Home generator?

[col]

Just a thought again, but reading on here about green ect. Would it be cost effective to have your own generator hooked up to your house, instead of paying the bill for electric? Would the cost of fueling and running it be cheaper?

 

[snorri]

Just a thought again, but reading on here about green ect. Would it be cost effective to have your own generator hooked up to your house, instead of paying the bill for electric? Would the cost of fueling and running it be cheaper?

Everyone who had their own generator before mains electricity was available very quickly accepted mains electric when it came along so I think you can take it that private generators are more expensive than mains supply for normal domestic usage.

 

[col]

Everyone who had their own generator before mains electricity was available very quickly accepted mains electric when it came along so I think you can take it that private generators are more expensive than mains supply for normal domestic usage.

Maybe with todays new generators they might be efficiant enough?

 

[Keith Oates]

It would not be greener for everyone to have their own generator, the emissions from the millions of engines would be very bad. The cost of fuel, maintenance, etc would be higher than what we pay now if we use the same amount of power!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[numbnuts]

you would need a very big generator for a whole house, small ones are very good if you have a power cut

 

[col]

It would not be greener for everyone to have their own generator, the emissions from the millions of engines would be very bad. The cost of fuel, maintenance, etc would be higher than what we pay now if we use the same amount of power!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What about catalytic converters? and maybe just use on evenings or for certain times maybe?

 

[col]

you would need a very big generator for a whole house, small ones are very good if you have a power cut

Could it also be used to charge batteries while in use,for later use, so adding to the saving ?

 

[Night Train]

If you work out how much electricity you are using and then looked at the specs for a suitable generator then you may find that it will use a considerable amount of diesel fuel to run it. Even with untaxed red diesel it is likely to be more then your electricity bill is now.

A generator is also not going to be much good if it is running just to power a clock and a fridge one moment and then everything else the next. It's efficiency will be rubbish.

It would make more sense to reduce your electricity consumption as much as possible and also look at energy efficient equipment and consumables in the house.
You could install solar hot water and solar PV but the returns on the PV will be negligable in many cases.

Add a generator to a trainer and pedal power your laptop.

 

[vernon]

Maybe with todays new generators they might be efficiant enough?

They will never be efficient enough to make them an economic source of domestic energy.

Their wide scale adoption would accelerate the consumption of fossil fuels and will always be a more expensive source of energy. There is also the capital cost of purchase and installation to consider.

 

[Night Train]

Could it also be used to charge batteries while in use,for later use, so adding to the saving ?

If you want batteries look for pre used submarine and UPS back up batteries. You will need several tons of them and a good charger and inverter. Lots of money.
It would then make sense to use a wind turbine and solar PV though you still wouldn't get much back or much saving.

 

[col]

If you work out how much electricity you are using and then looked at the specs for a suitable generator then you may find that it will use a considerable amount of diesel fuel to run it. Even with untaxed red diesel it is likely to be more then your electricity bill is now.

A generator is also not going to be much good if it is running just to power a clock and a fridge one moment and then everything else the next. It's efficiency will be rubbish.

It would make more sense to reduce your electricity consumption as much as possible and also look at energy efficient equipment and consumables in the house.
You could install solar hot water and solar PV but the returns on the PV will be negligable in many cases.

Add a generator to a trainer and pedal power your laptop.

Now that isnt a bad idea, would a battery store enough to power these if, for example, you did an hour or two a day, and give your tv and lappy a couple of hours off the mainline electic?
Now I know this is a leap, but what about mini steam engines too? Could the fuel be cheaper to run those ie wood/coal/coke ? Or even dried peat like blocks with modern ingrediants

 

[Night Train]

Now that isnt a bad idea, would a battery store enough to power these if, for example, you did an hour or two a day, and give your tv and lappy a couple of hours off the mainline electic?
Now I know this is a leap, but what about mini steam engines too? Could the fuel be cheaper to run those ie wood/coal/coke ? Or even dried peat like blocks with modern ingrediants

I would say avoid burning stuff to make energy. A steam engine is a minefield of safety concerns.

Are you just interested in saving money or reducing energy/resource use?

Cycling to charge a battery is a good idea. You can try it for very little expense. Get an alternator from a car, and replace the pully with a small rubber wheel. Fit it to a trainer and cycle against it using it to charge a car battery.
The effciency will be low but it will be something for nothing on the basis you would be riding anyway.

You can improve it by using a more efficient generator, as car ones are really low efficiency. If you can have stuff running from 12vDC then you also save the losses from using an inverter.

 

[Night Train]

The simplest way to rig up a cycle generator is to use a friction drive on trainer straight off the tyre.
A better way would be to use a drive belt from a modified wheel rim to belt drive a generator.
A purpose made set up would improve mechanical efficiency, maybe chain drive to reduce slippage.

The idea would be to get as much speed into the generator as possible, either through hard work or high cadance. You know which way is better.

There are plenty of You Tube videos on it but I can also see if I can find a photo of the one a friend built.
Here we go:

 

[vernon]

Now that isnt a bad idea, would a battery store enough to power these if, for example, you did an hour or two a day, and give your tv and lappy a couple of hours off the mainline electic?
Now I know this is a leap, but what about mini steam engines too? Could the fuel be cheaper to run those ie wood/coal/coke ? Or even dried peat like blocks with modern ingrediants

Col, abandon all notions of burning things to generate steam. Unless you are going to adopt extremely expensive fluidised bed combustion technology the efficiency of your electricity generation devices fall at the first hurdle. Steam generation is incredibly inefficient on a small domestic scale. Even on a larger scale i.e. train sized it's not a viable proposition. Have you not asked yourself why we don't see a new generation of steam traction on the railways and roads?

BTW - how long do you think the peat reserves will last?

 

[vernon]

Cycle generators - who can match the three to four hundred watts energy output of folk like Lance Armstrong on a stage of the TdF before the inefficient conversion to electricity for more than half an hour?