Micro CoGen.

You've got to love the thermosiphon radiator.


The guy that took the picture didn't know quite what he was looking at, reporting that it had "a diesel water pump for an engine." 
http://whitetrashrepairs.com/white-trash/first-indian-trash-repair/

That was probably using a regular splitter.  With a hacked flywheel, that guy would have managed to lose his head.

Portsmouth, NH

Fastener Warehouse
http://www.fastener-warehouse.com/

Great guys to deal with.

A friend sent me an idea of a legitimate (yet still gratuitous) use for something like that:

That's not so much for a "whole house" system as powering a small New Hampshire town.  Those kids were closer to that flywheel than I'd feel comfortable with, though. 

Quote from: Jens on October 20, 2010, 05:41:43 PM
As far as the rest, you know how the saying goes .... ignorance is bliss !

And that's why finished spaces exist in the first place.

I run a tow strap from my lift hook under the shaft between the case and the flywheel, then up and over the hoist's bar, then back down under the shaft on the other side and then up to the hook again.  The tow strap's path is kind of like a W.  Once the slack is out, I tie a length of regular rope around the whole thing to keep it from rotating.

It works pretty well for me.

You don't need to die for a Darwin Award, just to remove yourself from the gene pool.  This guy would just get an Honorable Mention- because he came close and he'll probably succeed sometime.

Yeah, less traffic is one bright side of a recession.

Quote from: LowGear on August 03, 2010, 04:17:27 PM
"Start thinking with your hearts and minds!  Stop thinking with your dick and balls!  The sooner we stop hogging the energy wagon the sooner we can bring our troops home from the Middle East."  Pretty good, Huh?

Nah, waving the flag only works to sell crap, not to get people to give anything up.  Look at the wars: lots of flag waving, but nobody has to do anything to pay for them except borrow money from China.  Mentioning the troops works even less.  Most people don't even know anyone who's been sent over there, much less have a family member who has gone.  Not knowing any troops, they're relegated to being some abstract idea, not really people.  Soldiers are useful for selling cheap crap from China with a flag stuck somewhere on the box.  They aren't useful for inspiring sacrifice or even a sense of shared purpose, because to most people they aren't actual people.

I'm a big fan of efficiency.  It's a great thing for personal or corporate priorities, but it's getting critical for national and distribution priorities.  The folks trying to keep the (what passes for a) grid up are seeing growth that can't be supplied. 

Carbon taxes and cap & trade have been declared unamerican by the corporate lobby mainstream media American People, and the electric supply is "regulated" by every Tom, Dick and Harry who got the nod from some brother-in-law down at the statehouse once, so energy use can't be restricted by simply making it cost more today (by accounting for tomorrow's cost of suddenly not having any energy or clean air/water).  So how can the grid watchers protect the future of the grid?  By requiring that the crap we buy be more efficient. 

I'm okay with that.  I'm okay with gas mileage requirements.  I'm okay with California's efficiency requirements for TVs.  I'm okay with efficiency requirements for motors.  Come to think of it, I'm okay with cogeneration, too.  Some of those regulators ought to think about encouraging its spread. 

Quote from: vdubnut62 on August 04, 2010, 08:08:42 PM
No info on a break even point or percentage of efficiency increase. (that I could figure out anyway)

What's the break even point of these motors?  Availability.  It's not a lifestyle choice, it's just what a new electric motor will be.  Eventually the older motors will phase out of service, replaced by these newer ones.  But...

It reminds me of a column Pat Bedard wrote in Car & Driver back when I was in high school.  He was looking at the latest tightening of car emissions requirements and looked at the costs involved.  He looked at the reality of the US automobile fleet and concluded that we could clean more air faster at a lower cost by using mobile emissions checkpoints.  Anyone whose car failed current (before the latest restriction he was writing about) emissions requirements would have that car impounded and crushed, and would be given on the spot a new $40,000 Cadillac Somethingorother.  I've been through a lot since the 1980s and C&D's website doesn't seem to archive columns from that long ago, so I don't have that many juicy details- even the Cadillac model he proposed.  What I did retain was his central argument- that incremental increases in efficiency weren't as effective in reducing pollution as removal of the clunkers.  Making todays new cars a smidgen of a percent cleaner than last year's at a cost of X dollars each removed less pollution from the mix than simply removing a beater at a cost of $40k. 

The main difference between Bedard's proposal and government policy, I suppose, was that the incremental tightening had its cost borne by the industry and new car buyers, while the Cadillac giveaway would have been borne by taxpayers.  Obviously a Caddy wouldn't have been required by such a program (your 10 year old smoggy compact can be replaced by a current model year compact), but Bedard's point was clear:  For every dollar spent, a greater impact can be made my removing inefficient machines than by simply increasing the required efficiency of machines produced in the future.

I haven't followed the history of electric motor efficiency regulation, but the article mentions this reg as a step past a 1992 reg.  Increasing design requirements every 18 years doesn't seem too hard for industry or customers to bear.  Since they don't seem to be tightening requirements every year, a swapout program here probably won't be as effective as one for cars would have been. 

Quote from: bschwartz on July 21, 2010, 09:55:20 AM
lefthanded or righthanded screwdrivers?

My screwdrivers are all left handed, but I do have two full sets- metric and English.

I spent Saturday cleaning out the wife's half of the garage.  Now she can park inside again.  I hope to be parking inside by the time the snows hit.  I'm currently trying to figure out if an addition will be easier than a cleanout.

Quote from: billswan on June 13, 2010, 06:35:02 AM
Of course the government man won't tell you how, that is for you to figure out and then tell him.

Billswan

What we need to do is get some of those Minerals Management Service regulators assigned to the EPA.  The parties will be pretty wild and those folks will be so helpful with importing engines that they'll give us a hand with the casting sand.

Actually, they bought Acura NSXes and then filed a class action lawsuit when the tires only lasted 5000 miles.  Some combination of high performance tires and alignment settings designed to maximize cornering grip didn't sit well with folks who expected the performance of a Ferrari and the mild manners of an Accord.

And yes, they looked quite silly indeed.

I've found its best use is to verify my connection.  If I can't reach the other site, then I know everything's okay on my end.

I'm not even in the right league to be humbled.  Beautiful work, RCA.