O/T Homebuilt Gen bit the dust Pic's added

[vixenmaster]

Early sunday morning i am runnin it to charge up my water pumpin bbl & smoke starts comin out of it & stopped producin electric. I called Autozone told them their lifetime warranteed alternator has fried up crispy. They tell me come in afternoon on Tues. they will have me a replacement. Whoa its hot i need my AC n fans. Well i go to O'reilly's & bought me one with no core to turn in. $115 samolians later i have alt. & takes me 30 min when i get back to cabin we have power!

[Ont_Excal]

Good to hear you are back up and running cool.
Sounds like you need more solar panels!

[vixenmaster]

Yup really need another 1500 watts worth & 6 more 6volt golf cart batterys. So costly, i have gotten 4 6volts this yr & have 477 watts of panels. Going to get 2 more 6volts by Sept. & 2 100 watt 12v panels in Aug.

[j.krug]

Good to hear you weren't down too long. It's way too hot to not have a way to cool yourself off.

[Farmer]

Glad to hear you are up and running again . It is a tough row to hoe living off the grid . I would love to be able to give Ontario Hydro the boot !

[vixenmaster]

Ppl. jus cannot believe the cost of livin off grid, its really high priced. Its our only way to have power, you can run a small generator but they (cheap one's) suck the gas cause they are preset on rpm's. Gas is really high so its tuff. My fuel cost so fer this month is $100 so fer n halfway through month.

[Masboy]

I know all my Amish neighbors have diesel and gas generators they use for milking and pumping there water. they use too all have windmills but not too much anymore and there stoves,hot waterheaters,fridges and all run on propane and that,s not too cheap.

[MarkMarine]

Mike, I have a gas generator (maybe 5500 watts) I am not using. It has the preset rpms on it (unless you know how to tinker). You are welcome to it - if for nothing else you can use it as a back up.

[vixenmaster]

Thx fer the offer i is stubburn. My alt. bracket broke last nite just before 9 pm. So we shut everything down cept 1 fan on med. speed. Today i made another bracket drilled new holes in the hard steel 3/8" plate. Changed oil in engine got all hooked up. Had picked up a new kevlar 28" A belt from my Farm store made in India. I fired up th 6.5 HP Honda easy like brought up rpm's let it start pushin juice. In about 8 min my eng. just stopped, went to the alt/gen & belt had burnt up. So much fer kevlar & it had 7 lil strings inside that were a joke! So nada today on gen. power just what the sun could give us between the clouds. I will be in town at the auto parts store to get a Gates or Dayton A series belt in the mornin

[vixenmaster]

Here be some pic's of broken bracket & the belt from India. Plus a few of my small power set-up.

[Raymond]

Hey Mike,
Hope you and the Mrs. can keep cool. What is the temperature at your location?
Raymond

[vixenmaster]

It was 98 few min's ago, this heat wave is taken a toll on everyone.

[Raymond]

I am ready for some snow and we have only seen a maximum temperature of 30 degrees Celsius and I thought that was hot. People are really getting tired of all the heat, I know I am.
Raymond

[one shot scott]

That's a pretty neat setup ya got there V.M!

[Ont_Excal]

Just a few thoughts on your setup.


I would place the panels on the roof of the cabin. This would provide a better line of sight to the sun. On the roof the panels would also keep some of the heat off the roof itself.


I would place the battery bank on the north side of the house and the shade would help keep them a little cooler. Heat shortens their life.


A belt drive setup is less efficient than a direct drive. When finances allow, I would suggest a commercial unit in diesel. Less maintenance and more electric output for fuel consumed.

I know, I know not redneck enough!
Just remember, happy wife = = = = happy life.
In a cabin your size it's priceless!