Your last generator Maintenance Run

[Popgadget]

I used a 4 inch “B” vent exhaust hood through the wall, and made up a bracket to center the exhaust pipe into the inlet of the vent, with lots of airspace around it. The exhaust flow also scavenged additional cooling air from the shed. It worked very well for decades, I only abandoned it because I replaced the generator with one in an outdoor enclosure.

 

[bdhsfz6]

Ran it for an hour today with temp around 70. The inner pipe was blistering hot. The outside sleeve was warm but the wood and vinyl stayed cool. The port is well designed.

As you suggest, I'll check it on a hot day to be sure.

 

[grsthegreat]

Sounds good. Its helps that diesels tend to run cooler also, at least every diesel ive owned.

 

[3930dave]

Finally finished my home backup generator project. It took longer than I estimated and I was getting a bit nervous. I sold my PTO generator a few weeks ago and power outage "season" is approaching.

It's a Kubota GL11000, 11 KW unit which I put in an unused space in the rear of the barn. It's up on blocks but I ordered the wheel kit in case it needs to be moved.

It's controlled from the house and monitored with cameras that I added to my security system. Rather than use an auto transfer switch, I elected to control it manually so I can set my own warm up and cool down times.

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The trickiest part was the exhaust system. I needed something that would vent outside without melting the vinyl siding or burning the place down.

I found this product that works perfectly:

View attachment 1790684

Amazon.com

It's double wall, stainless steel design minimizes it's outer temperature. I used stainless bolts to offset the mounting flange from the siding and filled the space around the outer shell with muffler wrap.


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I'm still thinking about a block heater or some other prewarm method. I'll probably wait and see how it starts on cold days. The barn isn't heated but it does buffer the outside temps considerably. My tractors always start in the building, even on the coldest mornings, so I'm hoping the genny will too.

The only thing left to do is come up with a way to fuel it. It only has a 7.4 gal tank, which will provide 13 hours of run time at 1/4 load, or 7 hours at full load. I fuel my tractors from my fuel oil storage tanks in the house. The generator is stationary, so I'm looking at a caddy to transport fuel to the barn. More to follow.

Nice clean install, and beautiful Kub ! Thanks for posting the pics . Good to see you are operational, before the "Season" hits.

IR Temp gun checks (likely already done), and maybe a loud/remote monitor smoke detector may be on your Xmas list.

One option (my Dad built his own, many years ago on a furnace vent-pipe) may be to add essentially heat-sink material (think finned sheet metal) to the flex, before it hits that dual wall - needs to be observed closely during testing, as more heat will radiate off the flex.

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

Ran it for an hour today with temp around 70. The inner pipe was blistering hot. The outside sleeve was warm but the wood and vinyl stayed cool. The port is well designed.

As you suggest, I'll check it on a hot day to be sure.

Saw this after my last post.... good stuff !

Rgds, D.

 

[bdhsfz6]

Nice clean install, and beautiful Kub ! Thanks for posting the pics . Good to see you are operational, before the "Season" hits.

IR Temp gun checks (likely already done), and maybe a loud/remote monitor smoke detector may be on your Xmas list.

One option (my Dad built his own, many years ago on a furnace vent-pipe) may be to add essentially heat-sink material (think finned sheet metal) to the flex, before it hits that dual wall - needs to be observed closely during testing, as more heat will radiate off the flex.

Rgds, D.

Good idea on the heat sink for the flex pipe, I'll look into it.

It can't be seen in the pics, but the engine radiator fan blows cooling air upwards out of the housing around the flex pipe. Yes, it's warm air, but it is still much cooler than the pipe, and will certainly have some cooling effect.

Yes, I did check the temps with an infra red thermometer. After an hour, the wood and vinyl siding adjacent to the pipe were just 2 degrees F above ambient. I'll check it again on a hot day to be sure.

Thanks for the tip.

 

[3930dave]

Good idea on the heat sink for the flex pipe, I'll look into it.

