Also, in response to the particular Northern Hydraulics (I keep forgetting they're Northern Tool and Equipment now, you'd think i'd remember it eventually) generator head posted earlier in the thread -- that particular one is only rated at 80 amps @ 120V which i'm assuming most of your house is. That's not a whole lot to run a house on. It would be fine for an emergency like a winter snowstorm if you managed the place some. But if you look at your breaker box, you've got way more than an 80 amp capacity in your house IF you ran everything to capacity. Of course everything doesn't run at the maximum its breaker will allow, far from it. But if you add up the wattages/amperages of your coffeepot, two or three stove burners, the fridge/freezer and deep freeze, possibly a microwave or a toaster, and a few of your electronics (TV, computer, etc) -- and the lights in the house -- you're very quickly approaching something almost like a wattage limit on that particular one. You *might* be able to get away with it IF you aren't running heat pumps and a hot water heater. In fact, since the hot water heater is usually the biggest load in the house, by eliminating it you might well be under the capacity of the machinery. But... it's something to think about. I'm not saying that one isn't perfectly adequate. But i'm saying your whole entire house, if it's all turned on at once, probably WILL exceed the capacity so you need to make a pretty decent analysis of your anticipated use of the thing, anticipate a few emergencies you weren't expecting here and there, and be sure your generator head really is sturdy enough to carry it all constantly.

Things I would be most concerned about:


The engine is designed to run at a variable RPM

Fuel costs, and if your running WVO you service life is going to drop considerably

The governor

Do you already use heating oil? If so, how much an hour?

Gearing it down would be wise. I would use a manual trans to avoid TC loss.

You can also change the gearing every other day to get the engine into a different rpm range for a while

AS for the coolant, Id imagine the engines thermostat would regulate the engine temp just fine. When you start it, minimal coolant will leave the motor until its hot. I would consider a water jacket on the exhaust.

The governor is simple. Get one of those audiovox cruise control things and rig the magnet pickup onto something spinning. You fire up your toaster, 1500 watts puts drag on the gen head, the cruise control dumps more fuel just like your climbing a hill.


Put the whole thing in a sound insulated box next to your house with a good muffler and you should be fine, maybe as far away from your house as possible

Why do you want to do this? :confused: And where do you live? This sounds like something you'd see in a 3rd world country. Just go out and buy a small diesel generator if you need that capability.

Yeah, but what's the fun in that? ;)

It is not that easy to run WVO with new injection type of generator. You need a start it with diesel and switch to WVO and vice versa to turn it off. 240D engine is bullet proof and can take all kind of abuses. In any event, I contemplate it also as the engine is there for the taking. A diesel generator would cause $500+.

As I have said, the simpliest way to do it is to hook up an inverter as the end does not justify the means using a generator head.

I think you are thinking the 616 is a little more tough than it is....if you run it 24/7 on veg oil, I'd give it maaaybe 4 months before it starts having major issues. Think of how many hours of run time that is per month. 616's are not industrial grade generator engines. You'd be running it over 740 hours a month at a heavy load (probably close to 2 years worth of run time if in a car), and it would need an oil change almost monthly with a good oil. That would get expensive pretty quick. Plus, where on earth are you obtaining and transporting 1000+ gallons of veg oil a month to run this setup? :eek:

Generators
 

Running at 1800 rpm would be vastly perferable to 3600. Regardless of efficiencies the engine would last much longer and be a whole lot quieter. The average house could run quite nicely on 10KW or for that matter 5KW if you have natural gas heat and hot water. A 240D engine would be more than sufficient to run a house however the engine would have to be governed tightly to maintain frequency control. A large inverter system would cost quite a bit since you would need big batteries as well. The batteries need to be charged by a big alternator which would also cost quite a bit. The stock alternator is capable of putting out maybe 80 amps at 12V (80 x 12= 960W)

A 200-250A 12 or 24V alternator charging a bank of batteries with a 5-10,000 watt power inverter would probably work as well.....but it would still be expensive and inefficient, and probably a lot less reliable than grid power. And then there's still that issue of governing the engine around 1800rpm and the massive fuel use.

That would be quite a task to obtain and filter enough oil to keep it going all the time.

While it seems like a cool project, I think if you consider just the monthly fuel cost you will find it is much more economical to just buy power from the power company.

