Micro CoGen.

Correct, the Apolic material is the structural exterior material for the box on an aluminum frame and the sound absorbtion material is added to the interior is a Vinyl Foam Barrier Composite by SoundTec and or a sound Dampening paint product by Silent Running.

Rob

The Material I used was 4mm White Alpolic ACM 62"x76" but it comes in many sizes and colors. The web site is www.bestworth.com and they have a large stock of seconds and left overs from orders if you are looking for a good deal. The Company is called Bestworthrommel and they are in Arlington WA. 360-435-2927

For the benefit of the forum I wanted to provide some more detailed information about the Grizzly Generator project and what has gone into it's development and testing. About 10 years ago I built up a DC Generator with a Kubota D600 engine turning two Leece-Neville small frame 150 Amp 12 volt alternators. This generator provided recharging to my 800 amp hour battery bank. This system did quite well at delivering the charge rate I needed to keep my battery bank charged up with between three and four hours of run time per day. The weak link in this design was the small frame alternators and the short life I would get from them when running them full field for the length of time necessary to recharge my battery bank. On an average I was getting only about 200 hours out of an alternator before the bearings would fail.

As I went to work on my second generation DC Generator my primary goals were as follows:
Long Alternator Life
Improve sound reduction
Cooler enclosure temperatures
Serpentine Belt System

My research led me to the Large Frame alternators used on large diesel engines for the trucking industry and large buses.
Sound reduction came from several small improvements. The first was to reduce the speed of the engine by installing a larger drive pulley on the engine. The second improvement was the design and fabrication of a new sound enclosure built of a APOLOC sheeting made of plastic sheeting with aluminum on both sides. The third improvement in sound reduction came from the use of softer mounts between the generators platform and the base of the enclosure reducing the vibration that was transmitted to the hull of the vessel.
Cooler temperatures within the sound enclosure was accomplished by bringing outside air into the enclosure with a 600 cfm blower fan and the water cooled exhaust manifold on the Kubota Z482.
The Serpentine drive belt system is tensioned by spring loaded belt tensioner common to the Cummins line of engines. This provides easy removal and replacement of the belt and eliminates the need for adjustment to tension the belt.

The voltage regulator that I'm currently using is the V3 Regulator by Ample Power. This provides variable field control and it provides a switch to control the combining of battery banks during a charge cycle so my house and engine start battery banks are kept charged any time my inverter bank is being charged.

The Kubota Z482 engine by Beta Marine is equipped with a centrifugal governor so that the RPM can be kept constant and the throttle is adjusted for the load on the engine.


Please let me know if you have any questions or suggestions for the generators.

Thanks
Captain Rob

d34
Their is one Leece-Neville 48 Volt alternator that I came across it is item # A0014417JB and sales # 4477JB it is 90 Amp output and is the J-180 mount.

Thanks Casey I appreciate the input and I will make those corrections on the handout before we go to print.

Rob

D34
The alternators I have designed around are the Leece Neville "4 Point" Pad Mount alternators so you might look at the Leece Neville web site and see if they have a pad mount alternator in that voltage. The 24 volt 200 amp alternator could also be modified to provide 48 volt output but you would need a regulator that would support that as well.
Mobile_bob has several posts on the forum that address the modification of alternators for 48 volt systems.
Rob

Thanks Bob!
I have been reading the Forum for the last few days and their are some great projects being discussed. My experiance is with systems on yachts but I feel we have a lot in common with the off grid co-generation that most of you have been working on. One of our customers documented a great story about his issues on the high seas with a generator that would not perform. You can review the story a the following web site.
http://www.sailwhisper.com/index.php

Many of the challenges in this story have led me to my design of a very simple rugged generator design.

Rob

I was just introduced to Micro-Cogeneration last weekend and I'm very impressed with the information on the Forum. I have been working on the development of DC generators for the marine market for some time and would like to put my equipment information out to the Forum to discuss and review with all of you.

Attached is my broshure for the Grizzly Generators.