openspaceman

It is what I use too

I retired 5 years ago, introduced myself to you at the APF show that year.

Most likely you would run a heat main from the boiler and thermal store into the house and use plate heat exchangers to supply CHW and DHW in the house using pre insulated pipe and hope the installers don't rupture them. Pricey Pre -insulated pipe, Underground heating pipes, heat mains insulated pipe INGOODNIC.UK 32 + 32 /110mm Pre Insulated Heating Pipe

The 220?? was the best as it was slightly lower and a 10" square feed IIRC, I only watched but if it had turned over at sutton coldfield it would have rolled all the way down and onto the track even though we were a few tens of feet off track. I was walking and using my hands on the slope.

I'm so glad you corroborate that I was worried I was doing something wrong. I have found some work arounds as my neighbours would jump on me if they saw smoke coming form my chimney.

What can I say other than good luck and best wishes.

They'll straddle the rail then like they did with the Hilux. Rail Roaders and trolleys only on the rails where I worked but much removal of panels to get machines in for off track work.

That's why I find it difficult to burn smokelessly in my stove. BTW last picture needed a blue background

I remember one of your design chaps telling me that when I asked if we could reduce the overall height of a safetrac, so if it turned over it wouldn't touch a train. Not that any did turn over in my time, it was a NR rule called adjacent line running.

A chap from the BBC TV bought a cottage next to the estate I worked on and had a startomatic and Victorinox inverter in 1974. His mate worked at the CEGB research place 5 miles away in Leatherhead. Bob used to attract loads of helpers, including me, to build his model railway and help out in his workshop, I wish I still had access to his myford 7 lathe. All went well till a house guest got up after Bob had gone to work and had a shave. None of us could figure why the lister kept starting up and stopping a few seconds later, so we disconnected circuits till it stopped happening. I've got a Bosky in my garage, bought second hand and never fitted. Along with a rebuilt 2.3 pug 504 diesel engine and a envirofire pellet stove should anyone be interested for donation to charity. What happened after you married, did you get power laid on?

Actually it was 30 years ago when I think back and electricity was about 7p/kWh, gas oil was 8p/litre. So IIRC gasoil is about 10kWh /kg 8kWh/ litre. I don't know how to check back but I do remember working out we did no better than 20% conversion when we should have got double that running most efficiently. Anyway will it be permissible to run rebated gas oil for a commercial purpose even if stationary? as a post script the genset ran 40 hours a week in winter and the service interval came up frequently. Changing the lubrication oil that frequently was a big expense. To offset a little of this I advocated filtering it and adding it to the diesel tank but I was overruled and the oil was disposed of by the mechanic. I worked out the oil represented 2% of the fuel used.

That makes sense and if you look at the specific fuel consumption at various power outputs you will see the sweet spot will be around 70% of the rated power, so to start the motors you need a larger generator but once running the engine is under loaded and less economical. With our 10kVA genset we found the fuel cost was about the same as the kWh cost from the grid ( over 20 years ago) plus we had capital and operating and management costs on top. The interesting thing was getting some heat out of the engine as about a third goes up the exhaust and a third into the coolant.

Stop being contrary @Stubby; if there is no air gap then there is no room for insulation and the metal liner touches the clay tiles and conducts heat to them. I know you burn your logs well but even if you see no smoke particulates and carbon monoxide are being produced unless you have a catalytic stove. Norbert Senf of the masonry heaters association in america reckons even if you see no smoke there will be 4000 parts per million and his stoves are amongst the cleanest.

