Got to use my DIY diesel generator today.

[dlsmith]

Here in northern Indiana a line of pretty violent storms went through the area around 1:00-1:30PM. Had lots of wind for 20-30 minutes and about an inch of rain over an hours. And the power went out. Seems like a big tree next to SR15 blew over onto the power lines on the other side of the road. After the power remained off for 45 minutes, I went down to the shop and lulled the genset up to the house with the BX, started it up, plugged in the power cord and set the control switch to the run position.
Went into the basement, turned the main breaker off, slid the interlock down and turned the generator breaker on. And there was light!
This was the first time for a real test of the unit, I had done a couple of tests with a couple of electric heaters, but it hadn't been hooked to the house so far.
It ran just fine until I noticed the neighbor's porch light was on around10:15PM, when I went down and switched back to normal power.
So it ran for a little over 8 hours and looked like it burned 2.5 gallons according to my dipstick. Oil level on the engine dipstick didn't move. The little Yanmar 3TNA-72UJ ean like a champ.
It carried the A/C and well pump with no problem, never a flicker. Voltage stayed right at 230-235 volts. I might have to bump the rpm up a tad, as with the A/C on, it dropped to 58.4Hz, about 3520 rpm.

 

[DustyRusty]

You should investigate a governor to keep the RPM's up. As demand goes up, the engine should keep up with the load.

 

[ve9aa]

Looks good.....What would you do in the middle of January with big snowbanks?
ie: how would you get the genny that close to the house? (the cord looks too short once snow arrives)

Honest question...I am thinking of something similar, but in Eastern Canada we get FEET of snow...sometimes I can't even snowblow that high on certain parts of the driveway we get so much.

Cheers

 

[challer61]

Is there a write up that details the construction/parts list?

 

[OrangeKrush]

Good job! I'm in Central Indiana, it missed me! Wish I knew more about electricity. I bought a small generator to run my sump pump when power goes out after raining for a day or so. Power goes out if the wind blows the wrong way around here.. I have a Tri-Level.. it's a must to keep that pump running!

 

[skeets]

What about that gen set I like it some details if you please

 

[dlsmith]

Looks good.....What would you do in the middle of January with big snowbanks?
ie: how would you get the genny that close to the house? (the cord looks too short once snow arrives)

Honest question...I am thinking of something similar, but in Eastern Canada we get FEET of snow...sometimes I can't even snowblow that high on certain parts of the driveway we get so much.

Cheers

A legitimate concern about snow, but I have a JD430 with a snow blower that I regularly use to keep a path clear from the house to the shop, so that really wouldn't be a problem. Also, normally that corner of the house ihas very little snowm and the ground is usually bare. Also, I am going to install a power inlet at the shop, so I can just roll the genset up to the door, plug it in, start it up and throw interlock and breaker in the basement.

 

[dlsmith]

Good job! I'm in Central Indiana, it missed me! Wish I knew more about electricity. I bought a small generator to run my sump pump when power goes out after raining for a day or so. Power goes out if the wind blows the wrong way around here.. I have a Tri-Level.. it's a must to keep that pump running!

The power has been pretty reliable around here since they upgraded the lines a few years ago. The area has had so many new housing developments in the last decade and a half that the lines were overloaded. The only time I have lost power since are when a storm takes the lines down, or some knucklehead tries to drive his car/truck through a utility pole.

 

[skeets]

Why dont you just back feed from the shop like I do to the house kick the main so you dont back feed in to the grid

 

[dlsmith]

