Micro CoGen.

Exhaust heat from a diesel is also difficult in that the cool surface of the heat ex will condense the carbon very quickly and require constant cleaning to maintain efficiency.  As for coolant heat recovery I disagree with glort.  I have measured it from my 6/1 when I did my fuel consumption measurements.  I have a brazed flat plate heatex in place of a radiator, and it follows right along with the rule of thirds pretty closely with btu recovered vs btu of fuel burnt.  Recovering just over16KBTU at full load if memory is working right(was quite a few years ago now). 

The funny thing was I built the genset to keep the lights on and maintain a reasonably civilized lifestyle and keep a pellet stove operational during extended power outtages.  But the heat I recover to a hot water tank and then a fan coil unit exceeds the output of the pellet stove...

Rule of thirds...  Of the fuel burnt(BTU) a third does the work, a third goes out the exhaust and a third goes out the cooling system. So if you know the fuel burn of your engine at a given load, convert that to BTU and divide by 3...  in a bit rougher terms the heat output in BTU from the cooling system will approximate the electric load on the generator...

Quote from: David Baillie on March 23, 2017, 05:20:11 PM
Well mixed premixed bags of concrete should meet their specs.  How many people actually read the bag though?  Or measure the water.  If you can get a truck in by all means but for a few piers you will pay dearly for small quantities.  Is quality is an issue add a shovel of cement per two bags and increase your strength...
Best regards, David Baillie

I agree for the most part.  The bags should be fine and plenty strong if mixed properly.  I have a front step I did with bags of sackrete about a decade ago, mixed with wheelbarrow and hoe, Still solid as a rock, no flaking or chipping with square corners and edges all intact. I did a walkway from driveway to that front step using a stepping stone mold form(1 60# sack per mold) and those are all intact and walked on daily for that same decade...   Don't overwater, mix throughly and don't over consolidate and it is plenty strong for domestic/residential use...

More cement won't necessarilly make it stronger. Only if it was lacking in cement content in the first place.  Most of those bags are rated to produce a 2500-4000 PSI mixture, and most of that probably depends on the ammount of water that is used and how throughly it is mixed... Cement by itself is not very strong.  It is the aggregate that makes CC strong with just enough cement and sand to bond it together.  Adding cement will only reduce the ammount of aggregate per CU/FT.  Just as too much water will make the mix fluid enough that the sand and gravel will be able to separate more easilly during the pour and consolidation with the force of gravity before the cement chemically fuses...

Quote from: Thob on March 23, 2017, 03:12:55 PM
I've done a few trailer loads from the rental place, and my advice is DON'T, unless you live really close.  The aggregate settles to the bottom and water/cement floats to the top if you travel a few miles.  The result is you can't even open the gate and dump the load without mixing it by hand first,

The ones I am talking about WERE a drum mixer on a big trailer.  Gas powered, with a water tank.  Looked like the back half of a cement truck, downsized, with a trailer hitch where the cab should be:).  No handmixing on these badboys. 

I wouldn't want to tow mixed CC in a trailer that wasn't mixing for the very reasons you mentioned.  Over agitation/consolidation is as bad as under consolidation.  One separates the materials, and the other leaves voids...

Yep, and the truck dosn't give you all day to off-load it either...  A lot of redimix plants won't even talk to you untill you are planning at least a few yard or more for delivery. 

I have seen some of the rental places with 1/2 yard towable mixers(United Rentals used to do this).  They pre-mix it for you, you pick it up, tow it to the site, add the water and pour, then flush out the drum and return it.  Cool little units and way easier to maneuver than a full sized truck to dump less than a full yard of CC...

Are these poles attached in a framework, or are they free-standing(each pole supports a standalone array)?  Got the 6" tube 5' long with 2" pole.  How many of these do you need to do?  If my math serves me a 6" tube 72" long with a 2" pipe will take just over 1CU/FT of ConCrete(1800 CU/IN). An 80# plus a 60# bag = 1.05 CU/FT of CC.  5' of tube would probably be OK with 2 60# sacks.  Got 10 of these to do, that's 20 sacks to mix?...       

If part of an interconnected frame, the frame can provide the rigidity, so the legs merely need to be restrained by the weight of the CC around the legs in the holes.  With a plate attached to the bottom of the pole you could probably fill the tubes with tamped crushed rock which would provide the necessary weight to restrain the legs...  Havn't used CC for fence posts for years, crushed rock drains better so the posts last longer.

