Generator for powering home, charging electric vehicles or welder - Page 2

bennelson · 12-20-16, 08:14 AM

I did some work for Generac a while back. They manufacture that V-twin engine in-house. It's basically a motorcycle engine. I think Orange City Choppers or a similar show actually built a motorcycle with one.

It should be a good generator to do some mods to. If you ever want to do some sort of serial hybrid with a generator, you might want to go FULL-custom and have an engine power the wheels. At some point, it's not efficient to use an engine to make electricity to run a motor to spin the wheels. Instead, just use the engine to spin the wheels. That's one of the modes that the Chevy Volt works in. Check out the RQRiley XR3. A friend of mine built frames for a pair of them!

I used a Generac RV propane generator as an experiment in my electric Geo Metro. In my experiments using a generator to power an electric car, I found out that you very quickly want the generator permanently mounted on the other side of a firewall, with a good muffler!

oil pan 4 · 12-20-16, 06:05 PM

I have all the small loads covered by inverters.
One inverter is a samlex 2,000w on a 60ah LiFePo4 pack.
The other one is a 900way kisae inverter on a 100ah AGM, part of my solar hybrid generator.

oil pan 4 · 01-02-17, 04:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by blamberson

Have you considered using hydrogen power for your generator by separating water?

No hydrogen on account of it not working.
But we know lean burn and warm air intakes do work.

dh1 · 01-03-17, 02:13 PM

Since you have a gas engine with a straight keyed output shaft you could replace it with a Diesel engine with the same shaft and power output. Should be more fuel efficient.
From what I know generator engines are sized at about 2hp per 1 KW output.

oil pan 4 · 01-03-17, 03:47 PM

Main problem with a diesel is finding one big enough.
They are easy to find up to about 25hp (air cooled) but as you get over 10 to 15hp they do not go up to 3,600rpm a lot of them are limited to 2,500rpm.
Then as you exceed 25hp it gets very difficult to find unless you are willing to put down big money on a liquid cooled engine.

12-20-16, 08:14 AM	#11
bennelson Home-Wrecker Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: SE Wisconsin Posts: 546 Thanks: 3 Thanked 165 Times in 96 Posts	I did some work for Generac a while back. They manufacture that V-twin engine in-house. It's basically a motorcycle engine. I think Orange City Choppers or a similar show actually built a motorcycle with one. It should be a good generator to do some mods to. If you ever want to do some sort of serial hybrid with a generator, you might want to go FULL-custom and have an engine power the wheels. At some point, it's not efficient to use an engine to make electricity to run a motor to spin the wheels. Instead, just use the engine to spin the wheels. That's one of the modes that the Chevy Volt works in. Check out the RQRiley XR3. A friend of mine built frames for a pair of them! I used a Generac RV propane generator as an experiment in my electric Geo Metro. In my experiments using a generator to power an electric car, I found out that you very quickly want the generator permanently mounted on the other side of a firewall, with a good muffler! __________________ To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts. To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 0 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

12-20-16, 06:05 PM	#12
oil pan 4 Land owner Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: NM Posts: 1,026 Thanks: 12 Thanked 127 Times in 107 Posts	I have all the small loads covered by inverters. One inverter is a samlex 2,000w on a 60ah LiFePo4 pack. The other one is a 900way kisae inverter on a 100ah AGM, part of my solar hybrid generator.

01-03-17, 02:13 PM	#14
dh1 Helper EcoRenovator Join Date: May 2011 Location: Ont. Canada Posts: 99 Thanks: 14 Thanked 11 Times in 9 Posts	Since you have a gas engine with a straight keyed output shaft you could replace it with a Diesel engine with the same shaft and power output. Should be more fuel efficient. From what I know generator engines are sized at about 2hp per 1 KW output.

01-03-17, 03:47 PM	#15
oil pan 4 Land owner Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: NM Posts: 1,026 Thanks: 12 Thanked 127 Times in 107 Posts	Main problem with a diesel is finding one big enough. They are easy to find up to about 25hp (air cooled) but as you get over 10 to 15hp they do not go up to 3,600rpm a lot of them are limited to 2,500rpm. Then as you exceed 25hp it gets very difficult to find unless you are willing to put down big money on a liquid cooled engine.