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Author Topic: Newbe Building First Power System Off Grid  (Read 26681 times)

mike90045

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Re: Newbe Building First Power System Off Grid
« Reply #15 on: March 10, 2008, 09:22:10 PM »
consider going with a 24 or 48V system.  You don't waste as much power in the DC interconnects. Use 120VAC alternators off the Lister, forget the car alternators - they heat up quickly, and the output drops off fast.

Or check out this article/blog:

photo story
This is page 2 - a good beginning.
  http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2007/12/30/21440/810

The generator consists of 2 discs with magnets, that spin on either side
of a 3rd, stationary disk, full of coils of wire. 
 Mounted on a hub, on the Listeroid Engine's main shaft @ 600 RPM

This produces AC, which gets rectified to DC, to charge batteries.
  battery bank shown in page 1
http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2007/12/30/15943/946

page 3 final touches and comments
  http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2008/1/2/231538/0408

rbodell

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Re: Newbe Building First Power System Off Grid
« Reply #16 on: March 10, 2008, 09:37:28 PM »
Hi Guys,

Here is where it would be nice to get my power from.

 

 We only own a hundered feet or so along the creek though and theres not much fall. But I have hopes for some wind generation also. That picture was taken last augist i think. Theres a lot more water in the creek now.

 Thanks for looking at this long winded post.
Larry

Doersn't take much, just a small dam and some junk
http://www.otherpower.com/images/water1.JPG
The shear depth of my shallowness is perplexing yet morbidly interesting. Bob 2007

Doug

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Re: Newbe Building First Power System Off Grid
« Reply #17 on: March 10, 2008, 10:28:59 PM »

rcavictim
Putting all those batteries in parallel against a common bus without a fueable link to each battery is highly dangerous.  If one battery develops a problem it could become a short circuit absorbing the power from all the other batteries.  Kaboom!


 

I wanted to say something about that myself but People might start to think I am preachy about safety lol.....

Go to an electrical parts retailer.
Explain the situation and ask him if you can look over some of the bigger industrial blade fuses.

If you remove some sections of bus work and brake up the banks in sections you can reduce a lot of the available fault current.
Rob is quite right, you haven't seen excitement untill a battery shorts out and turns into a giant road flair
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BiggKidd

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Re: Newbe Building First Power System Off Grid
« Reply #18 on: March 10, 2008, 11:15:09 PM »
Thanks for all the great replies guys..

 I've got to go and look up all the links you have posted. I found the blade fuses for car radios in the 60 - 100 amp range. I am thinking that I could put a 60 amp at each battery. And a larger fuse at the inverter for each bank. Maybe 500 amps if I use two or 4 250 amp if I get things split up that way.

 Thanks for all the help and info. I've got lots to learn.

Larry
Life Is What YOU Make It
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Stan

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Re: Newbe Building First Power System Off Grid
« Reply #19 on: March 11, 2008, 01:16:56 AM »
Larry, Just a quick note re: the suggestion that you dam up your creek!  Something to consider could be the fish that might normally use the creek and be killed or not be given the chance to reproduce from a dam such as this, also the downstream neighbours might take exception to it also.  Most jurisdictions take the eminently civilized view that a creek is not owned by anyone, but is a resource that could be used in various ways by all.  Usually there is an agency regulating these things.  I'm not one to promote government agencies, I think they often go waaaay beyond common sense in regulating things such as this, but then again so do some people! 

It might be nice to keep a creek such as this in its natural state.  There are power generating gizmos that use the flow of a stream to generate the power without building up a head.  They are usually much less intrusive and damaging to the environment that dumping a bunch of fill into it, or dredging it up to make a dam, thus creating silting and sedimentation that could/would kill many denizens of the deep, some of whom might be crucial to the health of the creek for years to come.

Don't take everyone's advice without a grain of salt, including mine.  ;D
Stan

Grael

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Re: Newbe Building First Power System Off Grid
« Reply #20 on: March 11, 2008, 04:34:39 AM »
Your system sure looks alot like mine... ;D
GTC 8-1

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BiggKidd

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Re: Newbe Building First Power System Off Grid
« Reply #21 on: March 11, 2008, 01:45:45 PM »
Hi Guys,

 I have been reading all the info you have posted. Neat stuff. I have also been reading lots of old posts picking up little bits here and there.

 Stan,

  The creek has many problems for making hydro power. For one its about 30' wide and only 6" to 18" deep with a rock bottom. I don't mean gravel either but big rock slabs. From the banks I can tell that it sometimes floods 4 or 5 foot high. Another thing that would make this harder is my land where it comes to the creek is 5 to 30 feet higher than the water in the creek and drops strait off. To get down to where I took the picture from I had to walk along another smaller creeks bottom. I am sure over the next few years after we live there I will watch the creek and see if theres not some way to pull some power from it. One way I do think I can make some use out of it is with a spiral pump. One thats floting yet ancored to the ground. That way it can move up and down with the flood waters. If I am able to build a spiral pump I could hook up a small gen/alt off that and get double duty water pumping and power. From what I have learned in the last year or two that might be the best way to go.

