Gosh Tim you must love work! I like the cooking on the
exhaust manifold, (an accessory is available for Model
T Ford to do this on the move, BTW), but do you think
that the risks (death, mostly) of bringing the exhaust
into the house are commensurate with the amount of
heating which you are going to get out of this engine?
I thought that they were fairly frugal but maybe I've
got the wrong Lister.
RS

2.
--- Tim Dawson-Stanley <timfromtang@...> wrote:

> Hi all,
> I have just bought a lovely old Lister CS 5-1
> (was part of a dc
> genset but the generator is dead bearings gone etc)
> It came on a really
> heavy Cast base with direct coupled dc generator and
> radiator attached.
> I also have half of an old petters Genset (the
> alternator) and my plan
> is to unite the two with a flat belt drive, use the
> exhaust heat for
> space heating in my new Strawbale House (nearly
> ready to move in but not
> even nearly complete yet), and use the cooling water
> to heat my domestic
> hot water ( the whole lot fuelled with WVO of course
> ). I have made a
> temporary 10¨ dia pulley from Elm wood to drive the
> alternator for
> testing purposes with an Oak key and a flat belt
> made from an old car
> seatbelt, My engine has 25¨ dia flywheels giving the
> required 1500 rpm
> at the alternator and this seems to work ok for the
> moment for testing
> anyway. The alternator has an 1 5/8¨ dia shaft and
> the pulley is 4¨
> thick so there should be enough strength for the 3.5
> Kw that my engine
> can deliver.
>
> I have several problems!!! and some questions.
>
> I am in Ireland and we use 220-240 V AC at 50 Hz.
>
> I am aware that this alternator is MUCH too big for
> my engine but I have
> to do the best I can with what I´ve got (My family
> and I live on a very
> low income) I may be lucky and come across a larger
> cs twin engine in
> the future.
>
> First of all and most pressing I am getting no
> output from the
> alternator at the moment. The alternator was
> originally fitted to a
> petters diesel gen set Serial no GEN 3869 , 12 KW ,
> 15 KVa , 220 Volts ,
> 68 Amps , CPS 50 ( I presume that this means 50 Hz
> output at 1500 rpm) ,
> Phase 1. I hjave contacted Lister-Petters Ltd and
> they have no info. I
> have looked at all the most obvious issues here,
> replaced the diode
> bridge etc and I am getting excitation voltage after
> the bridge
> rectifier now. However given the condition that the
> poor machine was in
> when it was given to me (very rusty with rotor
> solidly rusted in
> position) and some obvious places where components
> used to be I reckon
> that I am not going to get very much further without
> a wiring diagram.
> You should know that I am far from expert in
> electrical matters and
> spent the electrical part of my engineering course
> charging up
> capacitors to toss for my mates to catch. I could of
> course go to a
> local alternator expert but the alternator weighs
> around 200Kg and this
> would cost money (the one thing of which I am
> desperately short), and it
> goes against my self sufficient principles I´d love
> to understand the
> thing and be able to fix it myself. Does anybody out
> there know where I
> might be able to get a wiring diagram? I WISH I had
> paid more attention
> in electrical at college!!
>
>
> I am planning to protect the engine with a trip
> switch (about15A) and a
> slow blow fuse (about 10A) so that I can start
> motors etc relying on the
> inertia of the flywheels to provide the start
> current and the slow blow
> fuse to protect the engine from overload. I intend
> to run the engine
> between 8 and 18 hours per day depending on domestic
> hot water needs and
> heating load, and to divert the exhaust to waste in
> the summertime.
>
> I will probably have to have a grid connection
> initially to run fridge
> etc at night as I cannot possibly afford batteries
> and an inverter at
> this stage.
>
> How do you reckon I should arrange the engine
> cooling to domestic hot
> water loop? I presume that a thermostat on the
> engine would be a good
> idea. What should I do when my cylinder of hot water
> is up to temp (cut
> the genny?) (divert the cooling loop to preheat my
> 3000Litre rainwater
> storage tank?) any ideas? Please bear in mind that I
> will also need to
> use some of the engine cooling water heat to heat my
> WVO tank. Will a
> water pump be required ( I am inclined to think so
> and also to think
> that a central heating circulating pump might be
> suitable).
>
> Any ideas for an exhaust to hot water heat exchanger
> for summertime use?
>
> For extracting the exhaust heat in the winter I plan
> to run the exhaust
> in through my wall (inside a welded SS pipe that I
> have got from my
> local scrapyard) and through an earth bench (I have
> an earth floor) and
> out through the wall again and up to atmosphere. Is
> this a good plan?
> Can you think of any problems that I might run into?
> Will I need some
> sort of water/condensate trap?
>
> I am planning to locate the engine outside my straw
> wall in a cob built
> engine shed lean to affair on the back of the house,
> this right beside
> my bathroom/ laundry room and darkroom with the
> kitchen very close by.
>
> At the moment in my current home (read shack/
> converted pigshed) I am
> using WVO heating burning the WVO in a Turk Burner
> installed in my Range
> which boils kettles fries sausages and heats water
> but this is not very
> efficient I reckon about 65% of the heat is going up
> the chimney! So an
> engine based CHP system seems to be a better
> solution for the new abode.
> Efficiency´s could approach 80-90% in the winter (am
> i right here?)
>
> Anothe issue is the afore mentioned kettle boiling,
> does anybody think
> that an exhaust heated hotplate might be possible?
> (in the house of course)
>
> And last but not least does anybody know of any
> other groups (yahoo or
> otherwise) who might be willing and able to help
>
> Best regards
> Tim from Tang
>
>