Auxilliary Engine and Wind Blue Permanent Magnet Alternator

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Lopez Mike
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Re: Auxilliary Engine and Wind Blue Permanent Magnet Alterna

Post by Lopez Mike » Sat Feb 27, 2016 3:02 pm

I wouldn't want it enclosed. I like looking at things thrashing around and so do about half of my passengers.

One of the standing jokes in steam launch operation (backed up by many photos) is that the women sit where they can enjoy being on the water and the guys sit and look at the power plant like zombies. Highly entertaining.
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Re: Auxilliary Engine and Wind Blue Permanent Magnet Alterna

Post by DetroiTug » Sat Feb 27, 2016 4:48 pm

"I wouldn't want it enclosed. I like looking at things thrashing around"

Okay, an insulated viewing window :D .. I was thinking from the standpoint of keeping the engine temperature high to maintain steam heat and up the efficiency - heat would build up inside the case, the engine shaft could go through the case and the generator mounted on the outside in a louvered corner of the case to keep it cool and lower electrical resistance.

I have too many irons in the fire right now to start a new project, but I may tackle this one someday. I wouldn't mind having one myself.

Ramble time:

In 2004 in the Northeast here, we had a grid down black out that covered the whole Northeast. Everyone remembers it around here and it only lasted 24 hours. It was amazing how quickly everything deteriorated. Of the gas stations that were able to find a generator to run the pumps, rationing (10 gallon limit) and price gouging (from $1 to $4 per gallon) began immediately, people were fighting in line. Rumor had it that north of the city there was electricity and people were heading up and running out of gas on the expressway. Stores that were opened had the shelves emptied quickly as panicked people hoarded the presumable last food goods. It started Friday afternoon and I just went home which took about 10 times longer because none of the streetlights were working and traffic was backed up everywhere. Once home I pulled out some thawing ribs from the freezer, fired up the grill and made ribs and fried potatoes, listened to the truck radio watched the news on a battery TV which was pretty comical as they felt no one was watching and said whatever they wanted to, things like "blah blah blah -what the hell are we doing here?". I had about 10 gallons of stored water - the trickle from the city water was being warned against using because the treatment plant was down. Had some stored canned goods, a firearm, fuel in the truck, I was good for about 10 days I figured, if it was still going, I would just wait and drive out around the remaining mayhem. I went out Saturday morning and it was crazy, police cars and ambulances racing up and down. At around 3pm Saturday, the power was restored and it was immediate normalcy, but we all got a taste of what it would be like.

-Ron
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Lopez Mike
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Re: Auxilliary Engine and Wind Blue Permanent Magnet Alterna

Post by Lopez Mike » Sat Feb 27, 2016 5:17 pm

My Summer home is on an island where we automatically keep some non-refridgerated food stored away in case of power outages or, more likely, an interruption in ferry service. Several jerry cans of gasoline as on-island gas is really expensive! The house is wood heated.

At any time I am O.K. for a week or two and I have a wood fired steam boat and a fishing pole. Not a pepper but somehow I ended up being fairly well prepared.

Here in Baja the power is usually quite reliable but the outages are totally random. No connection with rude weather or anything. From Early November to the end of April it's T-shirt weather.

I'm a ham operator and have alternate power sources so that if there is a need to call for a medivac I can handle it.

Face it. Steam power in small sizes is grossly inefficient so we could not want to use it for more than a short emergency or for fun. But it sure is fun.

I think I may look into a Stuart Sirius and a small permag motor to charge my ham rig battery.
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Re: Auxilliary Engine and Wind Blue Permanent Magnet Alterna

Post by barts » Sat Feb 27, 2016 5:57 pm

Well, the most likely outage is one of the ferries losing their fancy engine control system and ramming the ferry dock hard enough to require weeks of repair :)... in the mean time, I guess private ferries would be the only way to get food onto the island.

Anyway, a wood-fired steamboat is certainly attractive in that it has little dependency on external infrastructure. Even if fuel oil is hard to come by, wood where you are is plentiful, and a pail of lube oil will outlast all of us.

