Power Out

[Rom]

So, being that we are getting to the summer here in the Bahamas, with a government run power company, and with 50% of the national budget going to the civil servants, the power outages have begun!!

So I went down to start the primary backup genset, a Broadcrown 19KW, and the battery is flat! Oh the joys of computers and all those status lights always on on the panel.

No jumpers, not that prepared. Went down to the Lister shed and ripped off the rest of my experimental powersteering pump driving a OC-20. Checked the levels, squirted some oil, swung her over and away she went! been sitting for 6months, no draining fuel or treatment, just shut her down.

Been running for about an hour, and knock on wood she is still holding together. I have a few UPS units in the house so if something goes wrong, They will carry on enough to get me down to the engine.

Running a 1hp well pump on n off, 4 fridges n freezers, a 2 ton A/c, and 2 tvs. Not to mention of course the laptop.

Rom

[Apogee]

Nice Rom!

I've been worrying about you guys with the fiasco happening in the gulf. 

I hope the oil stays far away from you...

I fear that if it heads your way, it'll just be left due to the ineptitude of the Bahamian govt.

Steve

[Rom]

Thanks for the well wishes.

I hope they get that mess under control soon.

You are indeed correct on us being on our own. Our government, like the many others created in a simliar way, are not interested in anything unless its their idea.

Praying is about all we have, the government doesnt care, you have to remember, that this is the set of gevernment that thought putting duties on cameras and film was good, when the original British government thought, hell, cheap cameras means people will carry those photos home and show their friends all the beauty of the Bahama Isles. Free advertising is good, right?

A guy at a bar round here a few years ago told me, "You're white, and in the Bahamas, you are just along for the ride". Shameful, but in alotta cases,  true.

Rom

[Rom]

On a happier note.

Yesterday I fired up the Lister on a 60/40 blend of WMO/diesel that I ran through the simple centrifuge. It ran like clockwork for ago 3 hours.
Today, I thought to leave it alone, but of course the power went out from about 9 til 2, and I ran the Lister on that same mix, no serperate tank, for about 3 hours again. Started first try, just smoked a bit while she was getting up to temperature.

Quite happy to see it do what I intended.

Rom

[WGB]

Glad its working for you Rom!
I have to get a centrifuge!

[Rom]

Oh its great man,

Gravity fed, and as long as I dont mix more than 5 gallons at a time, I dont have to think about it. I have everything in a temp setup atm, so clean drains into a 5 gal diesel jerry can. When I burn off enough of this 500+ gallon supply of oil, say 55gallons worth to free up a drum, I will set it up to drain into a 55gallon drum instead.

The inital cost is a good chunk of change, but if you build your unit, like Jens, you can save alot. But for me, by the time I bought all the metal over here, and factored in my time to fabricate it, I felt it was cheaper for me to just buy the turnkey from Simple Centrifuge. I wanted the 2 part bowl, so 2-300$ more for that than say... the raw power unit was also worth it to me.

Rom

[Rom]

Jens,

   I am no specialist in any of these things, but I like to think that I can look at something and understand its workings. The feeding cone just seems to make sense. As you look at oil flowing into a standard single piece bowl, it hits the bottom and gets spun to the outter wall of the bowl. But I see when that hits the oil already in the bowl, it might not all make it to the back under a high gph flow. It will instead have some untreated oil flow out with the clean, and contaminating the cleaned oil. I see slow speed flow being quite enough to over come this. With a feed cone that is avoided, without question in my book.
   I run my centrifuge very slowly atm, somewhere in the range of 8gph. There isnt a seperation like i've seen with veg oil cleaning, but its alot of stuff that I would not have run through my engine now I can see it. The cone has three pipes that lead to the back of the bowl, and its amazing the grit that collects on the bowl at the exit points of those tubes.
   I will be opening up the centrifuge later today to see what the last 15 gallons left behind, I shall fire off some photos of the mud I have then.

Rom