18 replies to this topic

[Cornish Gems]

We were all set to have a wind turbine and then the powers that be changed the parameters which meant that we would need to have permission from the neighbours before we could have one. They have said that there is nothing that can be offered them to make them change their minds because they have horses and are concerned that the noise might disturb them. They have said, however, that the planes and helicopters flying overhead do not disturb them, nor does/do our generator(s).

So now we have a competition between a wind turbine which is more eco-friendly and therefore beneficial for our children's future, and a generator. So please,. please, does anyone know what kind of generator(s) we should be considering if we wish to have at least one extra noisy, smelly one!! If you have one like that and are willing to sell it to us (or even loan it to us - LOL), please please would you let us know!

We fully believe that if we could find the right one, they might decide that a wind turbine is the lesser of two evils!!

[boiow]

an old lister/petter running at 3000 revs is pretty noisy. it delivers about 4kva and you can get them on ebay for about £200. the older it is. the noisier and smellier it gets.
we have two wind turbines to go up. each one is 400w, hope we have no complaints . did'nt realise that neighbours had a say in wind turbine siteing.

[tim'rous beastie]

I reallly feel for you here, that stinking grumbling generator is going to annoy you and yours too, I guess Tim is unable to do anything as it would surely be in his interests to get a way round problems/people like these.

I have never understood people's objections to wind turbines for any reason let alone equine worries.Its a feeble excuse from people who should know and care more. If they can't ride past a turbine they probably should not be riding at all or should realise their horse is an animal and treat it as such.

Its wrong that an "official" body is allowed to move the goal posts to suit themselves/the nimby's. These people, your neighbours and the planners, are stopping you enjoying safely and affordably what is yours, I wonder if you could sue your neighbour for loss of earnings from the potential turbine?!?!

Will look at local auctions for a suitable nasty generator

[Hobbit]

A nice big old diesel generator without a cabinet should do the trick. Ex-military is even better. Run that one through the night and you're pretty much guaranteed an early morning visit from everybody living within 1/4 of a mile!

[bramblebasher]

Hey Cornish, if you are looking to piss people off then go with Bolos words, it will definately work, those gennies are brutal. You could even build a three sided acoustic shroud and point the opening at those you wish to annoy, poor horses though.

However I would seriously consider ditching the wind turbines unless you are grid connected and are making money out of the excess production, I would strongly suggest a solar/diesel genny hybrid system if you are off grid. This is what we have here and it uses 3 litres of fuel a day, at red diesel prices that is £2.10 a day to run and we get all our hot water and heat hydroponic nutrient tanks for out of season salad production. If you run your washing machine/dishwasher only when the genny is on, then you have a decent load for the genny and avoid needing to pull big amounts of power from the precious batery stack voltage, run an exhaust gas heat exchanger and you have just harvested enough waste heat to have your hot showers for the day.

Not that I am anti wind turbines! I may add one to the system in the future but I have witness many many failings with them, I would certainly not want to be relying on one for too much, has hardly been any wind up here for a week now!

Just my opinion based on what I have read/experienced over my life, but I think carbon dioxide induced climate change theory is a pile of crap, and even if it was not, who is to say that we humans are not some clever idea mother nature dreamt up to release carbon deposits back into the atmosphere aka recycling, so that a new cretaceous era can begin? We are just ants.

All the best.

[Thegreatescaper]

If you get a diesel generator run it on refined used chip/curry oil if you want it to really stink, but it will reek like a chip shop/ curry house that has no extractor filters. Probably only worth doing if the neighbour is downward of the prevailing wind. WARNING: it must be filtered and refined into bio-diesel or it will ruin your machine, and check that the machine will run on bio-diesel as it will ruin some fuel pipes and pumps.
Using this has the added advantage that takeaways have to pay for the disposal of their oil as it is a waste product so will usually be happy to give it away for free. You will still need to buy some chemicals for the conversion but it will work out very very cheap. If you search the net you can find many ways to easily build your own equipment for refining cheaply as the commercially available systems tend to be overpriced for what they are. If you were to go down this route it is also probably worth you positioning the genny as close to your neighbour as possible but should you choose this I would hope that you would keep a close eye on the horses to ensure that it is not causing them any distress (and i'm sure you will as I closely follow your progress and am aware you hold animals in high regard, this note is more for others that may read this post).

[Cornish Gems]

Thanks - you are great dear Great Escaper! Following your suggestion, we did a search on eBay and came up with an item of a cd which gives details of 'how to convert used COOKING OIL to run a 6kva 5kw diesel generator' using a few cheap materials and tools plus another couple of possibly useful cds and with the weather as it is, the cd for making a canoe might come in very useful!

