Micro CoGen.

I've decided to break one of my father's rules.  "Never buy a new car!"

But he didn't say three wheeled motorcycle.  Have any of you seen the Aptera?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNjUdTJjiNk

I was talking to a friend in the Pacific Northwest of the United States and he mention he had his first power loss of the year.  Kind of his marker for Winter.  He mentioned his generator would run his water pump.  The generator sets in his detached garage and plugs into an old dryer receptacle.  Runs most else and he throws the water heater breaker when he tries to get the water pump going.

I know the water pumps have a ferocious appetite when starting but 5KW?

Covid 19 has arrived and so has the "reality" of no power for days at a time (I believe).  I have a 1/2 HP pump about 60 feet down the well.  It's an older style system with a large storage tank in the garage. 

Manual switching is OK with me but I want the generator to be as automatic as the pump once grid power is lost.

How big of generator?

Which fuel for storage?

What else do I need to consider?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2r49AzArzeA

Saw this and wondered?

https://honolulu.craigslist.org/big/ele/6757974509.html

I know there's more to easy money transfer out there than PayPal.  Your experiences might be very enlightening for the rest of us.  I'm in the US but I here about phone transfers in Africa and bank to bank transfers in the EU.  What are you doing in your country and what's the overall spin?

I watched a neat article on YouTube today.  I do enjoy Robert Llewellyn and his Fully Charged series.  This one dropped a small $80 Billion bomb about 2/3s way through.  The oil and gas rigs in the North Sea are being pulled out.  The current crop is going to cost eighty billion dollars just for removal.  How can Shell or Exon afford to do this?  They don't.  The people of the United Kingdom are.  Please don't bitch about electric car subsidies out loud to me ever again.  Oops, that should be 80 billion UK pounds; not USD.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYr7aGf0-wA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpDZpDZLu8A&index=85&list=WL

I thought it would be so easy.  Slow my cheapski stationary belt sander with a router speed control device so I can sharpen knives and the like.  You guys that known the outcome should shed the light upon my wrinkled brow.  As I looked at this https://smile.amazon.com/Work-Sharp-Sharpening-Repeatable-Consistent/dp/B003IT5F14/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1517709121&sr=8-1&keywords=knife+sharpener+belt+driven I knew I already had the stuff I needed or I thought I did.  So how do I slow it down and why didn't my brainstorm work?

Wow!  My electric bill jumped up above $300 again.  Running the pool pump too much?  Too many hot showers?  No, a couple of trips out to the SMA inverter and it's obvious that one of two panel strings is not working. 

I've cleaned all the rats nests out but still three KW at noon prevails.  The inverter has two three KW strings so no math majors required.  One of the strings is down.

So I'm sure three KW at about 270 volts is pretty dang dangerous.  You're advice - warnings - heads-ups would be appreciated.

Casey

It's that time of year again.  Where you commit to one project or 17.  

What's on the top of your list?

I've gotten absorbed in converting the swimming pool to a swimming pond.  Kiss my bank card poison sellers and electricity hackers.  I'm going gravel filters and air powered lift pumps.  As in all major capital investment toys "Do No Harm" is the foundation of the project.  Should some silly person want to purchase this part of Eden they can always go back to the money lenders.  I'm thinking the smarter use of energy is one of the pillars of this site.

Ok, I've shown you mine.  How about a look at yours?

I've been converted this Summer.  Until this late July I was in the camp that believed that all the repudiation of ethanol spiked gasoline was at best "Whining" and drifting down to mechanical incompetence.

I spend a few hours a week on a Kawasaki twin powered mower.  The mower not only cuts and mulches the fields but also cleans up all kinds of dead vegetation and mixes it into the light mulch that the mower provides as it does it's primary mission - cut the grass.  An occasional chunk of lava becomes pieces of of land fill as well.  It works way beyond it's design and my expectations.

I've always bought the highest priced gasoline the pump had to offer.  When I purchased the cheap stuff the mower actually missed when under load like on step hills or extra heavy grass / mulching loads.  Almost as soon as the expensive stuff was put into the tank my most used tool would come back to life.  A great machine.  Therapy is tricky when your mower is missing and coughing.

I tried a gallon of ethanol free gas a couple of times over the years but simply was not impressed.  Then the station down the road started selling the good stuff and it met the most expensive stuff in the machine purchasing criteria. 

So in just a couple of gallons down the throat and my mower now starts in a couple of revolutions rather than the customary 2 to 4 seconds.  And it runs better.  I have even started using this "Less is More" stuff in all of my small engine powered equipment.

Does anyone here go the whole route and pour this 20% more stuff into their daily driver?

Casey

I was looking for an antique section in the engine list and then realized most of the engines listed are in fact antiques.  So; If I owned a Dodge diesel this would be a mandatory accessory for the garage. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-GsINYNuf8&t=1s

Casey

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdW1t8r8qYc&index=2&list=WL

Is it my system or LEF's?

Casey

I have this 1200 pound plus Witte generator.  See avatar.  I'm thinking that because it runs pretty darn smooth that pouring a slab with anchor bolts is over kill.  I can't get pre-mix delivered here so concrete would take a lot of Girl Scout cookies.

The Witte is about six feet long and dimensioned lumber starts at 8 feet lengths so I would just cut the front of two 4 X 8, or 4 X 10, or 4 X 12 (s) off at 45 degrees and call that the base.  Then cut three cross members out of the same material spanning the total width - Flywheel Outside Edge to Flywheel Outside Edge.  Lastly I block those cross members in real snug with more of the same material.  Comments are solicited on:

1.   Yes or No on the concept?

B.   Which dimension of lumber?

3.  What kind of glue?

iv.  Red or Yellow Paint?

5.   In general I think......?

The skid will only be used for transporting the engine once.  From the carport out across 100 plus yards of lumpy field with a couple of turns and then into the generator pit.  (Pit is more for drama than actual description.)  I'll then level it up in a bed of "base course" or "3/4 minus" which ever they call unwashed crushed gravel in your part of the woods.

Casey

PS.  Sibling topic on this and LF site.

Has anyone see any real data or installation criteria about these roofs?

The Public Utilities Commission has just trash (Not my word of choice) canned Grid Tie.  In the old stupid program when you over produced in the mid day sun that excess was saved for you and applied towards your evening use.  The new and improved grid tie program in Hawaii has some great improvements.  Your're now paid wholesale (.15) for each extra hour.  And then when you need power in the evening you get to pay retail (.30+).  That's a net profit of 35,600% per year.  Not bad for them on my plant and equipment.  Yup, it gets worse.  If I upgrade my existing system I must turn it over to the new program. 

Gosh, I wonder why I balked at adding another 4 KW to my roof top.  The first big auction went down this month where the equipment and materials of the dying solar installation companies were liquidated.

Best Solar window in the United States and the Peoples representatives just sold us down the river.  Don't worry.  This improved program is coming to you.

I don't understand why all of these new wholesalers don't have to report their income to the state and federal tax collectors?  Can trips to Hover Damn be write-offs.  Or to Germany to review their solar innovations?

Casey

The Farm transportation system stopped working last week.  Actually the battery charger on the Club Car stopped humming so I took it apart.  There was voltage here and voltage there so I broke down and read the manual.  The first test started with checking the voltage at both ends of the DC connector cable.  No 36 volts at the batteries.  12.6 on battery one.  12.6 on battery two.  And "Holy Battery Post" on battery three.  See Photos.

Do I just put a new one in and hope for the best?  The batteries are about two years old.  Battery three reads about 10 volts.

Casey