It can't be seen in the pics, but the engine radiator fan blows cooling air upwards out of the housing around the flex pipe. Yes, it's warm air, but it is still much cooler than the pipe, and will certainly have some cooling effect.

Yes, I did check the temps with an infra red thermometer. After an hour, the wood and vinyl siding adjacent to the pipe were just 2 degrees F above ambient. I'll check it again on a hot day to be sure.

Thanks for the tip.

Your #'s sound great

Belt+suspenders may look goofy, but is not a bad thing.... On Things That Matter......

Let us know what you move to for more fuel capacity, on this very clean installation.

Rgds, D.

 

[bdhsfz6]

I came up with a way to fuel my standby diesel generator, which is installed in the back of the barn. Presently, I fuel my tractors from a pump on the 1000 gal. fuel oil tank at the house.

I can't use it for the generator, so I built this fuel caddy to transport fuel out to the barn:

I try to repurpose items I have around the place for projects like this. I took an old unused cart I built to haul barrels of coal to the stove, and mounted a 30 gal drum.

I took a 12V transfer pump off an old tank and installed it on the barrel. I powered the pump with cordless tool batteries so the whole rig is self contained and can be used during a power outage.

I fill it at the house and roll it out to the barn, or anywhere else I need fuel. The only thing I had to buy was the barrel and the 20V to 12VDC converter.

Yes, there are wheeled fuel caddies out there but they're pricey. Most have hand crank pumps, which I hate. I find it too difficult to watch the fuel level while cranking the darn thing.

There may well be a battery powered fuel caddy on wheels out there but I have yet to see one. If one does exist, it would surely cost more than the $100 I have invested in this home made rig.

 

[WinterDeere]

I came up with a way to fuel my standby diesel generator, which is installed in the back of the barn. Presently, I fuel my tractors from a pump on the 1000 gal. fuel oil tank at the house.

You run your tractors on fuel oil? I really know very little about this, but thought it would be a problem either for gelling in cold weather, or due to sulfur content messing with Tier 4 equipment?

 

[bdhsfz6]

Just about all fuel oil is ULS these days, at least it has been here for years. I've been using it for 40 years in my Kubota tractors with no issues. I store them in an unheated barn but have had no problems with gelling.

 

[LouNY]

#2 fuel oil will "gel" in cold weather unless it has had additives added to lower the cloud point.
The ‘cloud point’ is the temperature when waxes (paraffins) start to form cloudy bits in the diesel.
This is normally thought to be in the teens (F) it has been observed as warm as upper 20's (F).
Fuel can have additives added to prevent or at least slow this from happening, these will often be called winter fuels or blended fuels.
True blended fuel are a blend of #2 and #1(kerosene) which will be much more resistant to allowing the wax crystals to form and additives can also be added to blended or mixed fuel.
This will often build up in fuel filters and stop the fuel flow, if a person is lucky and notices the power decline before the engine quits getting the engine to some warmth will often fix the situation, torches, heat guns or even hot water will all help. Some people will even have heaters on the fuel filters to help with this problem.

 

[WinterDeere]

Just about all fuel oil is ULS these days, at least it has been here for years. I've been using it for 40 years in my Kubota tractors with no issues. I store them in an unheated barn but have had no problems with gelling.

Wow. Good to know! It would be a heck of a lot more convenient to just put another drain cock on my heating oil drum in the basement, than be running out to the gas station for diesel fuel. Cheaper, too!

 

[WinterDeere]

#2 fuel oil will "gel" in cold weather unless it has had additives added to lower the cloud point.
The ‘cloud point’ is the temperature when waxes (paraffins) start to form cloudy bits in the diesel.
This is normally thought to be in the teens (F) it has been observed as warm as upper 20's (F).
Fuel can have additives added to prevent or at least slow this from happening, these will often be called winter fuels or blended fuels.
True blended fuel are a blend of #2 and #1(kerosene) which will be much more resistant to allowing the wax crystals to form and additives can also be added to blended or mixed fuel.
This will often build up in fuel filters and stop the fuel flow, if a person is lucky and notices the power decline before the engine quits getting the engine to some warmth will often fix the situation, torches, heat guns or even hot water will all help. Some people will even have heaters on the fuel filters to help with this problem.

