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Diesel rabbit as a batt charger ?

M

max

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hi,
I would like to generate enough electricity during emergencies to run my
house at a minimal level. I have a Coleman 5000w gen. and an old VW rabbit
with a diesel engine. The problem is the Coleman is loud and burns a lot of
gas. My idea is to try and hook up a second and possibly a third alternator
to the rabbit then use it to charge a bank of batts. I would then run my
appliances off an inverter. I would really like to keep the Coleman as a
fail safe backup and not have to depend on it for every day use. The rabbit
has the advantage of running on diesel ,kerosene or fuel oil. I have a
1000gal fuel oil tank for my oil burner so I would be able to run it for a
long time if need be. My question is what would it take to make the rabbit
an efficient batt charger/generator? I would like to only run it 3 or 4
hours a day. My power needs would be to run the refrig, freezer and oil
burner for a period of time each day and be able to run a few small lights
and the TV or a PC in the evening. Would it be practical to use the rabbit
this way? If this is practical how much altenator power would it take? What
size inverter would I need and how many batts would I need? Thanks
 
W

William P.N. Smith

Jan 1, 1970
0
max said:
I would like to generate enough electricity during emergencies to run my
house at a minimal level. I have a Coleman 5000w gen. and an old VW rabbit
with a diesel engine. The problem is the Coleman is loud and burns a lot of
gas. My idea is to try and hook up a second and possibly a third alternator
to the rabbit then use it to charge a bank of batts.

Look at marine alternators, they come in _all_ sizes! At 52
horsepower, you can make about 26 kilowatts of electric power, about 2
kiloamps at 12V, though you probably want to back off of full-power
mode and go for a couple of hundred amps. 8*)

Lotsa hits on Google for "marine alternators" including
http://www.zena.net/htdocs/alternators/mar_alt.shtml which go up to
800 amps (though at that power level you might want to go to 24 volts
or so).
 
S

Steve Spence

Jan 1, 1970
0
the rabbit is about 75 hp and can turn a 25 kw generator head efficiently,
as well as heat your house doing it.

see http://webconx.green-trust.org/cogen.htm

3 100 to 150 amp alternators work great too. can drive more, but the
physical arrangements get kludgey.
 
S

Steve Spence

Jan 1, 1970
0
arghhh, the newer jetta turbo was 75hp, the rabbit is 52.

both make nice cogen units.
 
M

max

Jan 1, 1970
0
the rabbit is about 75 hp and can turn a 25 kw generator head
efficiently, as well as heat your house doing it.

see http://webconx.green-trust.org/cogen.htm

3 100 to 150 amp alternators work great too. can drive more, but the
physical arrangements get kludgey.


Hi,
Thank you for the replies. I have seen the cogen set up and think it would
be great for the future, but for now I would like to keep the car drivable,
I might restore it if the price of gas doesn't come down soon. I was
thinking about building a bracket above the motor to hold 2 more
alternators with an idler pulley between the 2 upper alts. to control belt
slippage. Then just run a belt around all 3. If I did this what would be
the best way to feed/wire the batt bank off 3 alts.? I would like to run
only one set of batts if possible. Thanks for any help. I would like to
avoid as much trial and error as possible. Oh and I'm pretty sure it puts
out 42 hp it's an 81
 
I would favor a single large alternator in a higher voltage for several
reasons.

A voltage converter can handle recharging the starting battery and car
electrics.
Check with electric car web sites this converter is how they provide
electrical energy to there systems from high voltage battery banks.

The large alternators can be found off wrecked tractor trailer trucks cheap.

Offgridman
 
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