Hello - new to the forum...

[EdK]

The name is Ed (yes, like the horse if you will - 'been hearing that since grade school  ).

I found this board while using Google in an attempt to turn up some information on the Yanmar 2TNV70-PGA diesel engine at Surplus Center. I then proceeded to read a lot of the material here over the past week and have to conclude you folks do some very nice work on a variety of interesting themes so I registered.

I live in the densely populated northeast region of the US but surprisingly managed to find myself a rural pocket only minutes from a city of 100K on which I was able to afford some land and built on it about five years ago. I heat exclusively with wood and that is my primary renewable energy resource not being particularly well situated for solar, wind, hydro, etc. I do enjoy the felling and the hours spent outdoors in this world where children largely no longer go outdoors. We'll see how I feel about that in another ten or more years! My interest in the general theme of this forum is primarily for back up power. It seems as if power outages are becoming more frequent with the wind and ice storms we've been getting. Furthermore living in a rural setting and to make matters worse down a long driveway with many poles, I am afraid I am relatively low on the power companies' priority list so outages for the better part of a week are becoming annual events.

So on to the subject of a proper diesel genset. As I mentioned I was looking into the Yanmar. What I didn't mention was my Listeroid history - which is quite a story. As I was building the house and surfing the web I stumbled upon an "Utter" site. Yes, I drank the kool-aid. Then comes the unfortunate series of events. Soon after I received a certificate of occupancy for the new home, I received the boot from my employer of 20+ years. Living in a 85-90% finished home and dealing with financial matters killed 12-18 months. Then I became very ill and unable to work whatsoever. I was not properly diagnosed for seven months and when I was I learned I had a rare disease. Fast forward through more detail than you need to hear and I can report I completed a 2-year course of chemotherapy in December of 2009 and the disease is in remission. Oh, did I mention the Listeroid is still in the garage?

Let me say straight out that I can now see I was naive in approaching the Listeroids. However I was always with the understanding I would have to weld frames, tinker with governors, remove or replace poor quality panel meters on ST generators and still be saddled with a very less than automatic, low powered genset that could maim or kill if someone with a necktie decided to tangle with it. What I did not appreciate is that I would really have to detail strip and measure, possibly re-machine and reassemble every last part in order to assure myself of a decent degree of reliability. Now I do.

While I'm fascinated by this stuff I'd like a generator that works - not a hobby diesel. I'm not crying over the Listeroid. If I spent the time and expense blueprinting it like some of the talented forum members here have done and it poked a rod through the crankcase at 126 hours I might though. So that is where I'm at -  a decision point. Do I proceed along this course or switch strategies to a modern diesel or perhaps purchase one of the few straggler Changfoids out there as middle ground? I'm not sure that's really a question I posing though because I think the real answer is that is only something we can answer for ourselves. With the excellent collective experience posted on this forum I can probably make up my own mind.

[BruceM]

Welcome aboard, Ed.  Especially for a backup generator, you've got a tough choice.

Diesel or Propane make sense, for fuel stability/storage issues.

The Listeroids are an interesting engine, and if you don't mind the time spent going though the Rajkot quality issues (which don't include thrown rods), they could be a very nice solution.

One issue for backup power is the "Lister Flicker" or variation in AC from low speed engine rpm variation.  Especially if you wanted to  run lighting directly from the generator, instead of  from a battery bank and inverter.  A decent quality high speed propane or diesel generator will have more stable AC for lighting, but the noise may be another issue.  Electronic regulators (AVRs) will improve the Lister Flicker, but it's still there, and can be very bothersome for some.  With an AVR on my ST3, I can handle 250 watt  bulbs (white heat lamps in my shop for both light and heat) for a few hours with no problem, but 100 watt bulbs make me a bit "wiggy" after an hour, and lower wattage bulbs are bothersome.  Newer lighting technologies which regulate the output regardless of  input voltage and frequency variation will of course eliminate this problem, but many still don't do that, to save cost.

[highwater]

Howdy ED.
Pretty new here myself, via a similar path.
Lots to read here, and yes, some knowledgeable folks.
I'm sure they will be along.

Randall

Yep, there's one already.

[rl71459]

Welcome

Mr ED...

But seriously its great to have new members. I'll bet you are gonna like it here!

Rob

[WGB]

Hi Ed

[Jedon]

I too was lured by the seductive Listeroid, but if you want easy reliable power I'd look elsewhere. It just takes so much time and effort to get them running well, after which point I'm sure they are great but getting them all set up is way more work than I expected.

[JohnF]

Ed;

A lot depends on the make of the Listeroid you got.  Some are good, some are better, some are horrible.  However, they pretty much all have good basics.  Have a look at my website (www.woodnstuff.ca), go through the info there and get back to me, I'll try to help you along.  Once a Listeroid is properly prepped, it can go a good long time - I have one here that is now down for re-build after 26,000 hours.

[elnav]

Hello  like Ed I'm brand new here.   One of the forum members moving_Bob posted a comment on my forum so I came over to have a look here. Intersting stuff!  Apart from being an invertrate  shady tree mechanic going back most of half a century I have a back ground in electronics  electrical and for the past decade have been  designing and installing  power systems for RV and boats. In effect that is off-grid. 
My  wife comes from an off-grid background with the  century old family homestead still being off-grid
We now live in the interior  of BC  so there isn't much marine design work being done  locally but to my surprise there is still a demand for off-grid power even in the 21 century.
I have experimented a bit with  various approaches including  a B&S gasoline lawnmower 
DC genset that I cobbled together back in '65  and most recently  a 230 V  60Hz  4kw genset  powering a pair of chargers to store power in a string of 2V cells  in a 1000 amp hour 24V battery.
That  particular  diesel was custom built  and cost $9000  delivered  FOB Turkey for a steel boat being built there. ( yeah there is a long and interesting story  there - but later  )
For off grid up here at Lat 54  I don't think I would go with  diesel or even propane.  Too dang cold in winter. Last winter  with -30C temps I attemped to thaw out some frozen pipes with a tiger torch. It was  so cold the propane in a half full tank would not vaporize  enough to deliver full pressure to put a good flame. Needless to say a diesel or propane engine would not start under those conditions. but that is when emergency power  is most likely to be needed.

   

[mobile_bob]

Elnav:

welcome to our little corner of the world, oh ya,, you have a very interestng forum of your own, i had no idea
that it was yours.

its alway nice to have a hard core long term off grid member here, that has practical experiences to share.

bob g