If freestanding posts, the issue becomes withstanding lateral force.  For this you need that base to be bonded throughout.  Since the powdered CC resists the transmission of water, and proper wetting is necessary to fully fire the CC chemical reaction, just putting the dry mix in the hole and wetting will make for an inconsistent mix.  The sonotubes will also restrict the dry mix from absorbing moisture from the earth.  If I recall correctly a 60# sack of quickrete takes about 2 quarts of water to activate properly.  But mixing throughly with that little water by hand is laborious.  Using more water is a problem as the more fluid mix will separate as it falls into the hole, with the aggregate settling to the bottom.  The cement glued to the agregate spread evenly thru the mix is what gives it it's strength. With a proper mix, the sonotube helps the mix retain the moisture and cure properly. 

Depending on how many of these posts you have to do you can mix it by hand in a tub or wheelbarrow, just resist the urge to add more water...  Way easier to throw 2 sacks into a mixer, start it up and add 4 measured quarts of water. This way it gets mixed properly and evenly with the proper ammount of water.  As soon as you see it fully wetted, tip it down the hole, repeate as necessary...  With a small mixer you could probably do 10 posts in under 2 hours as it goes very fast...   

CC only really needs re-enforcement(rebar/mesh) when placed in tension.  Not any real tension loads associated with a pole/post in CC, so no re-enforcement necessary... that is why crushed rock typically works well for posts.   

One of the associated links in that link you posted is for the Roman version called a "Hypocaust".

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypocaust

If I was going to use wood in a tiny house, I think I would try and incorporate it as a mass floor heater(like a russian heater, just built into the floor).  As mentioned woodstoves have space requirements that would eat up a lot of valuable floorspace in a tiny house/cabin.  I thnk this is an Asian thing, forget the name though but the fire box(and the mess) is located outside with the hotgas passing thru passageway in a masonary floor with tile on top.  have seen something similar used in Roman Baths to provide heated floors.  Small downdraft batch gasifier to get it up to temp qucker and a pellet feeder or propane for longer burns to maintain heat for longer durations without needing direct attention.  That is one of the cool things about pellets, you can taylor the fire size to suit while still maintaining very clean/complete combustion.  I think I would have to do something to make it so I could see the fire though, I like that part also:)

The low mass/light weight alternative would be a small wood or pellet boiler(or gas, or heatpump) feeding a radiant floor water system, but this type would require power to circulate the water, where the masonary type even running on pellets could be done without power.   But there are a lot of ways to make hot water:) 

How much load will it have on it?  If it has the same load as the 6/1 and that radiator worked for the 6/1, then the same radiator should also work for the 195 under the same load...  That is of course providing the smaller ports on the 195 can provide adequate thermosiphon flow.

One factor might be how the coolant is returned to the engine.  Are both ports on the plate you fabbed(return port with a longer pipe to reach down in near the bottom of the coolant sump) or are you using the drain port?  I am not sure if there is a difference, but I get the sense that the plate using 2 ports might not thermosiphon as well.

Good luck 

In many municipalities, there is a low limit for the need for a building permit... 

What Thob said...  That is a 1 hour rating, what you want is the 12 hour rating for sustained output,  which will derate that 16.18KW a bit.  Then you need to derate it for the RPM drop.  HP = torque over time, so fewer torqu pulses in a given time period = less HP. Then there is the generator efficiency.

Sustained generator output requires about 2HP per KW and that engine is a pretty good match for the ST-10, but a full 10KW on the generator will be too much sustained load for it as is.  IMO it won't direct drive a 15, I don't think you would even get that much more if you belt drove it at 2200 engine RPM.

You could maybe do the larger sump externally.  You add an overflow type drain to the existing oil sump that only drains away oil at the normal full oil level.  Then you add an external tank below that level with a very small volume pump.  The external sump pumps oil into the engine and as the oil level reaches the overflow it drains back out to the external sump. If you added the inlet port at that same full oil level that would remove any danger of emptying the sump accidently.  Basically a continous remote oil change:)   

I agree it dosn't make a lot of sense unless you are actively employing the electric power while harvesting the heat.  But I do understand having to get systems operational before you can expand.  the good thing about hydronic heat is that you can heat water in a bunch of ways, so integrating a boiler(wood, oil, pellets) or solar is not a great leap, it just takes time(and a little money:)).

Well since it is a liquid cooled engine, why don't you put it in a insulated box.  That and a couple of big expansion chambers/mufflers on the exhaust, and a muffler on the air intake...

I was thinking about one for an inverting generator with a very small engine sized for average load and a battery for surge capacity.  Priced like that, they are almost getting into my experimentation budget range:)