My Lister running in full CHP with video - cross posted from VOD

[julesandtash]

Now my Lister is set up for full CHP mode we have had a nice off-grid day.
The electrical output has kept us going all day including chopping up kindling wood with my chopsaw and mixing glycerol log mixture with my paddle mixer.
The processor was busy making my next batch with the pump running on lister power whilst the heat was coming, via the thermal store from the Lister's waste heat.

Now we are sitting in front of the wood burner, burning glycerol logs which watching TV, bathed in light and using the computer, all still on biodiesel fuelled lister power whilst the engines waste heat is slowly heating the water I will be making use of for a bath later. The bio burning boiler is there to add some more heat if the engine cant produce enough.

It has taken a while to get it all sorted but I am very pleased with the results. I still dont think I could get away with 24/7 running in normal life without falling out with my closest neighbour but it would certainly be OK during a prolonged mains outage as I guess they would be round here making use of the facilities.

Providing I had methanol and KOH in stock, and oil either here or available for collection, I can be self supporting and make more fuel without any need for mains services (water would be the first thing that would become an issue but I have 2000 litres of rainwater harvesting so would be OK for a while)

Here is a video of it doing it's thing - output is visible on the LED meter, top is voltage, middle is frequency and the smaller number at the bottom is current in Amps. http://vid471.photobucket.com/albums/rr79/julesandtash/Lister/My%20Movie_zpsoeyicgww.mp4

The one gadget we have that does not run nicely on the Lister is the Tefal Actifry. It runs for a few seconds and then throws up an error code.
We have two (one a broken one I bought and repaired). Both run fine on mains, neither will work on the Lister power.

That is a bit annoying as, being 1400Watts and capable of cooking everything from chips to chilli to a casserole, they would be ideal to use during a mains outage.

I dont suppose an electronics guru's out there have any thoughts on that one

[Oilybloke]

Brilliant work! How much fuel would you expect the Lister to use in a regular usage sort of day?

[Julian]

Well done, Jules ... you've achieved what many of us only aspire to!

[nigelb]

Tash must be incredably proud of you Jules and I echo the statement made by Julian just above.

[Tony]

Have you looked at the mains waveform on a scope?  Perhaps it's not nicely sinusoidal.  In which case an APC UPS (which have pure sine out) would clean it up nicely for anything sensitive downstream.

[julesandtash]

JulianF has an oscilloscope and will be coming down in the very near future so we can have a look then. Somebody on Navitron suggested exactly the same scenario
A 2000VA UPS is a big lump to put between the mains and the Actifry so I suspect that may be a non starter

[julianf]

This will be from years and years back, but may be of some interest -

http://www.decdun.me.uk/mainsconditioner.html

I believe some hifi freaks use 1:1 transformers, which would probably be easy enough to experiment with.

[therecklessengineer]

I had similar trouble with my induction cooker. Depending on what else was switched on, it would throw an error code.

It did work very nicely on the UPS though.

Glad you've got it all running so nicely. A much better looking install than my lash up!

[julesandtash]

Thanks James, I thought you would be pleased to see it.
I do think that a second flywheel in place of the compressor would make a big improvement but a new crankshaft and bearing housing is the best part of £300 and then I would need a second SOM flywheel - a lot of money for no guaranteed fix.

It will be interesting when Julian brings his Oscilloscope over - I will post of video of the trace on mains and on generator power since I can flick between the two with the generator changeover switch - so seamlessly that I can go from mains to an already running generator and back to mains without the TV going off or the lights going out.
That is with a proper, break before make, generator changeover switch

[rbdazza]

I might be able to get you a decent sized UPS for next to nowt if you're interested? I can't guarantee the batteries are any good but that's not the important bit here is it?

[julesandtash]

I would indeed be interested

[rbdazza]

ok, i'll let you know. I'm at a school next week where we're currently offloading a load of legacy kit, amongst it is a bunch of old servers and a couple of APC UPSs so should be able to pick one up.

[photoman290]

all the APC i have seen need 48 volts. a decent 2.2 kw one will need about 50 amps. don't forget most of them are not continuously rated. so they may well cut out after about 1/2 hour depending on the battery capacity they have. you can get around this with a larger fan,but then it starts getting complicated.
for your actifry i would "modify" the spare one with a pair of side cutters. how complex are they? cant be too much in there element,motor,timer,thermostat. ok a bit complex,but not insurmountable.

[rbdazza]

these are 240 volts and I believe 13amp, I need to check as they could be 36 amp...

[rbdazza]

I guess it will similar specs to this, but older, not sure on the wattage as I can't find the older model. oh and they're not rack mounted, its a tower unit.

http://www.apc.com/products/resource/include/techspec_index.cfm?base_sku=SURT2000RMXLI

looks like this:

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=apc+smart+ups+2000&rls=com.microsoft:en-GB:IE-Address&biw=1600&bih=805&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=FgJhVMGNHaLP7QaFo4HIBA&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAg#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=rrwLIgsJq7cEIM%253A%3B8Za6OoWB1QEaLM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fimages.lulusoso.com%252Fupload%252F20120307%252FAPC_Smart_UPS_3000VA_USB_Serial_230V.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fsell.lulusoso.com%252Fselling-leads%252F481695%252Fapc-UPS-750va-ups-circuit.html%3B497%3B498