Kubota D1005 3-cylinder diesel, direct drive 1800 RPM generator project

[Geno]

That's great Henry, you built a very good generator there. I'm glad to hear it's working as planned. I don't know when I'll get to my Kubota project. I already have 2 ways to power up the house when needed. Keep an eye on those kids they always find a way to get into trouble. I was one once, a long time ago.
There's a big storm in the PNW. I hope our friends out there are as comfortable as you.

Thanks, Geno

[Henry W]

Thanks Geno,

The Kids are still going and going...............   The kids made Hot Coco and I guess they are running on all that sugar. The parents are now here they came to get them but it turns out they just settled in here. One of the parents wondered what the thing was on the trailer that I was always tinkering on. I hope our forum members are ok in the PNW. Hopefully we will hear what is going on.

Glad you are ok. When you are ready to build let me know. Hopefully I will be able to get up there in the near future.

Henry

[Henry W]

Oh,
I forgot to mention that one of the perents said the power company is up the street working on something. My guess is a transformer gave up.

[Henry W]

Well the Power Company truck came down and turned around a couple minutes ago. I noticed the power is back on in the neiborhood. Went out and shut off the generator and rolled it in the garage. It's sad to have all the fun end. There will be another time.

Henry

[Henry W]

I had some free time today and I been thinking about building a generator shed. I will have some lumber left over from the house project that has been going on for almost 3 months.
The trailer is nice but it would be much easier to have the unit already mounted on a concrete slab and ready it go. This would also make it easier to complete the fuel system and engine control managment.
The generator is already pretty quiet. The noisest part is the muffler and this can be taken care of easily.

The thing I am concerned about is condensation on a concrete floor when the weather gets warm quickly from a cold night. How can this be prevented without heating the shed?

Henry

[Henry W]

I forgot to mention on Friday at 4:30 pm the cable company hit the under ground power lines and power was knocked out for over five hours. I guess I am getting used to rolling the genset out and firing it up. We had the only lights on the street again. It was easy managing the load. I disabled the water heater and AUX heat. I set the heat pump (HVAC) to run cont and and adjusted temp in the house by opening two windows upstairs and one down stairs. This kept the house to a nice 72 deg. Heat Pumps (HVAC units) run cont here on cold winter nights anyways. With all the other loads running I managed to run an average load of 3800 to 5300 watts. My wife was talking all evening to her friends about the generator. A few months ago my wife questioned me why I spend lots of my time building a generator that will most likely not be used. It is good feeling knowing that I won her support, and most of all she see's the importance having one.

Henry

[rcavictim]

I forgot to mention on Friday at 4:30 pm the cable company hit the under ground power lines and power was knocked out for over five hours. I guess I am getting used to rolling the genset out and firing it up. We had the only lights on the street again. It was easy managing the load. I disabled the water heater and AUX heat. I set the heat pump to run cont and and adjusted temp in the house by opening two windows upstairs and one down stairs. This kept the house to a nice 72 deg. Heat Pumps run cont here on cold winter nights anyways. With all the other loads running I managed to run an average load of 3800 to 5300 watts. My wife was talking all evening to her friends about the generator. A few months ago my wife questioned me why I spend lots of my time building a generator that will most likely not be used. It is good feeling knowing that I won her support, and most of all she see's the importance having one.

Henry

The heat that you pump.  I know that 2.76K is from the residual black body left over from the Big Bang and the rest comes from our closest star, but what reservoir do you pull this heat from locally?  Air or underground?  Do you know what your C.O.P. is?  When I use that term I'm not talking about "To swerve and deflect". 

[Henry W]

The heat that you pump.  I know that 2.76K is from the residual black body left over from the Big Bang and the rest comes from our closest star, but what reservoir do you pull this heat from locally?  Air or underground?  Do you know what your C.O.P. is?  When I use that term I'm not talking about "To swerve and deflect".  

rcavictim,
I am lost or don't get it. I'm a little slow at times.
What is C.O.P.?
Air or underground? The HVAC outside coil is air.

Oh,
By the way, I was installing shunt regulation on the ST-70 power supply when the power went out.
I will PM you when I complete it later this week.

Henry

[Carlb]

The heat that you pump.  I know that 2.76K is from the residual black body left over from the Big Bang and the rest comes from our closest star, but what reservoir do you pull this heat from locally?  Air or underground?  Do you know what your C.O.P. is?  When I use that term I'm not talking about "To swerve and deflect".  

rcavictim,
I am lost or don't get it. I'm a little slow at times.
What is C.O.P.?
Air or underground? The HVAC outside coil is air.

Oh,
By the way, I was installing shunt regulation on the ST-70 power supply when the power went out.
I will PM you when I complete it later this week.

Henry

COP is the Coefficient of performance. Basically it is a measurement of how much heat is being produced by the heat pump at a given temperature as compared to  electric resistance heating.

The COP will drop as the outdoor temperature drops, when the COP gets to 1:1 you are using the same amount of electricity to make 1BTU with the heat pump as you would using resistive heating.

My heat pump has a COP of 3:1 @ 32 degrees F. What that means is that at 32 degrees it will produce 3 times the BTU's per kilowatt of electricity used as a standard heat strip/resistive heater.  As the temps drop the cop will also drop and at some point near 5 degrees or so the cop will be 1:1 and no longer produce more heat per Kw than a resistive heater.

Depending if you have a dual fuel setup or strip heaters for backup it is cheaper to switch to a natural gas or oil backup when the balance point gets below where it is cost effective to run the heat pump.


There are two types of heat pumps air to air and geothermal.   Based on you reply you have an air to air heat pump which is the most common but not most efficient.


Carl

[Henry W]

Carl, Thanks for explaning COP.

I have no idea what my COP is. All I know the heat pump still works. And my electric bill is staying pretty much the same every winter.

My friend has geothermal and his unit is more efficent but he also had leaks and they had to dig up his yard to repair it. That is the only negative thing I can think of his system.

Henry

[vdubnut62]

I checked into a geothermal system a couple years ago.....the 2 year warranty on the heat exchanger was a deal breaker for me.
Well, expense too, I own my own backhoe and was going to do the dirt work myself & the cost was still 2-3x conventional system.
Ron

[Carlb]

all you need to find out what the cop is for your heat pump at a given temp is the model number,  you can then do a google search for the specs for your heat pump.  there may also be a cop chart in the original installation manual or the owners manual.

If you have a time defrost and not a demand defrost it will make a big difference in energy usage.  A timed defrost will defrost at a set time interval the demand defrost will only defrost when necessary.  Demand defrost can reduce the defrost cycles by 200 to300 per year.

[Henry W]

Caral,
Thanks for sharing info about COP. I will need to check it out. I do know that my unit has demand defrost.

Henry

[Henry W]

Last night I found a Kubota D1005 parts engine close to where I live. I will be looking at it later today. The owner said the engine came off of a Kubota B7500 tractor that was abused by lugging the engine to the point of stalling it. It has a hole in the block from a rod end going through. To me it sounds like the engine distroyed a piston. These engines are not known for that type of failure if they are used and maintained properly. It might have some good parts on it. Price is up in the air. He is not sure what he wants to sell it for.

Henry

[Henry W]

The engine cannot be purchased from the Kubota dealer. It has to be sent to Kubota Manufacturing to be destroyed.

Henry