[Thegreatescaper]

Glad to help in any way I can. On that note I love to find out how to do things, even if I can rarely afford to put them into practice and one of the things I have found with my never ending quest for information is that most of the information contained within ebooks and c.d.'s of information are usually available for free, legally, but it does take a little time to search which I understand can be in short supply for those of us lucky enough to have started on the journey of turning a field into a farm. The resellers of this info often just find the free info and sell it on as an easy way to make money (it's not, i've tried it in the past and usually only made pocket money!). As for finding out more about converting cooking oil i think it was Dick Strawbridges going green forum that I found to be most useful. As for canoe building a quick search on google for 'free boat building plans' came up with full to scale plans to build one from 2 sheets of marine plywood!
Sorry I could give you any links directly to the required information but i have so much 'how to' information spread across so many hard drives that I may as well not have it for how long it takes to find, but I will try my best to locate the bio-diesel information and post links here as it will probably be very helpful to many with the rate that fuel prices are constantly rising.

[Thegreatescaper]

All my biofuel info must be on my old laptop that went kupput and I haven't yet transfered all the data but just found a link in my favourites to http://www.thegreenl...forum.net/forum where there is lots of people into biodeisel and loads of information and links to both the chemicals required, the process, making your own equipment and reviews of manufactured equipment. I would recommend against buying equipment as it tends to massively overpriced and no better than the average D.I.Y.er can produce for only a fraction of the cost.
Another point you may wish to consider for the longer term is that if you have spare land to grow rape seed, for little cost you can produce your own oil from this that requires no refining, only slight warming, to be used in many diesel engines. This however won't smell nowhere near as bad as using used oil from a takeaway but only costs a bit of currently unused land, seed and furtaliser, natural I hope, cheaper in both monetry and enviromental terms.

[bramblebasher]

The other option you have run diesel engines on waste veggie oil, is to run a twin tank system. So the engine stops and starts on diesel but flips to the veggie oil tank only when the engine is hot. Vegetable oil will behave pretty much the same way as diesel when heated, but the engine will not thank you if you try to start it on cold oil especially in the winter.

The great thing above doing this is that you only need to make sure your oil has been filtered, no hazardous chemicals necessary for creating the biodiesel. Bad side is that you do need to get your head around wiring up the tank selection valves, but if you do it yourself you can do it for about £!50.

Unfortunately biodiesel can gel up at cold temps as will veggie oil, so if you have a twin tank system you have the option to keep running without needing to run a blow torch over the high pressure lines/injectors.

It definately smells like a chip shop : ) If you know any lipo suction surgeons you could have a real interesting smelling fuel, I know of a guy who used to run his mercedes on biodiesel derived from human fat! Nice!

Have fun.

[Cornish Gems]

Having looked into the possibility of biodiesel fuel, we have decided against trying it out. BUT. using a twin tank system sounds very promising. How much do you charge to come and set one up?

Incidentally, we have discovered that there are pd rights for one of the small wind turbines. Surely, they are likley to be noisier than a proper one as they are not made for 'commercial' use but just for 'private and personal' use and therefore not bound by the same rules and regulations?

[micky1]

have you considered a CHP? a combined heating and power source. In essence there a diesel engine in a box that drives an motor to produce power and the heating is taken off the engine.

I will be going this way to start

[bramblebasher]

Hey Micky1 that is what we have and it works great : ) One year running and no issues, but cleaning out exhaust gas heat exchangers is no fun at all, think chimney sweep!

Bramble.

[mixedangased]

lister genset is the way to go,

a cs 1/ 6kva start o matic will run on straight veg oil or mixed,iv,e had a few getting rare now.

dont bother with trying to make bio diesel been there done that,very messy.

now run the hilux on 50/50 derv/rapeseed oil.

[jasonp]

to make a genny noisy remove the exhaust, slacken the tappets a little.

 

chip oil/bio diesal i found hard to source the oil as comercial companies hoover it all up

 

wind turbines are a permitted development up to a certian level. think itts high is goverend by distance frpm boundary and blade sweep size i think was max 3 meters

[Devon Cream]

OK - so what can one do to a Lister genny to make it less noisy and smelly!?  LOL

 

Also, I am having real trouble in getting mine started on these cold mornings despite using Easy Start. Any suggestions as to what can be done?

[boiow]

OK - so what can one do to a Lister genny to make it less noisy and smelly!?  LOL

 

Also, I am having real trouble in getting mine started on these cold mornings despite using Easy Start. Any suggestions as to what can be done?

If you havn't got an oil priming hole to aid cold weather starting, you can instead just crank the handle about 25 times at a moderate pace and this should give you enough fuel to get you going.

[bramblebasher]

Use a blow torch on the air intake, it will start MUCH MUCH easier! Not so close that you melt your air filter, although it's likely a steel element. As Bolow says, crank it a few times with your b torch on the intake then just go for it. In the future, find an engine with a glow plug if possible!  

 

B.

[bramblebasher]

Ps when I had my lister CS on veg oil, the glow plug (retrofitted) packed in a few times and this trick saved my shoulder joint, it works great. Let us know if it works for you.

 

B.