I have a large (~3' x ~4') Fresnel lens from a rear projection TV; in the desert it would prob. run a small Stirling engine pretty nicely; it will instantly light a 2" x 4" on fire.

For our big boat, driving an Balmar alternator w/ a serpentine drive belt would let us put 30A into the batteries w/ the engine loafing around at 300 rpm. I don't expect a lot of electrical load, but when we're sleeping on board things add up as I've seen w our Airstream trailer. Since weight is less of an issue for a 37' boat, a couple of large batteries are likely in order. There's something comforting about being able to run a large bilge pump for a long time...

- Bart
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Re: Auxilliary Engine and Wind Blue Permanent Magnet Alterna

Post by Lopez Mike » Sat Feb 27, 2016 6:11 pm

Yes, a large electric pump is great. I have tested the pump in my sailboat and it will fill a 55 gallon drum in 90 seconds. It almost has recoil!

I have seen an RV absorption fridge running on direct solar power with a relatively small cylindrical reflector focussed on a heat pipe that was plumbed to the fridge. The biggest problem unsolved at that time was regulating it. He used a black cloth to damp it down.

I seldom find myself beyond a mile from shore so I can easily run aground if needed. And there is the old hack about the performance of a frightened man with a bucket standing up to his knees in water.
Last edited by Lopez Mike on Sat Feb 27, 2016 7:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Auxilliary Engine and Wind Blue Permanent Magnet Alterna

Post by DetroiTug » Sat Feb 27, 2016 7:02 pm

"run a large bilge pump"

One of the best steam things added to the tug was the steam ejector for a bilge pump. Works every time as long as there is steam. One can be made out of simple pipe fittings.

-Ron
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Re: Auxilliary Engine and Wind Blue Permanent Magnet Alterna

Post by Lopez Mike » Sat Feb 27, 2016 7:36 pm

my grandmother had a thing like that to empty a wash tub using tap water. No expansion as with steam but it worked.

In a lab we had a thing sort of like that to fit on a sink tap and generate a mild vacuum to pull solutions though a filter.
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Re: Auxilliary Engine and Wind Blue Permanent Magnet Alterna

Post by barts » Sat Feb 27, 2016 8:44 pm

I'll definitely fit a steam ejector for a bilge pump... but if the boat is sitting at anchor or in a slip while I'm ashore, I'll like to have a good bilge pump minding the boat. I'm using one to pull a vacuum in the condenser before starting the engine...

- Brt
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Re: Auxilliary Engine and Wind Blue Permanent Magnet Alterna

Post by cyberbadger » Tue Mar 01, 2016 5:00 am

Got some time to fix some of the issues today and steam up and make some electricity. 8-)

My stuart is knocking. I think I need to adjust the timing. :/

I've got a little DC watt meter in the mail. The light dimming is from the permanent magnet cogging - I kind of like the effect, some capacitors might solve that.

Still got some minor adjustments to make - but overall it was fun it was generating quite a nice light for half an hour with almost no steam use and no need to bother the fire..

If I was using LED lights I'd be able to go nuts, I like the charm and wastefulness of incandescent. :)



-CB
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Re: Auxilliary Engine and Wind Blue Permanent Magnet Alterna

Post by Lopez Mike » Tue Mar 01, 2016 1:01 pm

I wouldn't fret a bit about the efficiency of your alternator. With the thermal efficiency of your boiler and engine never reaching one or two percent, a lossy conversion from mechanical to electrical work is insignificant.

As much as I appreciate the wonderful efficiency of LED lights and understand that they are probably the way to go, I find the main argument for them to be just silly in many cases.

The complaint about incandescent light is that much of their energy is in the infrared and thus is wasted. Well it depends on what you consider 'wasted'. I live in a place where no one has, much less uses, air conditioning. About half of the time I heat with resistance heating. Ordinary baseboard heaters. So what if my light bulbs are putting out heat? It's just more heat to me. Electrical heaters are 100% efficient by definition. Where else is the heat going to go to? Same thing with the cord to a portable heater. So what if it gets warm? Just more heat unless it starts to smoke.

On my boat or in my RV is different. Limited supply of energy and I don't heat with it.

Grump!
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