Micro CoGen.

From Texas but have been mostly all over the planet. since before the 2nd gulf war I have been in Kuwait.
Came over here to set up a manufacturing factory that now produces 150 to 200 tons of engineered steel structure per month along with Hydraulic freight elevators and machinery. and several 1000 Fire and explosion rated doors per year.
Temperatures range from lows of 100 to highs of 126f in summer in winter only 2 months long lows maybe 30f with highs of 40f a couple of days
fuel prices about .80 cents per gallon. on average.
320 days full sun 40 days dust rain maybe off and on light to drenching downpours only a few hours maybe 4 to 6 times from late Sept to early May but occasionally a sporadic shower just enough to almost cover the ground anytime from early Sept to late June. 

I suppose this would be out of the question then


!2V92 700HP hydraulic driven prop the pod mounts on a work barge with 360Deg turning

You might check out this thread
http://www.microcogen.info/index.php?topic=2679.0
or this one
http://www.microcogen.info/index.php?topic=2800.15

You mentioned catamaran so I'm going to talk a leap off the yard arm and assume that you are not talking about a large trampoline deck hoby-cat but one with a solid cabin maybe something with a 40ft mast?? say 300 sq ft main and a 200sqft spiniker maybe a 75 ft storm jib just trying to get a feeling for the size of the craft
That being said now I will toss out a wild idea and I mean wild instead of a single 8Kw generator how about mounting a pair of smaller Robin diesels in each pontoon then construct a hybrid gen/ motor with  a disconnect able  marine shaft going down to a collapsible prop that way providing you had enough battery bank you could motor in silent when becalmed but had sunshine to power the solar extending the range of the batteries
The diesels could either run the generators & the props or just the generators . since the props would be able to slim to a spear point and just flap ifreely in the currents in front of the rudders they would not constitute much drag You would have  a balanced weight distribution plus a redundant motoring system
going even further off the starboard side gang plank you could crows nest the top of the mast with a VAWT that had retractable wing blades similar to the movie boat in water world, about 300to400 watt would be about all you could get probably, but it could run even at night while you were sleeping and not under sail or just having a go at some fishing. 800 watts of PV is probably only going to net you around 400 watts anyway so you would need twice the panel area
just a couple to thoughts   

here's one
http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-ANTIQUE-VINTAGE-LOUIS-ERNST-SONS-P-WALL-MFG-OIL-CAN-L-K-/160878618144?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item25751ce620#ht_500wt_1187
another but may be a copy
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ANTIQUE-TRACTOR-OIL-CAN-/360438433526?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item53ebce06f6#ht_500wt_953

From the utter power a good read
http://www.utterpower.com/direct-drive-vs-serpentine-belt-drive-in-small-power-applications/

Sorry Bob but I don't see that it is actually geared towards or lays out any proposals of how this order will be carried out

I do read however into the lines if you will Involving an overseer type control
In addition, it directs the Departments of Energy, Commerce, and Agriculture, and the Environmental Protection Agency, to coordinate actions at the Federal level while providing policy and technical assistance to states to promote investments in industrial energy efficiency.  The Executive Order also directs agencies to foster a national dialogue through ongoing regional workshops to encourage the adoption of best practice policies and investment models that overcome barriers to investment, provide public information on the benefits of unlocking investment in industrial energy efficiency, and use existing Federal authorities that can support these investments.
but I haven't found the reference number of the Exec order

Back in the days when I was a one man show and anything I did in my factory was pretty much up to me as long as I could put food on the table and keep the bills paid. Now I am part of a much larger corporation I still do as a darn well please but every square foot of floor space is valuable so I don't have my off the wall project space like I used to have. plus with 50 to 60 workers on the floor if I were to start building something all of them would want to try and stand around to see what I was doing. Neither I nor the company can afford for that to happen. Most of my time is tied up in designing products and ongoing projects, so I do 90% of my prototyping now on my computer.
Not like the old days when I sat down with a customer and sketched out a design for a 16 ton cap freight elevator with a 4 story rise on a couple of table napkins and managed to convince him to hand over half the price of it in cash with the contract being one of the napkins.

The thing that caused my concern is having the coupling between your 2 most important bearings on the whole project. That coupling even if it were a pressed fit is a potential flex joint. if there is any way to place 2 bearings on the same shaft even if they are back to back one being inside and the other outside then the moment would be canceled out instead of being transmitted through the coupling.
you 14 or 14 ft diameter turbine will create a huge gyroscopic force this in turn is translated into the shaft which becomes a moment of inertia perpendicular to the shaft. Even if a shaft has a slight amount of flex as long as it is not an accumulative fatigue stress that builds up in the shaft is would not be a worry. but transmitting the moment through a single bearing into the coupling will eventually cause the coupling to become loose and fail.
If you have a Dial indicator and a way to clamp it to you framework set the indicator point against the shaft next to the red coupling then try to move the end of the shaft up and down take note of the movement.then use your air plane prop install it on the shaft and try to move the tip of one of the prop blades  at rt angles to the shaft and the indicator take the readings again note how much different it is. and know that the prop has no way near as much leverage as the tip of the turbine blades will be.
As far as the drawing I posted that is just a part of a 5 to 30 KW generator that I am designing I have the stater the cooling fan the rotor and a lots of other stuff suppressed out of the picture for clarity to show the principle of the pitch control concept. The design that i have been working on could have either internal or external stater direct driven epicyclic gear driven or as shown belt or chain drive but I am dealing with the prospect that the turbine blades might be upwards of 20 meters in diameter or larger. depending on what wind zone it might be mounted in.
And no I do not have any RE power at this time my last wind machine was a Chrysler 105 amp Alt re wired and modified for 9 ph mounted on a sail fan like a water windmill. as an experiment over 30 years ago

