come on in put your feet up and have a brew.
talk about your set up or plans to "beat the payment"

7 years off the grid and counting

How are you making out RAVEman

The frost is just about out here and the area for the gen shed is cleared and partialy dug

got some windows from a coach to install. Tinted

anyone with problems/solutions with all aspects of co-generation or just want to say hello feel free to post

Got one of those 8D batteries today. Boss thought it was no good. checked out fine. gotta love it and the price is right - free

7 years off the grid and counting

Hi 12v & others,
As I live in an "exclusive" suburb, I do not wish to alert the neighbours to my diesel co-gen by its noise. SB construction should allow me to muffle the noise effectively.
To avoid local Government building by-laws, I have kept the size to 3m * 3m external.
I have raised the bales and built an internal steel frame. The 2.5 ton concrete roof was lifted into place a few weeks ago.
This weekend saw the application of a straw/clay/sand scratch coat to the bales.
It now looks like a shaggy dog, with the muddy straw langing off everywhere. This should tidy up when the second coat goes onto the first.

I will keep you all informed of my progress and the commissioning of my veg-oil co-gen system.

30 000 KM in a '90 Mazda 2 litre diesel on SVO with biodiesel start/purge.

Tony

Cool. I can relate to the size requirment. They keep us to 100 sq ft so I,m going with an oval shape 9ft x 13 1/2ft od. gives me the most room for my 5.9 turbo cummins.

still looking for a gen for the back of this girl. It`s looks like it might take awhile. No worries i`ve got time yet before the snow flies

How`ed you get that roof up?

7 years off the grid and counting

2 Ton Hiab wouldn't lift it. The operator went away and got his 5 Ton hiab, mounted on a Prime Mover truck (Tractor part of an articulated truck)
He slung the roof again and although the crane lifted the roof, it also had the opposite rear wheel off the ground! He shortened the reach and got the wheel back down again. Once he slewed to the SB building, the weight was at the back of the truck, so the engine weight counterbalanced the roof.

As he lowered the roof, I could see the SB bowing out on 3 sides. I had my heart in my mouth for a while there though. Fortunately, I had built a steel frame inside the SB, to take the load.
I used a ratchet winch to pull the SB back into line again and it stayed put.
On Friday, a couple of friends & I put a scratch coat of clayey loam & straw onto about 3/4 of the bales outside face. Yesterday and today, I finished the outside and did about 1/4 of the inside.
I hope to finish the inside this week, and go for a second layer outside next weekend. I also need to finish off the cork tiles in one of our bedrooms this week and fit in a couple of committee meetings too. I am NEVER BORED. Tired, exhausted, fatigued, sore - Yes

30 000 KM in a '90 Mazda 2 litre diesel on SVO with biodiesel start/purge.

Tony

Do you ever get snow?? I'm 12v's wife. We'd love to visit Australia. Actually, anywhere except here. We had snow on Apr. 22 This is the longest winter we've seen in awhile. Need a way to harness the white crap to make power.

7 years off the grid and counting

quote:

---

Originally posted by 12voltdan:
Tony

Do you ever get snow?? I'm 12v's wife. We'd love to visit Australia. Actually, anywhere except here. We had snow on Apr. 22 This is the longest winter we've seen in awhile. Need a way to harness the white crap to make power.

---

OK, Could you have a "sled" built into the roof, which, when the snow builds up on it, runs down the tracks on the roof, turning a turbine/alternator. When the sled nears the ground, it tips and dumps the snow. The counter-balance allows the sled to return to the rooftop, turning the turbine and generating power
OR
You could use excess co-gen heat to melt the snow to turn a microturbine for power

Neither of the above are going to give you much power, but the ideas may clear the snow from your mind, and mabye your roof too.

30 000 KM in a '90 Mazda 2 litre diesel on SVO with biodiesel start/purge.

Tony

3 winters under a tarp roof convinced me that a steel roof was the way to go(no shoveling) You have all the snow experiance you need The only advantage i can think of is the outdoor freezer is free 4-5 months a year

Seeing as were indoors a lot in those months i think exersize is more appropriate a method for generation. Say a stationary bike with a gen for load. Son power

Hopefully I`ll start on my building this weekend. Snows gone frost is out and things are just about dried up.

still looking for that 4kw load for my diesel

7 years off the grid and counting

12volt: I'm still planning (someday) to run a heatpump on one of my 3.6hp single cyl diesels. It will heat my shop. Here's the concept: automotive a/c heat pump (belt-drive compressor, with electric clutch), with hot (condensor) side in the shop, and cold (evaporator) side in the exhaust stream of the engine. Collect all that "waste" heat, plus the mechanical hp (KW to you) and pump it inside where I want it.
Heat pumps are generally discouraged here where it gets too cold, but not if they're in a warm biodiesel breeze.
Most oil (and gas) heaters waste the expansion work potential, while most oil engines loose as much heat to their exhaust as they get in shaft power. This is just a way to capture more of both.
Cheers,
JohnO
CFT dept
(Copious Free Time)

johno

Is 3.6hp enough to do all that? I don`t know enough about a/c to know but wouldn`t the pressure be a little high in the system. I know our coach systems go up quite high (300 psi) on hot summer days.

