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Lister Based Generators / Run Resistive heaters from Truck alternator(s)?
« on: December 24, 2006, 12:51:42 PM »
Hi
I posted this under a thread about cogen, which was a little dumb, so I thought maybe if I put it in a better place, some electron cowboys might comment. I am trying to find time to sit down and figure this out while trying to remember what I learned in Tech school 10 yrs ago.
I had a wacky idea, see what you think. If and when I get my old Petter AV2 running, I need a load for it. Our electricity is very reliable here and not prohibitively priced. So, a ST head is probably out. In the event of an outage I can run my oil fired boiler for heat with a small inverter and a car battery. My 220V well pump is the only other thing I couldn't do without for a few days....
But, anyway, I think I could lay my hands on some old truck alternators and am thinking that using them to power a resistive load, say some electric baseboard heaters, or better yet an old electric DHW heater preheating return water to my oil fired boiler. I like the idea of indirectly/directly cogenning using the old gas heater too- great idea! Any idea if I need any complicated control system? Do you think I should run DC to the elements or one phase of the AC from the windings to each (this means 3 elements or 2 heaters I guess) Any idea how the 220V elements would perform with this lower voltage? Someone must have a clue if this is completely crazy. ;-)
I posted this under a thread about cogen, which was a little dumb, so I thought maybe if I put it in a better place, some electron cowboys might comment. I am trying to find time to sit down and figure this out while trying to remember what I learned in Tech school 10 yrs ago.
I had a wacky idea, see what you think. If and when I get my old Petter AV2 running, I need a load for it. Our electricity is very reliable here and not prohibitively priced. So, a ST head is probably out. In the event of an outage I can run my oil fired boiler for heat with a small inverter and a car battery. My 220V well pump is the only other thing I couldn't do without for a few days....
But, anyway, I think I could lay my hands on some old truck alternators and am thinking that using them to power a resistive load, say some electric baseboard heaters, or better yet an old electric DHW heater preheating return water to my oil fired boiler. I like the idea of indirectly/directly cogenning using the old gas heater too- great idea! Any idea if I need any complicated control system? Do you think I should run DC to the elements or one phase of the AC from the windings to each (this means 3 elements or 2 heaters I guess) Any idea how the 220V elements would perform with this lower voltage? Someone must have a clue if this is completely crazy. ;-)