First off I like the tower base solution to a non guyed free standing tower the pyramid looks to have a nice height to ground coverage ratio plus you have the capability to position several heavy blocks of concrete or other weight on the base structure to add additional stability if needed. The tower? well its a tower that looks like an artwork befitting to the rest of the structure, and should be quite suitable for your turbine. If latter you find you need taller or stronger you can always change it out.
your Assembly for your generator is so far first rate as far as I can see with one exception that I see. and this could be due to the incomplete status of your assembly. I will not try to second guess that.
But the one thing I noticed (and again bare in mind I don't know where your thoughts are.) it has to do with the shaft for the  Turbine. From what I can see you have 1 bearing on the shaft and it looks like you will be using the generator hub itself as the 2nd bearing That worries me unless you have plans to place a second support bearing further out to nullify any loading in the generator. or the coupling
Another thing I was thinking was if you were to relocate the turbine shaft above the nacelle then use a cog belt drive you could put a large sprocket on the turbine shaft and a smaller one on the generator shaft . You could then also use a hollow turbine shaft as well and add in an active and even a passive pitch control This would also allow you the possibility of using a much larger diameter turbine blade setup if need be, and you might even see that your generators could produce 3 or even 3.5 KW or more if you additionally added in  forced fan cooling

Hi Bob. well I'll start off with as much as I can



1. what prime mover are you using or planning to use?
(A) in my home basically none in my factory I currently have 2 I recently changed out a 500 KW older Cat unit  for a smaller 350KW Perkins Powered one as the primary my secondary is a 300KW Volvo Penta

2. what hp or kwatt (mechanical) output is the prime mover?
Perkins
3. what generator are you using? AC only? DC only? or both?
AC only this is  the only sourse of power to run my factory
4. how long have you had the unit? 

5. how long does it run or are you planning to run,  per day, week, month or year?
16 hours per day 5 days per week
6. is the unit used for primary power, backup, emergency, or?
the Volvo Penta is used as the back up and auxiliary
7. do you harvest the waste heat and use that heat?  if so for what purpose? domestic hot water
production, space heating or both?
NO, However am investigating total off grid usage for remote areas of another country
8. if you are not harvesting the waste heat, are you planning to do so?  do you have any interest in doing so?
This would be predicated on my relocating to a semi remote area in Europe in the near future
9. do you use any form of automation, such as autostart?
Not at this time again see #8
10. if you do not use automation, would you do so if it were commonly available and reasonable in price?
Yes See #8
11. how would you rank fuel efficiency of a unit, not very important, somewhat important, moderately important, very important, or most important.
They use what they use so only somewhat important , Second part to the answer Should I relocate in the future as planned then fuel will be a very high priority.
now a couple of other questions

12. where do you find the information you rely on to make decisions about your genset designs?
Every since the advent of Google and Bling useful information from the internet is next to impossible
13. do you feel that there is enough information available to you to make good decisions regarding design?
NO
14. if you are frustrated or find it difficult to find information, what sorts of information would you like to find?
I would like to find better information on winding
15. if there was a book available on some facet or facets of power generation for offgrid applications such as what is typical on this forum, what would you find as being a must have or rather what would you like to see in such a book?
not sure
16. please feel free to add other comments that you might have an interest in sharing.
Currently working on a gen head design for a wind turbine in the 25 to 30 KW  range it will be active & passively controlled 3 Ph @ 415 v 50 HZ with a back up engine driven gen of similar size I am thinking it will need a 60 ft diameter turbine set and be mounted on a 120 to 150 ft tower
thanks guys

Bob your explanation was fitting along with what little knowledge I have about turn to Gage to resistance And I had read about the duel voltage  connection What was puzzling me was in the photos the wire size looks more like 20 or 22 Gage or maybe even 24 . its a little hard to scale from the angles of the photos
The explanation of multiple small parallel wingdings makes more seance to me than anything I was thinking otherwise I would have thought the voltages judging by the amount of strands I can see would have seemed more in the 200 to 250 V range
I'm with you I would love to get my hands on one or more. But I haven't seen anything similar to them over here yet.
I visit lots of scrap places, all of which are located with in 2 miles of my factory and have now printed a couple of pictures to show what I am looking for maybe I will have better luck the next time I make my rounds, and I may have to extend my search to several of the motor wind shops that I know of about 30 miles from me. the problem with looking for some particular item is the scrapers want to quadruple the price if they think you need something.

Quote from: SPSInc on August 26, 2012, 08:12:29 PM
Frank S,

I don't think anything was ever published on these PMG ends. They were mainly used on products built by the generators manufacturer and never sold to end users as a piece part. I do have some good knowledge of the generators and have some on hand in various fashions. I'd be willing to share some info about them if you have some particular questions. I wouldn't have the time to develop a full analysis and spec sheet but could answer some general questions.
[/quote
I was just curious as to whether or not there happened to be any white papers or prints available for these or if in what ever generators they were used in if there happened to be any drawings or wiring schematics or drawings on them
I think I can see 74 slots in the stator if so how are the coils wired, how many coils with X number of turns per coil.
My primary reason for asking is this unit looks to be a perfect platform for a scale model of a larger generator I am designing which I am hoping to wind up with a 48 pole 100 to 150 RPM 500v 25 to 30KW poly phase unit  but rather than spend $5000.00 to $15000.00 on prototyping a full sized unit only to find that I totally messed up one of these might be something to work with at scale.
Correct me if i am wrong but were these exciter ends for a brush-less generator

I would like to have some detailed information on these generators so far googling hasn't turned up much in the way of useful stuff

you are not stuck until you admit that you are stuck, movement equals possibility.

One thing that struck me as funny was when he said the generator was was 200 times as powerful. I was wondering it he meant 200% or 200X
very big difference