup the costs on that? Will I live that long...

I suppose here it would be worth it if I plumbed in some solar panels, we get sun here sometimes...

I was actually wondering why he wasn't using 24 volts