Veggie powered Generator to power home.... Feed power to the grid??

[Ashmck]

What I want to do is simple,

I can get an ultra quiet 5500 Watt diesel generator for around 600 bucks

I want to run it off of the WVO I run my car and trucks on... so that it would be FREE.

SO, what I want to do is use it for 60/70% of my electric needs, instead of investing THOUSANDS in Solar and Wind power that still wouldnt equal 5000 Watts.

Now.. if my generator produces MORE than what I need and is hooked up to my home just as a Windmill or Solar panel is will it feed juice in to the Grid, and turn my Elec meter BACKWARDS... thus receiveing a check from the power company at the end of the month?

[GasSavers_Randy]

That probably wouldn't work very well. You couldn't sync a $600 generator to the grid... they use a capacitor regulator style doesn't work well with external power sources. The more expensive 1800 rpm style usually comes with a regulator that could work, but it's still much harder than syncing three phase.

In any case, the power company would flip out if they heard about it. They only allow net metering from things like solar panels, and only then if you have a special 'grid interactive' box that keeps things safe. They never send checks either: any net negative you're donating for free.

Also, net metering isn't automatic: the newer meter styles transmit your power use, and most can't tell which way the power is flowing, just how much. So your bill would get bigger, and you'd have to call them to get a person out to read the meter.

[georges]

We have wvo generators available from 5.5 kw to 125 kw, If you want to know how to obtain one.
email me at: borsalino12000@yahoo.com

[dkjones96]

Crazy idea, but who needs to change the oil anyways? Why not run the WVO through the crankcase before burning it? Like having constantly new and fresh oil all the time. I'm pretty sure it lubes plenty well.

And while you couldn't sell the power back to the electric company, you could split your mains so you have the generator powering your house OR the electrical grid powering your house. Unless you went fancy with it you are looking at a manual switch system but it still isn't a huge deal really.

If you did decide to go fancy with it an old 486 even has plenty of processing power to run a UPS type system. If the generator needs brought down for maintenance just push a button on the computer and it'll switch to the grid, if the generator fails the computer can kick on a battery powered back-up system and verify the grid is alright and switch to that.

I built a system in high school that was similar but in reverse. I ran the grid all the time and the generator ran behind the UPS. A computer monitored voltage on the UPS battery and if voltage began to fall from a dying battery the computer started the generator and connected it to the 24v battery side(externally regulated car alternator). I just let the UPS do all of the 24vdc to 120vac conversion and used an old 386 to tend the dc end. If I had the know how that I do now I would have P&G the generator by quick charging the batteries and cutting the engine after they were topped up. As it was though, it just detected a dead battery and kicked on until the grid was back up. The two car batteries had a good couple of hours run time(the generator only worked in my bedroom).

You may laugh about the 386 but it ran for 3 years without ever requiring a reset. The only reason it even went down was because the power was out after a hurricane and my mom forgot to put gas in the generator.

[theholycow]

Originally Posted by dkjones96

Crazy idea, but who needs to change the oil anyways? Why not run the WVO through the crankcase before burning it? Like having constantly new and fresh oil all the time. I'm pretty sure it lubes plenty well.

My first thought was "Wow, that's an idea that could revolutionize the whole diesel engine industry." Then I realized that it's probably been done before and common dino diesel fuel almost certainly doesn't do the job well. However, it could still be a major difference for the WVO conversion crowd. Besides the benefit of never having to change the oil, it would also help pre-heat the WVO.

Of course, the obvious downside is the fact that you're using dirty nasty used WVO for motor oil.

You may laugh about the 386 but it ran for 3 years without ever requiring a reset. The only reason it even went down was because the power was out after a hurricane and my mom forgot to put gas in the generator.

Don't underestimate that old equipment. It ran well and did way more than needed by even modern simple embedded systems. In fact, I read a recent news headline that Intel was quitting producing an old processor, but I can't remember if it's the 8086 or the 386 (it definitely wasn't the 8088 or the 80286 -- and why didn't they ever make an 80186?)...but I can't find it now.

