Car motor as generator?

A global place for general discussion (Volvo, V3M or non-Volvo related topics).
Please introduce yourself here, your Volvo 300 hobby...
NO technical support, parts requests or car advertisements here
User avatar
jtbo
Posts: 5805
Joined: 23 Jul 2004 03:50 am
Location: Finland, middle of nowhere
Contact:

Re: Car motor as generator?

Post by jtbo »

I think it is better to run glyckol water mix and use copper spirals as heat exhangers which would heat the water in tank too, can get more heat than electricity, but cooking oil here is bit hard to come buy as our oil companies are making contracts with every mc fat chain to get their required bio part of fuels cheap and market has woken to this, at shop veggie oil costs a lot more than diesel and as we have house heating oil (it is really diesel without so much taxes) that is lot cheaper to use than veggie oil.

70% water 30% Glyckol is freezing up here, we must use 50:50 mix :lol:

Also what is good when using copper spiral heat exhangers is that I can put it into my current water heater, that is insulated so that it keeps 80 litres of water hot for days without electricity, water that comes to it has pressure of some 3 bar.

THere is also need to went some excess heat out, so for that is needed own circuit with valves and that should have the rad and e-fan.

Princible has much the same, some details are different really.

For easy to do exhaust heat exhanger, one could take y-pipe or two and put larger diameter pipes there using some aluminium flexible tubing, so less problems with welding, or then take straight pipe of enough length and put it into a box filled with water, and pipe outlets.

Polyurethane insulation is what we here use for pipes, inch thick or thicker, boiler itself should reside at warm indoors actually. those heat exhangers feed and return lines need some valves so that when motor is not running they are not cooling the water.

But for heating I of course need lot bigger tank, one that needs to be perhaps thousands of litres in size, I really don't know how big it should be, but to allow it to be loaded so that heating for house there is plenty for 24 hours, water don
t need to be too warm, some 40 degrees should be enough really.

One problem with using electricity for immersion heaters is that motor is already outputting more heat for needed amount of electricity than what heat can be mostly used.

Two big problems, 2000 litre insulated tank is not going to be cheap, and of course enough big generator + batteries will cost a lot too.

But you never know what you may find if keeping eyes open.
Volvo 360GL -88 -under restoration-
Volvo 343DL vario -81 -running- Image
Volvo 240 Diesel -83 -undecided-
Citroen ZX Dturbo -97 -daily- ImageImage
User avatar
Chris_C
*** V3M DONOR ***
Posts: 9600
Joined: 18 Jun 2004 11:53 pm
Location: South Coast, UK

Re: Car motor as generator?

Post by Chris_C »

jtbo wrote:I think it is better to run glyckol water mix and use copper spirals as heat exhangers which would heat the water in tank too, can get more heat than electricity
Yes, agree to this!

Also.... build the tank ;) Or daisy chain together whatever ones you can get cheap
'89(G) 340 GLE B172k
'03 S60 D5 SE, '91 (J) MX5, 1954 Cyclemaster
Ex:
'89(F) 340 GL F7R (ex B172k) - Fake -> SBKV 300 Runner Up 08, 12; '91(H) 340 GL B14.4E - Kar; '88(F) 360 GLT B200E - Jet -> BKV 300 Runner Up 09; '89(G) 360 GLT B200E - Beast
CBA
Posts: 1071
Joined: 24 Mar 2010 02:14 am

Re: Car motor as generator?

Post by CBA »

Just put the car radiator in the tank via long pipes - heat exchanger v0.0000001 :D
Got surface area? :mrgreen:
volvosneverdie
*** V3M DONOR ***
Posts: 9143
Joined: 11 Nov 2008 04:22 pm
Location: Newcastle Upon Toon

Re: Car motor as generator?

Post by volvosneverdie »

Image
CBA
Posts: 1071
Joined: 24 Mar 2010 02:14 am

Re: Car motor as generator?

Post by CBA »

Oh dear.. sm19
Post Reply