1800 Rpm vs 3600 rpm Same HP?

[BruceM]

Good point on the large direct burial aluminum, Christian.

[rcavictim]

If you can get a deal on the aluminum that they run overhead from the pole to your house that would work underground if you were to pull it into a plastic well pipe used as an inexpensive conduit.  I would get large wire though and test it with the generator and full load before burying it in the conduit.  I was suprised how warm this overhead drop can get running at so-called `rated` current.  No problem in open air but in a closed space could overheat.  The insulation on the two blacks is very thin plastic.  Not something I would approve if it were up to me, but it doesn`t seem to fail in service.

When they tear down a house out here in the country or some other weird thing the drop wire sometimes ends up at the dump.  I have gotten some runs for free but never longer than 100 feet in one piece, still free is a price I can afford even on a bad day.  Once you have decided that code can take a hike there are other options to recycle available salvaged wire also like parallel conductors.

I do not condone doing anything electrical not to code.  What you do on your own property with your own stuff is your own business as far as I`m concerned, but if you must know, I`m really not all that concerned.     Just don`t take any shortcuts when it comes to safety!

I may be setting up a big DC generator in the shop and running a 60 volt run to the house underground to the location of the 48 volt battery bank and inverters.  I was thinking of looping the field current underground to the battery room where it could be used to control the generator output as in remote AVR setup.  The field current is only a couple of amps DC so the use of #14 or #12  wire would be practical at several hundred feet.  It is the several hundred amps DC that worries me.  I will need aluminum cable the size of a broomstick handle times two conductors.

[Shadow]

I was told I couldnt bury aluminum wire. at least not the overhead kind I rounded up.It did seem to have a good hard coating on.
           I went ahead and buried my cable this week, I found about 250 feet of #4 3wire Armoured Tech cable, and the last 100 feet I used #6 Tech cable.Total cost.. $200.00
          I will be sending 220 volt to an Ex-telephone company recifier that converts it to 48 volt Dc to charge my battery bank. The only 120 volt we use is after its went through the Inverter to the house.
          Since May I've been using the Lister SR2/7.5kw running on 1/3 diesel and 2/3 veg oil.It has worked great but its to fast (1800 rpm) and too loud! about 60 feet from the house. We run it for 3-6 hours every third day, unless we plan on useing an abundance of power.
         As for the 6/1 I havent made any governer adjustments,I'm gonna lose the 3600 rpm gen and get a better one then make proper adjustments.
 
          Something I just completed today on the 6/1 was to install a high temp shut down as well as a push button shutdown so the kids can shut the engine down right at the door without going into the gen room.
            I will get pictures soon, but wanted to disassemble one last time to paint the componants first. I used a solonoid switch as used on most any vehicle with power door locks. I built a trip system setup on the shutoff lever with the help of a spring. So when I activate the solonoid it trips the lock that was holding it in the run position,and the spring pulls the shut off lever off!
         So with a scew in temp sensor in the water outlet (I currently have a 195 degree mounted a few inches away from the head) I'll have to play around with that part to see how hot the head needs to get to activate a 195 degree sensor mounted close by. At any rate the power goes across that sensor when temp is reached and activates solonoid to shut dow engine.
        The only problem I needed to overcome was shutting the power off to the solonoid, because they just work on short burst of electricity, this was over come by mounting a switch that is activated by the stop lever on the engine. When the spring pulls the stop lever up, it trips a switch on the way by that shuts off all 12 volt power everywhere.
   My description may sound complicated but it is very simple. Door lock solonoids have about 1 1/2 inches of travel to work with, and by reversing the polarity you reverse the direction of travel. So you have lots of options. And if you want to get real fancy you could find the newer models with remote control! Shut your Lister off without leaving your arm chair.

[listerdiesel]

a 6/1 should be good for 4k or a little less you also have to figure powerloss.

Lister only ever rated the Start-O-Matic at 2.5kVA, evn with the 6/1 engine.

The later 8/1 engine raised this to 4kVA which is what you may be thinking of?

Peter