Micro CoGen.

And more info/thoughts on the ac/heat pump idea. I don't use much ac in the summer as I have a whole house can that draws just over one amp at 120v. It does a really good job of keeping the house cool as long as the humidity isn't high. So I would probably use it more in heat pump mode then anything and that actually works out because that's when I have the least amount of solar input to the batteries. So the generator will be running more anyway. I've thought about making a 200 gallon thermal storage/buffer tank for the heating/cooling and just pump that water thru a water to air heat exchanger in my central hvac system. I know that the water would have to be kept very cold (below 40*f) to get any kind of good dehumidification and cooling. On the heating end of things I could use the engine heat on the cold side of the ac system to increase the efficiency and the overall heat output of the ac system..

Anything I'm missing?

So my latest thoughts for this system are:

1. Use system to charge my battery bank of 24v at 840ah with a 110-555 alt and maybe even 2 of them at some point. Use Al's smart dc generator to control that

2. I'd like to be able to drive a 5-8kw generator head also.

3. Use waste heat to heat dhw and maybe some of the house depending on run times in the winter and also the outside temp.

4. This is the one that I know least about and have only seen people talk about but have yet to see a system actually in use. That would be to drive an ac compressor to heat/cool. I've seen a few people talk about it on here but I have not seen any systems in use? Correct me if I'm wrong. Anyone seen any on another site? Links?

Obviously I wouldn't be able to run them all at the same time..

Thoughts?

Well my thought with the 2 alternators was to bring up the amperage to allow shorter run times. But  maybe for now ill start with one and see how it goes

Never put it together but I've been in touch with you already about a week or so ago. I'm on the waiting list for the full controller . Just here trying to sort it all out and make sure I get it all straight

C20 should be 2x c10? I think that's how that works

Efficiency is important for sure. Just thought things might be easier in my situation to use a single alt instead of trying to drive 2 on the same bank. I've got an 840ah battery bank at 24v manufacture recommends the max amps at c/20. That's 168 amps. Also the engine I have for this project is a kubota z482 that makes are 13hp at 3600rpm. Now I don't ever plan on running it at that high of an rpm. Maybe 2600 or so tops and from if seen it should make 4kw pretty easy at that rpm so I would like to get as close to that load as possible. 28v at 150amp is 4200w so maybe I can find a 300amp 12 alt? Then I should get about 150 amps out of it. Or I can run 2 of the 555s and have what I need. I guess the redundancy would be good to for back up.  I've found the 555s for 150 shippe on eBay. Supposed to be oem and not a copy. Anyone have any good sources for those alts?

Also I need thoughts on an alternator that can put out 160 amps at 24v

so this is the one with the bad generator it revs at 2600



this is the 3600 with the 7.5k gen head

Also looking for some clarification on a few things.. Why not just get a leece Neville 24v alt with a good regulator and just use it instead of the 12v Jho version? Next is what actually controls the alternators out put? Changing the voltage on the sense with change the voltage out but how are the amps controlled? I've been playing with the idea of making my own regulator. There is a guy in here I believe thaT has made a very nice engine controller alt controller that I would like to use somemofmhismideas but on a much simpler scale.

Hey guys! I've been a member for a while just reading and learning and I've finally picked up a good motor for a small battery charger that might turn into a chp.. I found 2 semi truck apus that both had kubota z482 diesel motors. Both were said to run but had been sitting inside for a few years. I gave 200$ (us) for each unit. Got them home and had the one running the next day it's a direct drive 3600 rpm 7500watt unit. Runs and generates just fine. The other unit is a 2600rpm belt driven 4000 watt unit. Although generator doesn't work(ordered a capacitor for it yesterday hopefully that will fix it) either way I think I'm going to sell the 7.5k unit and use that money to build the battery charger. I have a 24v battery bank at 840ah I have hooked up to solar panels and it does just fine in the summer but its pretty cloudy here in the winter. I am not off grid or remote by any means but Id like to be self sufficient. So I plan to do the 110-555jho alt and a voltage reg to recharge the batteries when needed but I'd still like to swap the belt and have the 4k gen head if it was needed.(assuming I can fix it cheap) ill get some photos up in a day or 2

Feed back is welcome
Rob