Me, I`m going to use school bus rear heater cores to obsorb the heat for the house (2500sq ft). the mech motion will charge the batteries and run the fans,pumps and such

as for the 4kw load (or about 5 hp) i need that to burn enough fuel for heat. take a look at Bill`s post in "methanol" page 5 i think. That should give me 94,000 BTU`s, enough to heat the house. Also (as suggested by Tony) the load can also heat the house via electric basebords.

So now i`m looking for a cheep geny and i may have found one. A 4.4kw unit for 300 dollars. must check it out

7 years off the grid and counting

Long weekend is here. I`m trying to finish the excavting with my trusty roundmouth backhoe. Dealing with stumps rock and such makes for slow going. I`ll post a pic somtime. kinda like a diary so you can see the progress to hopefully a working bio-unit this fall

7 years off the grid and counting

Hello 12Voltdan, JohnO, BillM and all:

I havent fell of the surface of the earth. I have just been working. Life in the maritimes, 80 hour weeks durning the summer.

Hope everyones projects are comming along well.

RAVeman

Been busy here too but have cleared and leveled the gen shed area and added 6" of sand. I`m now ready to lay out forms for the slab. I`ve got some screen (10 gauge) and i figure a 6" thickness
should be ok soooooo at 100sq ft that makes 50 cubic ft at 27 cu ft per yard i get 1.83 cu yards

anybody remember how may cu ft in a bag of portland? I musta put a skid or two into my walls but for the life of me i can`t remember now (kinda like childberth i think)

one thing i was wondering though. does anyone know where to look for auto start systems (for the gen) that include safty shutt downs for low oil etc? could this system be built with relays house thermostats and other borowed odds & ends?

more fun building it than buying it

7 years off the grid and counting

This summer was a washout in terms of production of the gen shed. I was saddled with some familly problems that took away any chance of having the genny running this winter but I haven't given up.

The slab is poured and ready to build on. The cordwood is dry and ready to go in the spring. I have designed an auto start that runs off an old style themostat with safties for oil/temp. I'll post it later for review (maybe someone will see somthing I missed)

I'm still having problems locating a 110/220 generator head for the load ( this summers blackout didn't help) but oportunity will knock at some point

Too bad us Canadians don't "talk" much in this forum. It gets lonely somtimes here in the bush

Thats all for now. I'll post that circut soon

7 years off the grid and counting

Good to hear I'm not the only one overwhelmed by life in general. Despite the warmer weather during the last day or two, everything associated with non-petroleum driving is frozen at home. I'm driving the petrol-powered Mazda, with apologies to all who suffer and die for my privilege. I got spoiled last year from using low-temp Canola in stead of my present high-temp gelling Soy oil. Those were the days.
You would probably be interested in the thread discussing using a 3-phase motor for electric power generation here
Nothing new to report on my heatpump project, nor on my Rover's engine condition.
Welcome back to the fold.
Cheers,
JohnO

12volt:

How big and how much? I do spend a bit of time researching gen-sets for my clients who don't want to get involved with new. If you can indicate what you are looking for I would be glad to see what comes up.

One thing you might look into, here in the valley, a number of the Kohler NG sets were bought with the Waukeswa V twin gassers when Consumers gas was pushing their product. The gen-sets and switch gear were excellent but the V twins had a tendancy to scatter their parts with some regularity. You should be able to pick one of these up fairly cheaply. There is usually one or two on EBay on a monthly basis and they usually go for less then 100 bucks (usually with blown engines).

Let me know and I'll start looking.

Bill

Bill

somewhere around 5k should be lots but i'll go as high as 10. I had a swap lined up for my 5.9 cummins (6k kubota) but it fell through. Oh well the 5.9 will be more fun to play with anyway

If you can locate one of those vented gennies I'd be grateful. I won't be feeding the grid just need the load for the engine

thanks for the pick-up Johno and yeah twas a lunchbag letdown for me too when my batch turned to lard at about 2deg c. I've been trying to get the boss to let me try bio in some of our failed "drive clean" tested busses but he's been getting by with fuel cond. Next year it should catch up with him and I'll get a shot at it. Soon as this car is done I'm buying a diesel

7 years off the grid and counting

12volt:

Lets see if this works. Try this address:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2577172439&category=50927

These gensets were great electrically but the engines self destructed when running on NG or Propane. Not only that, you couldn't blow enough fuel through a fire hose fast enough to feed them.

These are double wound generators so you will be able to direct couple them to your engine (1,800 RPMs)

You will find my email on my profile if you this is the kind of thing you are looking for.

Bill

Johno- There's much investment/development of "earth energy" systems afoot- Believe they bor shafts into the earth below permafrost up here.
Check out THIS

Iv'e got an 1973 4k cck that runs on propane. I didn't want to canabalize it but may have to rethink that decision. thats the type of unit though that I,m looking for.

I checked out e-bay.ca and although there was a nice 300k unit I didn't see anything in my price range. Here's my auto start circut, see what you think




crude yes but if you can make sence of the mess it's fairly simple and cheep

T= themostat

relay-1= ign "on

relay-2= start

relay-3= safties

relay 3 will interupt power to the themostat circut and shut the whole thing down. there is a counting chip available that I might be able to use to allow say 3 start cycles before interupting power but i haven't delved into playing with it yet

7 years off the grid and counting

[This message was edited by 12voltdan on 12 March 2004 at 09:36 PM.]

[This message was edited by 12voltdan on 12 March 2004 at 09:38 PM.]