Hiding a powerplant in a residential neighborhood?

[BioHazard]

I am seriously starting to consider listeroid engines for cogeneration both at my large industrial shop and at my house. I can get away with whatever I want down at the shop, but I live in a neighborhood with a strict HOA policy, certain noise restrictions, and quite frankly a lot of complainers for neighbors. My lot in suburbia is about 70x100, which doesn't give a whole lot of space between me and the neighbors.

The question is, could I feasibly install a listeroid engine in a confined neighborhood like this, without getting a ton of complaints about noise and exhaust? I would probably install it in a dedicated shed to keep the noise down. Actually I have a 10x10x10 pit dug in my yard that would make a great engine basement. One of my main concerns is the exhaust smell, especially if I am burning WMO. If I do this is my house/neighborhood going to start smelling like a truck stop?

[wiebe]

The smel is i think the most difficult thing to hide .

[BioHazard]

The smel is i think the most difficult thing to hide .

What if I installed an exhaust sytem that lets the exhuast out at about 30' off the ground, at the top of my roof. (like my water heater vent) Would that effectively bring the "smell level" above ground level, where nobody should notice?

I also wonder if maybe I installed a cat, and some kind of exhaust blower to dilute the exhaust gasses with air before they escape?

[BioHazard]

Another thought, are there any catalytic converters or exhaust filters that could be fitted in a subruban environment to reduce the smell and the smoke as much as possible?

Down at my shop I have a wood stove exhaust where I could send the exhaust gasses and probably billow as much black smoke as I want.

[KeithO]

Not only smell , depending on soil type and your mounting methods you could be rattling the cups on your neighbors shelves.  These one lung diesels shake things about a bit.

Keith

[BioHazard]

Not only smell , depending on soil type and your mounting methods you could be rattling the cups on your neighbors shelves.  These one lung diesels shake things about a bit.

Keith

Yeah, I definately want to attenuate the sound as much as possible, as specially the low frequency  noises. I think I could come up with a significatnly heavy concrete pad to mount it on as well as concrete walls around it to dampen the sound. I would also only be running it during the day time peak power hours, which is the least likely to bother the neighbors.

[KeithO]

I didn't mean sound , I'm talking about mechanical vibration.
My Ruston 6Hp is sitting on about 1.5 tons of concrete on clay/silt type soil and runs at about 1150 rpm .
At 20 ft ft from the house it can gently shake our kitchen utensils or bottles in the fridge under load.
Solid mounted with the crank pointed at the house

Cheers
Keith

[JohnF]

One of my customers lives in a large subdivision and has a 6/1 installed in his garage.  He has the area where the engine is well sound insulated and has put on a good muffler system.  His exhaust vents about 20 feet up in the air. When running all you can hear is a slight "puffing" sound, if you didn't know where it was coming from you'd never find it.  I don't think his neighbours even know he has an engine and he runs it quite a lot.  Smell from Veggie is not unpleasant (not like diesel!) and dissipates very quickly.  

In a nutshell, it can be done.

[billswan]

Bio

Start at your shop and get the thing working the way you want before you even think about putting it into a residential  setting.

Diesel exhaust coming from a roid on WMO at say 85% oil is NOXIOUS stuff and can be noticed at quite a distance. If the winds are just right. Won't take long for your neighbors to get some government man to shut you down for some thing.

That is if you can control the vibration and the exhaust thump.

The exhaust on my 10/1 at the end was dirty enough to plug up a common car muffler to the point it popped from pressure and the pulses so high priced mufflers and or an expansion chamber are more costs.

Billswan

[BioHazard]

Bio

Start at your shop and get the thing working the way you want before you even think about putting it into a residential  setting.

That is most likely what I will do. Electricity costs are really getting out of hand there and my only heat source is electric resistance too. 

How many people here are running listers semi-close to neighbors?

[cognos]

It is my experience that if you live in the sort of neighborhood you describe, you may be able to spend a lot of time and money and get your super-quiet, smell-supressed plant up and running - for a while.

Once *any* neighbor finds out - sees you dealing with large quantities of stored oil, smells something odd, haers a noise, sees you working on it with the door open - etc - you're done, if someone wants you done.

And then your hard work and the money will be gone... so take a good hard look at what you are trying to hide... and determine if you are willing to shut it down for good if someone complains...

[Tom Reed]

Assuming you have natural gas I'd plan to run on that. From my experience with LP fumigation (don't have nat gas here) the exhaust smells fairly nice and the ignition even seems quite a bit gentler. What is your objective with the home system? The thumps are hard to hide. Mine is on a good chunk of concrete in sandstone/rocky soil and it does rattle the dishes in the kitchen sometimes.

[bschwartz]

Pretend you are cooking drugs.......
Pump the exhaust down the sewer 

[vdubnut62]

When I first built my genset, a direct drive  Xing Dong S1100 with one of Georgia Generator's 12kw heads on a 4"X8" oak frame, sitting on the attached garage floor, it would make the whole house "rumble" and vibrate.  The wife wasn't too keen with that, so I bought 4 CHEAP pneumatic tires and wheels from the local Tractor Supply and that solved the rumbling and shaking. I can't really move it around on them, they try to fold up, but it does isolate and stop the vibration and thumping.
Just a thought, I have no idea how it would affect a low rpm setup.
Ron

[mike90045]

I also wonder if maybe I installed a cat, and some kind of exhaust blower to dilute the exhaust gasses with air before they escape?

Nothing helps when our neighbors cat sprays. Dilution is not enough.