Micro CoGen.

Microcogen/***/SOMRAD Forums => General Discussion => Topic started by: veggie on May 03, 2022, 07:23:53 AM

Title: Bill Rogers Book - Home Power
Post by: veggie on May 03, 2022, 07:23:53 AM
In his book " The home power producer's guide to electrical reality" Bill Rogers commented that he would be producing future updates or books regarding his further experiments and findings for cleaning the output of an ST generator or running an AC induction motor as a grid tied generator.
Has anyone seen any updates or new books from Bill ?

MobileBob, you were one of the first to read and review the book, have you had any contact with Bill since?
Title: Re: Bill Rogers Book - Home Power
Post by: Tom Reed on May 03, 2022, 10:04:29 AM
When the balancing transformer was added to our system it cleaned up the output of the ST5 to an acceptable level. Unless you're using cheap LED lights which flicker real bad. :-X

Although I'd still like to use an induction motor rectified to DC into a MPPT controller. I now have the rectifier and a used MX60 I picked up for $50, only thing missing is a motor.
Title: Re: Bill Rogers Book - Home Power
Post by: mobile_bob on May 03, 2022, 04:32:01 PM
i am in somewhat regular contact with Bill, and i will check to see if he has or is planning to do
more work on books

he is a great guy,

more as i find out.

bob g
Title: Re: Bill Rogers Book - Home Power
Post by: veggie on May 03, 2022, 09:04:24 PM
BobG

I am curious about the grid back-feed that he set up using a single phase motor, some capacitors, and the exciter winding wired in reverse.
He seemed to achieve exceptional results.
I'm wondering if it's still running, and has he learned of any new mods to make when setting up such a system?
Title: Re: Bill Rogers Book - Home Power
Post by: keith71 on February 09, 2023, 01:32:25 PM
I saw that Amazon no longer carries the digital format.. I think it was $4.99 a few years back.. Any other way to purchase this book ? Or any updates on it? 

If the book is no longer in print, does there come a time when someone can just reprint the book for non-rofit?  Don't know those laws and copyrights. Is it like a patent maybe? Might have to contact the publisher.

Thanks, Keith.     P.S I know it was an old post I dug up. But why not. It is an important one.
Title: Re: Bill Rogers Book - Home Power
Post by: Tom Reed on February 09, 2023, 02:56:21 PM
My question is why such an old book? So much new tech is available for home power it's amazing. That said, I have almost every edition of Home Power magazine ever printed. ;D 
Title: Re: Bill Rogers Book - Home Power
Post by: keith71 on February 09, 2023, 03:02:13 PM
I was not aware of any books that were like this one was that was recent. Ok Home power magazine is a good one, I will check it out.. Any others? Thanks for your reply.
Title: Re: Bill Rogers Book - Home Power
Post by: Tom Reed on February 09, 2023, 03:46:41 PM
What do you want to accomplish? The tech is advancing fast enough that new things obsolete old rather rapidly. The scope of the subject has expanded a lot too. I'm waiting for the fusion reactor in a suitcase for my next upgrade.  8)
Title: Re: Bill Rogers Book - Home Power
Post by: mobile_bob on February 09, 2023, 05:11:01 PM
Bill Rogers wrote the book, and he was a frequent contributor over on the lef years ago, up until things got stupid with all sorts of arguing and other b/s

i am in frequent contact with him in an email group, a few of the og's from years ago.

i have asked for others about the book, and Bill has no desire to do an upgrade, or print more of that edition.

his book is still quite useful, in that there is a lot more to a system than just the solar/wind/generator/inverter/ etc. his book dealt with the ST gen head, and a lot of stuff on power factor, power factor correction, which was a godsend in my opinion.

i can't tell you how many electrical engineers i went to trying to get answers about power factor and its correction, only to be met with "why do you care, you as a residential consumer are not charged for poor power factor"

apparently the fact that an off grid installation makes "you" the power company was lost on them.

Bill not only explained power factor and why it is important to an offgrid installation, but also all sorts of other things that are not easily found, and he explains things so that mortals can get their head wrapped around it.

i will send him an email and see if he has any extra left over copies laying about, and come back here.

if you can get a copy for 5 bucks it is well worth it in my opinion.  if you learn but one thing for 5 bucks, it is worth the money.

we need more books to be written which incorporate the newer technologies/strategies/etc.

my collection goes back to 1893 and i scour everywhere looking for books relating to power production, whether utility scale or diy offgrid, and everything in between.

bob g
Title: Re: Bill Rogers Book - Home Power
Post by: Tom Reed on February 09, 2023, 06:15:36 PM
Ah, that is some good and timeless info. Thanks Bob.
Title: Re: Bill Rogers Book - Home Power
Post by: veggie on February 12, 2023, 11:21:17 AM
Quote from: Tom Reed on February 09, 2023, 02:56:21 PMMy question is why such an old book? So much new tech is available for home power it's amazing. That said, I have almost every edition of Home Power magazine ever printed. ;D 

Hi Tom, perhaps you are not aware of the project that Bill did throughout the book.
He took 5HP Baldor single phase electric motor and converted it to an asynchronous generator head with some slight connection changes and some capacitors.
Powering it with a Listeroid, he back-fed his home and reduced the power bill.
The book documented all his testing and calculations until the final chapter where the system was sound.
I have not seen any other book or article describing this procedure.
It's a great project to duplicate.

Title: Re: Bill Rogers Book - Home Power
Post by: Tom Reed on February 12, 2023, 05:38:54 PM
Thanks Veggie, I had not heard of it. Sounds much more interesting than the title.