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| Fight against annoying power cuts! |
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| PekkaNF:
I have been reading Andrew's topic "Bally Power Cuts !" with great interest http://madmodder.net/index.php/topic,9984.0.html I don't live in the countryside, but this area is still pretty sparsely populated and has some power lines that seem to go down almost once a year when there is autumn storm. I have two UPS for computer/WiFi and two laptops with 2/3 batteries 70% charged all the time for each. What is more that autumn storms seem to get here later and later every year and year 2011 it was in Boxing day and pretty damn cold. Power break lasted almost three days and we have a wood fired oven but our friend had not. They were four strong and were ready to evacuate and move in to our house at that evening - middle of packing essentials they got power on on we few hours later. I have oil/electricity central heating with radiators, it does not need much electricity to feed oil burner and circulation pump, 200 W at most. Calculated that I could easily construct 12/24 V system with 200/100 Ah batteries and sinusoidal inverter to go trough up to 9 h power cut. That should do most, but not the longest and most troublesome. So, it would need an DC generator (probably self-build) or generator and very expensive battery charger (20-30A chargers are not cheap). But it would be quiet for whole night. Then I considered these small 1Kw briefcase generators, small, easy to store and Honda/Yamaha seem to be good and produce enough of good quality electricity. I have had some problems storing gasoline for a long time, would really need a good system to recycle gasoline from canisters to car and that sounds like eventually something could go wrong (water, contamination, dent on my car.....). Not sure how easy to maintain, but they definately seem to need a lot of maintenance to run for three days more or less continous. I finally splashed out my cash (actually swiped Visa-card) and bought year 2008 diesel generator half price, because it has been sitting on the cardboard box on the storage all this time and it's all open roll cage construction I prefer for maintenance and transportation. It's noisy, probably that's why they are not sold for construction workers anymore. it has Yanmar L70AE diesel engine and single phase 3,9KWA alternator. Engine manual is pretty good, alternator manuals pretty basic and generic, generator manual very sketchy and importer Finnish manual next to useless. I like that it is simple one. Recoil start and all. Would have been nice to have a starter motor without dynamo/regulator/small battery, but that was not an option, just ideal for me. Got 4l of oil and 20l gallon filled with oil. I still need to find a maintenance manual, spare filters (to be changed after 200 h of run, but good to get before I need one). The generator is this type Pramac E4500 http://www.pramac.com/pages/Product_detail_fr/513?ixRecordTableName=vw_p_product_sheet&root_node=2&lang=en_GB&id_market=176&id_product=1026&ixRecordId=1026 I still have to run it in and familiarize, just to make sure it works when I need it. It has a small gas tank. It's really not that big problem. But 2-3 hrs of running time could be sometimes a bit limiting and the fuel filter is inside the tank. I'm considering either external fuel tank with an electric driven pump AND good big automotive type diesel fuel filters and all that pluming. OR just a bigger tank over that roll cage and some bigger filter attached to the frame. What could go wrong? :coffee: Pekka |
| chipenter:
Most diesels will run on light heating oil just wont start on it , two tanks and a t valve or mix diesel and oil 50 50 . |
| awemawson:
Best of luck with the project Pekka :thumbup: I'm at the 'gathering parts' stage with my generator. You will have seen the pictures in the 'Bally Power Cuts' thread. Generator is here looking splendid. I've ordered a 60 litre diesel tank that arrived yesterday, and am waiting for an electric fuel lift pump, piping and a heavy duty battery. I decided to go for a whopping big battery (Yuasa 622) that is the same one used on my tractors for interchangability. I have a smaller one that cranks ok if you use the decompressor to get it started, but as I want automatic change over and starting in freezing conditions bigger is better as it'll have to turn over with the decompressor not used! I'll be building a 'lean to' against a chimney breast of the house to house it, but to fit it all in in the limited length, the tank and battery will have to go under the engine / generator which will need lifting 300 mm. To this end I'm considering welding up a complete new sled for it incorporating space under for tank and battery and 'sockets' to receive a pallet pump truck for moving it into place. When the action starts I'll start a new project thread. |
| PekkaNF:
--- Quote from: chipenter on December 12, 2014, 04:29:34 AM ---Most diesels will run on light heating oil just wont start on it , two tanks and a t valve or mix diesel and oil 50 50 . --- End quote --- Yea but - no but. I have bought diesel from the pump, because on 15l it does not make much difference here. Later on I might have my oil tanks cleaned and order motor/heating oil, it's pretty much the same price, but it's guaranteed to meet EN590 or whatever this diesel standard is. --- Quote from: awemawson on December 12, 2014, 04:45:32 AM ---Best of luck with the project Pekka :thumbup: I'm at the 'gathering parts' stage with my generator. You will have seen the pictures in the 'Bally Power Cuts' thread. Generator is here looking splendid. I've ordered a 60 litre diesel tank that arrived yesterday, and am waiting for an electric fuel lift pump, piping and a heavy duty battery. I decided to go for a whopping big battery (Yuasa 622) that is the same one used on my tractors for interchangability. I have a smaller one that cranks ok if you use the decompressor to get it started, but as I want automatic change over and starting in freezing conditions bigger is better as it'll have to turn over with the decompressor not used! I'll be building a 'lean to' against a chimney breast of the house to house it, but to fit it all in in the limited length, the tank and battery will have to go under the engine / generator which will need lifting 300 mm. To this end I'm considering welding up a complete new sled for it incorporating space under for tank and battery and 'sockets' to receive a pallet pump truck for moving it into place. When the action starts I'll start a new project thread. --- End quote --- I have been following your thread with great interest. My parents used to have a Lister generator most part of the -70s. We were off the grid and generator was automatic start. Gravity feed fuel system. This generator was mounted on very substantial concrete footing, then rubber feet, then steel plinth and generator. Whole thing had a shed build over it. It was behind of the barn because it was pretty loud even in the shed. I need to consider how I can wire it onto heat circulation water pump and oil burner. Pump is no problem, but oil burner has some regulation stuff and here it is not that simple to assemble transfer switch, there is whole lot of regulation and red tape. I'm actually considering if I have a small separate transfer switch for heating system only. Pekka |
| awemawson:
At a simplistic level could you not just wire a socket from the generator close to the boiler oil pump and circulating pump (they probably have a common feed anyway) and have them on a plug so you can unplug when the power goes off and plug them manually into the generator socket, reversing the operation when the lights come back on ? On my oil fired boiler (well actually I have three in separate buildings :bugeye: ) they have a mains feed that goes to the boiler-controller/timer and everything else the boiler needs like the circulating pump and oil pump come off this same feed. |
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