A common 80386 could handle four million operations per second (eh? that doesn't sound right, but either way, it's a lot). How many operations per second are necessary to decide if the generator should be on or off? Not four million.

[dkjones96]

Originally Posted by theholycow

Of course, the obvious downside is the fact that you're using dirty nasty used WVO for motor oil.

That just raises more questions for me:
How does it fair against used motor oil?
What viscosity does WVO end up having?

If I owned a house I would just build a generator and try it, but I feel the apartment complex would have a problem with that.

In fact, I read a recent news headline that Intel was quitting producing an old processor, but I can't remember if it's the 8086 or the 386 (it definitely wasn't the 8088 or the 80286 -- and why didn't they ever make an 80186?)...but I can't find it now.

The 80186 was used in mostly embedded systems. Not really in personal computers. The processor your talking about is probably the 386. They produced that chip from 1986 until September of 2007. Manufactured for 21 years. Simply incredible. I can't find a kill date for the 486 but I'm fairly sure they stopped producing it first.

[VetteOwner]

hmmm

a 5000 wat generator wont run nearly 60% of your house...factor in a fridge and a washer and dryer and that would overload it (or stove, furnace, etc) not to mention you would seen some type of device to limit the output of the generator so it doesnt blow the breaker/fuses on it. (it will try to power all it can) dont forget about current/voltage surges when stuff cycles on and off.

ultra quiet and engine do not belong in the same sentence, hard to have quiet explosions :P

doubt that generator would ever create more than you need and even if it were possible to hook it into the grid they would pay you little to nothing for it.

[dkjones96]

It might be possible to use an undersized generator if you use a battery bank on it. When high load items cycle it draws extra from the batteries and when it needs shut down for an hour or so for an oil/filter change the batteries can run the house for a bit.

But, optimally, you do want a generator sized so everything can be run at the same time and you are still at least 20% under the maximum constant running capacity of the generator. As the generator ages its output will drop(even faster if you have to run it at maximum capacity all the time) so you want that overhead.

http://www.kohlerpower.com/residenti...tentNumber=103

Try that, turns out my apartment with everything on would need a 15kW generator. Gross.

[georges]

Originally Posted by dkjones96

It might be possible to use an undersized generator if you use a battery bank on it. When high load items cycle it draws extra from the batteries and when it needs shut down for an hour or so for an oil/filter change the batteries can run the house for a bit.

But, optimally, you do want a generator sized so everything can be run at the same time and you are still at least 20% under the maximum constant running capacity of the generator. As the generator ages its output will drop(even faster if you have to run it at maximum capacity all the time) so you want that overhead.

http://www.kohlerpower.com/residenti...tentNumber=103

Try that, turns out my apartment with everything on would need a 15kW generator. Gross.

Please look at the wvo/svo/biodiesel generator demonstration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BQzf...eature=channel
this generator works with waste cooking oil, jatropha oil, castor oil, cooking oil and biodiesel and even waste motor oil.
I already disconnect from the grid at the warehouse for the past two month.

Also look at: the biodiesel stove prototype demonstration, next we will be working on the biodiesel barbecue.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDZQUSiT_vg

[JanGeo]

I would say run the generator off the grid and also use the heat from the generator to provide heat for your house. If you had a clean sine wave being generated from the generator and connected it to the grid with an adjustable resistive load between the grid and the generator they would syncronize as the load resistance was reduced and that should result in them staying in phase. As the generator was run harder it would be trying to push power into the grid and would get loaded down yet stay in phase but if throttled back then the grid would drive the generator and keep the motor spinning and use power from the grid. You would not want to have the engine seize up and you really want some very good circuit breakers between the grid and the generator. Generally speaking however you would be better off keeping the two separate and maybe invest in some DEEP CYCLE batteries and a efficient inverter and run the diesel to keep the deep cycle batteries charged. That way you have NO down time for power and you can run the generator as a heating system running it harder to charge more and provide more heat on demand. Add a radiator in the house for the coolent from the engine and let the water pump circulate the hot water too.