What about that gen set I like it some details if you please

I started building it over 20 years ago and the project got derailed and sat on a bench since then.
The engine is a Yanmar 3TNA-72UJ 22 hp unit that I bought from a JD lawn and garden dealer. I was a take engine out of a compact tractor that had an intake/air cleaner failure, and the owner demanded a new engine to replace it. I saw it there one day and asked about it, and ended up buying it for $500. Took it to the shop and disassembled it. It only had ~40 hours on it and was nearly pristeen inside with a few very light scratches on the cylinder walls. Gave them a light hone, put new rings in, new bearings and gaskets, and put it together. I bought a new 10KW generator from then Northern Hydraulics, built a cage from 2" X 2" 11 ga tubing and got the engine and generator mounted up and coupled together. First time I started it the coupling disintegrated and bent the shaft on the generator. And that's where it sat for 20 years.
A couple of years ago when I retired I decided to get it finished up, so I disassembled the generator and was able to get the shaft straightened to within .001". Looked around for a different type of coupling and found on at McMaster-Carr that with tolerate a fair amount of misalignment. It kinda looks like a rubber tire with a drive plate clamped to each bead. I bought a 14 gallon fuel cell from Summit Racing, took out the anti-slosh foam and made brackets to mount it over the generator. Made an exhaust system out of 1.5" stainless prebent pieces and used a muffler for a Honda of some sort. The intake system is just some radiator hoses and the airfilter is for a BX like mine, with a motorcycle conical airfiler on the inlet to help wuiet the intake drone. The radiator was also a JD takeout that had the top tank damaged, but I was able to fix it with JB Weld. The fan shroud was made from scratch of fiberglass by a friend. Engine mounts are also off a JD compact tractor of some sort. An electric fuel pump feeds a billet fuel filter and I used a stock JD fuel shut off solenoid. I made an throttle actuator out of a linear actuator and some fabricated to allow the actuator's travel of 2" and the throttle travel of just an inch. I built a control box and installed gauges, a digital tach, ignition switch, idle run switch and fuses, and wired it all up to the engine. I also mounted a battery maintainer to keep the battery up to snuff.
It works great, just turn the ignition on wait until the glow plg light goes out and crank it up. Let it idle and warm up a little and flip the idle/run switch to run and it runs up to governed speed.
I also built a subframe with an axle and a removable hitch so it can be towed if necessary.
Still need to find something to use for side covers with some sound absorbing material, but for ow it will do what I need it to do.

 

[skeets]

You did an out standing job my friend,, yes Sir outstanding

 

[challer61]

Looks like an excellent build. I would put an electronic governor on it to maintain frequency under load and loading/load shedding

 

[dlsmith]

You did an out standing job my friend,, yes Sir outstanding

Thank you.

 

[dlsmith]

Looks like an excellent build. I would put an electronic governor on it to maintain frequency under load and loading/load shedding

I have one that I tried on it, but the actuator didn't have enough torque to hold the throttle at the wide open position, nor enough travel to go from idle to full throttle. I mulling over using an Arduino controlling a large digital R/C airplane servo to do the job.
Actually though, a couple of Hz variation is not going to cause any problems as a lot of the power supplies used in electronics will work on 240volts 50 Hz.
And like I said, I may bump the governor up 60-90 rpm no load speed, and it will come down to around 3600 with the normal load.

 

[Henro]

Why dont you just back feed from the shop like I do to the house kick the main so you dont back feed in to the grid

Great question and idea, if the wire size between the shop and house is adequate. That’s what I would do...

 

[Chanceywd]

That interlock on the main panel is how I did mine. Anything less like back feeding from the garage depends on you never making a mistake in breaker sequence, not a safe thing. There is also the potential for someone else to do it thinking they are helping you. A circuit feeding in place of existing one on the house from the garage to the interlock keeps it safe. I just installed a 20kw generac with a full automatic transfer switch as i am getting a little older and not wanting to drag the pto one out. But I left my interlock setup in incase the generac fails me.

 

[Bark]

It ran just fine until I noticed the neighbor's porch light was on around10:15PM, when I went down and switched back to normal power.

I also rely on seeing a neighbor's lights back on to figure out the power is back on. Or, I have to check to see if the power company's meter is back on. Either way, I wish there was an easier way to determine that the power is back on.

 

[Henro]

That interlock on the main panel is how I did mine. Anything less like back feeding from the garage depends on you never making a mistake in breaker sequence, not a safe thing. There is also the potential for someone else to do it thinking they are helping you. A circuit feeding in place of existing one on the house from the garage to the interlock keeps it safe. I just installed a 20kw generac with a full automatic transfer switch as i am getting a little older and not wanting to drag the pto one out. But I left my interlock setup in incase the generac fails me.

Your point is valid.

One could interlock between the breaker feeding the garage just as he does between the breaker tied to the generator and the incoming breaker, but would have to disable the interlock if he wanted to power the garage after main power was restored.

For absolute safety a separate feed from the shop/garage would be required. Not always easy...

 

[skeets]

Ig you go to the applience store and ask for an LED light used on a freezer that shows it is on and wire it across the main,, after of course you drill a hole in the panel and mount the lamp then one lead to the ground and the other to one of the main lines from the meter,, as long as the main power is off the light will not be on, WHen is is the light will light and you know you can shut everything down

 

[Chanceywd]

I installed one of these. It has a ground wire and a lead you wrap around one of your hot incoming utility cables. It has a pot inside i had to adjust after talking to a factory rep as it was too sensitive. I also made a shield out of aluminum wrapping and grounded that, like a Faraday cage so it wouldn't pick up other signals. I just turn it on when I would do the interlock transfer and it would blat when the power came back on. With my new generac I installed last month I need to move to that transfer panel

Reliance Controls PowerBACK Utility Power Return Alert

Model: THP108