I suppose because it was a snug fit there was no room to pour insulation around the liner and hence the warming of the loft. If you consider what a chimney does, it removes all harmless the products of complete combustion as well as the toxic bit from incomplete combustion from the living space and puts them high enough that they will be up and diluted before they reach any neighbours. So logically you don't want any heat going up the chimney. With a gas boiler this is done by transferring any remaining heat from the flue gases to the combustion air and allowing little droplets of water to form. With a log burner there is much more water vapour in the flue gases so they need to be kept warm enough so as not to condense out onto the chimney walls. With our industrial boilers we would extract as much heat from the firebox and send it up the chimney at about 110C, as the chimneys were double insulated the gases should still have been above 100C at the top. This is one reason why woodburners are never as efficient as natural gas boilers. Now in my case because my stove does not keep burning all night I am happy my stove leaves some excess heat in the flue gases as during the day the chimney breast heats up and then gives up its heat while the fire is out. My 6" flue exhausts into an 8" approx. concrete, cast in situ chimney. Not ideal as this means the flue gases slow down as they pass the register plate. I seldom allow the flue temperature to get above 150C and on a mild day will allow it to drop to around 110. The corollary of this is the batch burning masonry stoves which instead of being regularly loaded with logs during the day are loaded once with a few tens of kg of dry wood and then burned flat out. All the heat is used to heat the masonry surrounds as the flue gases travel through a labyrinth of brickwork. The fire goes out and is sealed and the brickwork continues to heat the house until the next day when it is reloaded and fired.

Not cheap, won't the screws from an older Walbro fit?

Yes my understanding is that it only applied to standing timber and also that the current owner has not claimed any tax relief on establishment or maintenance costs but tax regimes have changed a lot since I looked at this.

I always assumed this was a way of getting around price matching

I have been impressed at how much radiated heat I get through the glass of my stove, my previous Jotul had a solid iron door.

Two very good posts Alec and Stere and much to think about. I would like to hear from those actually off grid rather than my situation. Personally don't want to be a slave to the system and constantly worry about how much energy I am using but I am careful. In my case the refrigerator/freezer does use a fair amount but as we cook for two we often need to keep food a few days. I suspect I could do without a freezer. It would make sense to set a freezer to run on off-peak electricity, possibly with a deeper thermostat for off peak but currently there are no off peak tariffs and truly off grid have no choice. While I like the idea of Stirling engines in practice they seem to have difficulties. Kockums had a very high tech submarine installation that made good use of the advantages but for domestic use there are problems: 1) Stiring cycle favours a small molecule and working under high pressure but the system can be sealed, the microgen uses helium at pressure and the whispergen nitrogen, which is 6 times denser. You cannot use air at pressure as it will react with any common lubricants and burn them. 2) Conversion efficiency is low compared with internal combustion (most efficient ic engine is a high pressure gas turbine as used in aircraft) 3) Low volume production must affect pricing so for true off grid a diesel or spark ignition engine remains best choice. The LiPo battery entering the arena means a small genset running a constant optimum load and heat recovery makes sense. I have been investigating a DIY thermo electric system as this fits better with log burning that the rest but conversion efficiency is low and the problem is having to pass all the heat flux through the Seebeck device AND be able to use the heat. I'll see what others have to say and then try and respond to individual points made by Alec in individual posts.

Thanks Alec, I was trying to respond on your omicron thread and finding it difficult. I realised from your posts you had an analytical brain but only now appreciate you qualifications, natural science, chemistry I guess. Please stick around this thread and lets talk about the problems of micro generation, especially in relation to the whispergen and Microgen Stirlings. The microgen unit can still be got for £10k but that's a ridiculous price which is why most here off grid seem to stick with diesel. We had a marinised 10kVAPetter running a remote classroom 20 years ago, the water cooled manifold and coolant heated the rooms but it was far too powerful (to meet peak loads) to get more than 20% conversion to electric. If you have looked at my offering up thread you will see I need to "find" 300W for 10 hours to get me independent of the grid. Of course I don't need it as I am in a residential street and quite happy to accepts my Solar PV array and battery will only get me 80% free of imports. My colleague from our charcoal project went on to solid oxide fuel cells with Rolls Royce, that had promise but never quite got there and was sold to a Korean firm. Luckily Dave was kept on by RR.

Not a fish but something from a house clearance, probably obsolete but thought I'd see if anyone wanted it as a gift before I try elsewhere. I've no idea if it works.

See if you can read any numbers off the turbo for them

First thing you would notice would be loss of power, then the smoke would likely be black from over fueling.

It's like rubbing a magic lamp Jase, one little @ and out you pop.

Do you have a link to this. Can't find anything suitable on their website? Renault Master Trafic / Vauxhall Movano 2.0/2.3dCi 125HP-92KW 786997 Turbo CHRA - londonturbos.co.uk WWW.LONDONTURBOS.CO.UK Description