 Thanks to everyone who has posted.

Larry 
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okiezeke

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Re: Newbe Building First Power System Off Grid
« Reply #22 on: March 12, 2008, 04:39:52 AM »
Nice little article.  Fixes a problem I never even thought of.  Its a dull day if you dont learn something new.
Zeke
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Changfa 8 hp., 280 A battery charger

Doug

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Re: Newbe Building First Power System Off Grid
« Reply #23 on: March 12, 2008, 08:35:48 PM »
Every free moment I spend reading and tinkering.

I can't say enough about this forum. We stray into so many areas off topic and people have so many clever ideas that I can't help myself and I have to try and do...
It's a Good Life, If You Don't Weaken

BiggKidd

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Re: Newbe Building First Power System Off Grid
« Reply #24 on: March 13, 2008, 03:22:11 AM »
Thank you all for your kind comments.

 Heres some more for the power system. Harbor Freight has ther 45 Watt solar kit on sale for $179.99 in store reg. $249.99. Even better they have a 15% coupon ( for any one item) in todays sale flier. I got out the door with one for just under $160.00.

 So thats 45 more watts for the solar system. Now if I could just find a used Lister 6/1 CS. I have friends and family looking for big old engines every where they go. LOL  I might even place a add in the local trading post it would say.  ..  I will pick up old (OLD) Engines tools Equipment for FREE.  I wonder how much junk I would have to sort through. If I ever found one. Oh well if I don't by summer I will probably buy a kit.

Larry
 
Life Is What YOU Make It
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Stan

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Re: Newbe Building First Power System Off Grid
« Reply #25 on: March 13, 2008, 03:37:35 AM »
Larry, It took me 2 years to find Penelope.  All the old timers on here are tired of hearing this from me but I tried to search for my original posting and the site is so slow I went and had supper and it still hadn't found it.  I asked everyone that would sit still long enough if they knew anything about Lister diesel engines with 2 big flywheels on them.  Finally a friend I had known and skied with for years said "yes, I've got one in a field out back of my place."  When I asked him why he hadn't told me before he said "you didn't ask me".  I could have saved myself 2 years of searching if I'd have asked the right guy first! ( he sold her to me for the scrap metal price he was going to haul it away for, $100)  Like Mulder used to say "they are out there!"   :o
Stan

rbodell

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Re: Newbe Building First Power System Off Grid
« Reply #26 on: March 13, 2008, 04:31:05 AM »
Larry, It took me 2 years to find Penelope.  All the old timers on here are tired of hearing this from me but I tried to search for my original posting and the site is so slow I went and had supper and it still hadn't found it.  I asked everyone that would sit still long enough if they knew anything about Lister diesel engines with 2 big flywheels on them.  Finally a friend I had known and skied with for years said "yes, I've got one in a field out back of my place."  When I asked him why he hadn't told me before he said "you didn't ask me".  I could have saved myself 2 years of searching if I'd have asked the right guy first! ( he sold her to me for the scrap metal price he was going to haul it away for, $100)  Like Mulder used to say "they are out there!"   :o
Stan

That is the way it is supposed to be.
The shear depth of my shallowness is perplexing yet morbidly interesting. Bob 2007

zacksstacks

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Re: Newbe Building First Power System Off Grid
« Reply #27 on: March 13, 2008, 07:35:59 PM »
Larry, It took me 2 years to find Penelope.  All the old timers on here are tired of hearing this from me but I tried to search for my original posting and the site is so slow I went and had supper and it still hadn't found it.  ...snip...

Obviously I can't speak for the old timers, but as a newbie I haven't tired of it yet!  ;D

Stan

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Re: Newbe Building First Power System Off Grid
« Reply #28 on: March 14, 2008, 12:02:45 AM »
OK, Then about 3 weeks later, (after I got Penelope) I got a phone call from a guy about 3 hrs drive away asking me if I want a twin cylinder Lister 12/2?  I went out and looked at it of course, and found it was in need of a lot of work and didn't think I had the room to work on it myself so I called up the closest guy I knew that posted on the forum (Troy of Eco diesel) and asked him if he wanted it.  He did and he is now the proud owner of a genuine Lister 12/2.  Troy also has a machining background and lots of equipment to work on it so it is undoubtedly in a better place than I could provide for it.

So keep on looking, talking it up, advertising in the papers (especially small town farm papers) and they will find you!

One of my "prime directives" is to give old iron the respect and admiration it deserves and to not let it be melted down to make chinese freighters.
Stan

BiggKidd

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Re: Newbe Building First Power System Off Grid
« Reply #29 on: March 14, 2008, 02:42:38 AM »
Stan,

 Thats good news I am keeping my eyes open. Wish my phone would ring.

Larry
Life Is What YOU Make It
 Going Off Grid