Micro CoGen.

I have a lister LT1 from a '70's highway arrow sign trailer. Got it years ago. Nice little single cylinder air cooled diesel. Electric start. Don't remember which build it is, but they put out up to 7hp@3000 rpm. Some builds were governed at 1,500rpm and 1,000rpm with lower output of course.


This one ran a 60A alternator that kept a single 12v battery charged to power the incandescent light board.

I thought it would be perfect for keeping my deep cycle battery bank charged at the cabin in the fall when the solar system performance drops off.

It wasn't. Noisy as hell and the single belt slipped badly. Added a dual belt system which worked great until the alternator burned up shortly thereafter. This happened years ago before I found Micro CoGen and all the info about 110-555 alternators with balmar regulators.

The good news is the lister is still sitting under the cabin right where I abandoned it. Time to give her a second chance.

This time around after fitting a proper alternator and regulator I need to build an enclosure for reducing noise, then figure out the cogen part.

Cabin is fairly remote so I'd like to keep it as simple as possible.

Anyway, I don't see any mention of the Lister LT1 here. I think they are worth a look. Parts availability is still pretty good. Engine is equipped with a decompression lever. Cold starting aid is a small plunger that adds oil to the intake to increase compression.

That's all I've got. Now off to research cogen options for air cooled engines....

New member here. I've noticed there are a lot of knowledgeable people here with wildly different ways of solving a given problem. I would love to get some opinions on how you would set up my proposed project.

We live up north on an island. Grid power here is .65 cents/kWh and unreliable. We are a cruise ship destination and in the summer there is a gondola they operate that causes brownouts.

Our home in the village has a grid tie solar system that we use to charge a cheap electric car. Works great in the summer with our long days.

We recently bought some property for a shop that's 2.5 miles from our house. This property doesn't have grid power and I'm ok with that. The plan is to provide our own.

The options:
Good southern exposure for solar (summer only)

Seasonal micro hydro, about 450w or so.
 
Free WVO.

I have a Witte CD gen set, and a Lister CD with electric start that needs a generator head.

To be continued...

Last summer I was given a complete Witte CD-14 engine-generator unit. It came with a sales brochure, care and operation manual for both engine and generator, warranty papers, and a bill of sale.

The unit was purchased from NC Machinery in Juneau, Alaska in 1974 as a reman unit for $4,235. That's $23,037 in today's dollars. Pretty steep price for a rebuilt unit!

Sales brochure claims "continuous duty operation in excess of 30,000 between major overhauls is the rule, not the exception". Seems promising.

It also states the condenser cooling system will permit continuous operation for 90 days without adding coolant. An optional lubricating oil reservoir with float valve allows unattended operation for up to 90 days.

Anyway got it running after unsticking the pump element and injector nozzle. Didn't run it for long because I'd like to go through it before putting it back in service here on the island.

The file of info also contains some old hand written notes of various parts suppliers. There is one in Washington state that interests me. Doesn't seem to be in business anymore, but maybe a guy could do some detective work and see where the spare parts ended up.