If the engine burns 1.5 gallons per hour you will need just over 1000 gallons of fuel per month. Unless you have a free source of that much fuel, we are talking a minimum of $2500 in fuel costs monthly. That's more than twice what I pay the power company for a year!

My monthly electric bill averages only about $38. :D Even if the fuel was free it wouldn't justify such a system!

Members here are getting excited on generating electric power and seems to think money is no object. A 5-10K watt inverter at 12V or 24V input?, if it does exist then it will be so expensive that you can forget the whole idea. it is drawing 200-400Amp.:rolleyes:

There is no cost benefits unless you can keep the project costs under $500. If you run the car at idle and just go out and buy a 1.5kw inverter for $150 then you have a prayer to recoup your money and have some fun. The other issue is that if you manage to produce 1KW from the car then you may be able to keep your electricity bill at the lowest tier of tariff.

I am an engineer and I contemplated it myself but I came to the conclusion that it is very difficult to be off the grid and be self sufficient on generator for a household. You have to run on WVO to be viable as you may as well pay the electricity company if you use diesel. If you have $30K to spare then you can put in a solar tie-grid system but that only buy you 2-2.5KW system.

Popular Science
 

I remember a really long time ago reading a Popular Science magazine
article about this very thing. They did it with a gasser V8. They called
it Co-Generation. They had the house set up with slab heating and ran
the engine coolant through the pipes. They used a heat exchanger to capture exhaust heat, and IIRC used a heatpump somehow in the mix.
It ran on natural gas and for the day (70's??) it seemed very high tech
and pretty efficient for it's day.

Back in to 60`s when I was in High School, (got out in 62) I was in the FFA. I subscribed to a magizine called Farm journal.

they ran a article on a Hog Farm operation where they washed down the hog pens into a huge septic tank. They used the Methane Gass to run the generators to operate the farm.

So you guys on a septic tank, you are golden. Think I`ll have another plate of Beans :D.

Charlie

On grid or off? Neighbors, yes or no? Federal incentives are 30% of solar projects, state incentives vary by state. In new york, you would pay about 1/4-1/3 up front cost of an on-grid solar project in the over 4kW. Approximate up front cost 5-6$/watt, before incentives. Solar panels also carry a 30 year warranty, I'm told, longer than a furnace or a 616 on a steady diet of anything.

My Bro-n-law has a backup generator powered by a 90HP VW tdi. I've never seen it, only heard about it. It's mounted on a movable construction site generator complete with wheels and license plates. He can take it to his Cabin in the San Juan Islands, park it in his basement, however, my sister forbids him to run it in there anymore. (Their house was originally built with a 1 car garage in the basement, so it's easy to get it in and out.) As I am editing it has also hit me that his original set up, with the generator running in the basement would heat the house, because the radiator exhausts right into the basement. The main problems were, the diesel exhaust odor could never be completely eliminated, nor enough of the noise for sleeping.

I have no idea how many KW it produces, but he can power his house, workshop and the neighbors house with it, when the power goes out. Not set up to scavenge heat though. Usually he runs it in the driveway. It's moderately noisy, but a lot quieter than it was with the original diesel engine.

I mention it because it does sound like a good idea, but the TDI is a much quieter engine in the first place. VW actually makes a version for such applications, but my Bro in law uses one from a 1997 Jetta, because it was available cheap. The TDI works well because it produces so much torque down low in the rpm band, they're also relatively reliable for a relatively hi-tech engine design.

I love the idea of scavenging the heat for heating the house. For an off the grid cabin, it would work great. One of my peeves is that generating your own electricity is relatively expensive. It would heat the cabin a lot faster than the wood stove, and you're using heat you've already paid for.

The more I think if it, the better I like the idea. It would work great with a 240D engine as well, it's just that a smaller displacement engine with more efficient combustion would be more economical to operate. An old 200D might work too, but hard to find in North America. I'm not sure how many Btu's could be scavenged from a 240D, but I know mine sure keeps the car warm!

Using a trailer mounted work-site generator, but with a blown engine, like my Bro in Law did might make sense for others too.

I've contemplated living off the grid, because there are a couple of areas of the country where you can get really nice lots, cheaply, because they have no electric or phone service.