Another generator situation

I'd forget looking at automotive engines and look at small TRACTOR engines. In fact, I'd avoid "cobbling" altogether, and look into an Onan generator package. They're pretty affordable, really. A few thousand bucks for a complete back-up generator system, including approved switchgear that prevents you from frying some poor electric company lineman by accidentally backfeeding power from your generator into the main grid....

As for fuel- natural gas if you've got it in your home already, diesel if not or if you want to cover the (small) possibility that the NG infrastructure might be knocked out.

snipped-for-privacy@nospam.nix wrote:

Tractor engines could be a possibility, if I can find one.

Popular Mechanics, years ago, designed a high mileage car based on a Kubota engine.

There were a ton of generators sold here during the storms for $600-$1800. Some may come on the market soon. My friend was burning about $30 of gasoline per 10 hour operating day on one he picked up. And that can be okay so long as gasoline is available. (It wasnt easily available, and there were near riots, approaching violence. Same for food)

Some towns here STILL dont have electrical power, at least as of yesterday. We, fortunately, were only out of power for a few days.

I may never see another storm season like this one. I hope the next time, if there is one, I will have enough power to run the AC and TV or radio.

Glad you're OK. I've got a cousin who still can't live in his house (power/water/gas all still out) a few blocks south of Lake Ponchartrain. At least the house was only lightly damaged, so there's hope he can get back into it eventually.

I still think the automatic safety switchgear is a good reason to consider a "packaged" generator, though. As much as I like to tinker myself, that's one area where its nice to have that UL seal on the equipment.

Here's one ya missed:

I used to build these back in the early 80s (this one is kind of mid sized)

That is an important point, and I am somewhat surprised that there were no more incidents regarding the use of generators than there were.

We had one local death by electrocution. Man was implementing generator application on his farm. I never heard exactly how it happened.

Thanks for your input.

Absolutely u should go for diesel. There are lots of people running a diesel engine on used vegetable oil after filtering through a 10 micron filter. How do you think to stabilise frequency and voltage?

That's more or less 10 hp, should be ok. No japanese diesels available?

shakiro

Won't an automotive diesel be too large and potentially inefficient for a generator application? A small marine diesel would probably be a better idea. By the time you build a sturdy engine frame to hold the equivalent of a VW Golf diesel and set up the wiring and cooling and hook it all up you might be out some serious money (and a lot of work). And the powerplant will be used and possibly well worn out.

Consider a portable diesel powered generator like one of these instead:

Also, remember that portable generators are by definition noisy and diesels even more so.

Thanks a lot, John. The feasibility would all hinge on finding a good diesel engine, not too big, at a reasonable price.

You can buy a gasoline generator for about $600, and that would probably be the cheapest route. How long they hold up is another issue. Some have Honda and similar good quality engines. That doesn't leave a lot of money for them to come with a good generator head.

Since FEMA has financed half of the population of two states, I imagine there will be some good generators on EBAY 'when the cheques stop rolling in'.

Yes, supply usually exceeds demand about 6 months after every big storm. How many kw do you think you will need for the house. Remember the refrigerator will gobble a bunch and all those other appliances add up quickly. A baby honda generator might not do much more than power up a few lights.

Probably 5-10KW would be adequate. That would require about 10-20 horsepower to be conservative. We wouldn't run the whole house on it.Just 'life support'. And it may never happen again in my lifetime.

We managed to keep the deep freezes closed, and the food stayed good although some of it was beginning to soften.

We have natural gas (at least we had it this time), but could cook with wood or charcoal if necessary.

My friend bought a 5.5 kw unit, and ran romex strings to the refrig, freezer, window unit, etc so that he could keep the power isolated from the grid. They were out of grid power for 2-3 weeks, but got by okay. Noise was irritating, and it cost him about $30 a day in gasoline to run the thing.