Yeah, this is what I always thought, as well. But bdh is local to me, and reports no such problems?

We see upper 20's pretty much every day, all winter long. We will usually see a week or two of nights near 10F, although my shed probably tempers that a bit, even if unheated and uninsulated. We very occasionally see a few nights hitting 0F, or even a few degrees below, but that's less common here.

 

[bdhsfz6]

Yeah, this is what I always thought, as well. But bdh is local to me, and reports no such problems?

We see upper 20's pretty much every day, all winter long. We will usually see a week or two of nights near 10F, although my shed probably tempers that a bit, even if unheated and uninsulated. We very occasionally see a few nights hitting 0F, or even a few degrees below, but that's less common here.

Gelling is more common around here for storage tanks located outside and above ground. Mobile homes often suffer this malady and use a blend of fuel oil and kerosene.

I've found that the temperature is buffered enough inside unheated out buildings to prevent gelling, at least around here. It could be a different story in colder climates though, or for equipment stored outside.

 

[WinterDeere]

Gelling is more common around here for storage tanks located outside and above ground. Mobile homes often suffer this malady and use a blend of fuel oil and kerosene.

I've found that the temperature is buffered enough inside unheated out buildings to prevent gelling, at least around here. It could be a different story in colder climates though, or for equipment stored outside.

Good to know. I'm guessing you're probably up near Stroudsberg? So it's probably colder where you are than here, unless you're right on the water. I'm down in the Philly/Allentown area, and not near any tempering water influence.

 

[bdhsfz6]

Good to know. I'm guessing you're probably up near Stroudsberg? So it's probably colder where you are than here, unless you're right on the water. I'm down in the Philly/Allentown area, and not near any tempering water influence.

IMO, you would be fine if you store your tractor in a closed unheated building. If not, fill a soda straw with fuel oil and crimp the ends with a couple of clothes pins. Leave it outside in the cold and see if it gels.

 

[LouNY]

I usually fill a glass jar about half full of fuel from my outside tanks and leave it out in the weather to observe when I think of it.
When I see it starting to get cloudy depending upon the forecast I may add more #1 or additive into the tractors fuel tanks and then run them for half and hour of so to mix the fuel up.
My present winter fuel tank is about 25 to 30% #1 with a heavy dose of anti -gell additive.
Which reminds me it's about time to replace the tank filter and fill a jar for this winter.

 

[WinterDeere]

My interest in using fuel oil instead of driving to the gas station for diesel, was purely out of convenience. Having to monitor the stuff, then find, buy, and add additives, sort of goes against the whole convenience factor. Sounds like I'm better off just continuing to buy diesel at the closest gas station.

 

[slckeys]

My interest in using fuel oil instead of driving to the gas station for diesel, was purely out of convenience. Having to monitor the stuff, then find, buy, and add additives, sort of goes against the whole convenience factor. Sounds like I'm better off just continuing to buy diesel at the closest gas station.

When I bought my home heating oil the first time from the company I use, I asked if it was ULSD, they said yes. And they also treat all their heating oil for gelling as well. So I have them fill my fuel storage tank with whichever is cheaper. Heating oil/off road fuel. The off road fuel goes untreated in the summer according to them. So, in a long winded post here... Doesn't hurt to ask your fuel delivery company if they treat it for gelling before delivery.

 

[bdhsfz6]

My interest in using fuel oil instead of driving to the gas station for diesel, was purely out of convenience. Having to monitor the stuff, then find, buy, and add additives, sort of goes against the whole convenience factor. Sounds like I'm better off just continuing to buy diesel at the closest gas station.

Definitely the safest way to do it.