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Coote
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Joined: 19/10/2010
Location: New Zealand
Posts: 1

Posted: 08:14am 19 Oct 2010

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Hi from Nelson, New Zealand.

I haven't looked at everything here yet, but it looks great. I am grateful that you are here.

To some degree, I've been involved in electricity generation for quite a few years now. When I worked with the NZ Ministry of Works we would sometimes service standby power plants in big buildings.... and occasionally I went to a lighthouse to perform maintenance. I am a fitter and turner so I was always more involved with the mechanical rather the electrical side of things.

My brother and parents have a block of land on an island in the Marlborough Sounds. Since we started staying there since the late 1960's we have relied on our own generating systems for electricity. Our first generating system used an old single cylinder Lister diesel to drive it. It was made in 1930 I believe. In later years my Dad put the Lister aside and installed a diesel with an electric start. After Dad died, the engine that took the Lister's place was driving us crazy as it wouldn't run smoothly and the cheap alternator connected to it was, well, cheap. One of the rotor coils came loose and the wire broke. We managed to repair the alternator rotor, but we couldn't easily tame the little diesel engine. So we ripped the whole thing out and re-installed the old Lister. After sitting in storage for a long time, the Lister didn't seem to have deteriorated and it started easily.

Besides the Lister, there are a couple of Yanmar power plants.

But the power plants need diesel, and it is a bit of a bother getting diesel to the Island, and frankly it is a bit dumb to be relying on it when the sun is beating down, there is a small creek nearby.... and often it is as windy as hell.

A couple of years before he passed away, my Dad built a water-powered generating system using a small Pelton wheel coupled to an old Gentle Annie washing machine motor. This gives us a nominal 24 volt output and up to nearly 4 amps. We have a bank of deep cycle batteries and a fairly large inverter. When there is no need to run a washing machine or some other machinery, the little Pelton system seems to be adequate for lights.

My Dad was an engineer. The place on the Island was a major focus for him. He built a saw mill, a jetty, two dams, generating systems, a house, and numerous other things. Now that he is gone things aren't quite as in order as they should be, and there is a bit of an information problem.... like where are the spare parts and how is everything connected in the electrical system?

I'm slowly figuring things out and solving problems as they occur. Both Yanmar plants had faults, but I eventually found and repaired them with persistence rather than expertise.

I now would like to harness more of the 'free' energy that is available. Solar panels seem like an obvious step. But when the sun isn't shining, chances are it will be blowing.... so maybe a wind unit should be installed.

So now I am going to investigate some ideas. I think it is probably best to try to run all the household requirements on 12 or 24 volts. If I can't get a decent low voltage DC fridge, then maybe I will just have a small inverter attached to the fridge. LED lighting seems like a good idea. And then I need to build or obtain a decent regulator/control unit that will keep the batteries safe as I try to charge them from several different sources. I have a bit of electrical knowledge, but not as much as I want for tackling this. I like to have equipment that is robust, simple, and relatively easy to understand and repair. So ..... like I said earlier.... I'm grateful for the existence of this site.

I don't have any pictures of our Pelton Wheel unit, but I have some of the other plant.

Best wishes..... Stephen Coote.

The inverter and controls etc:

The old Lister. A beautiful engine:

A more modern genset. Yanmar. 5kw I think:

Gizmo

Admin Group

Joined: 05/06/2004
Location: Australia
Posts: 5107

Posted: 08:57am 19 Oct 2010

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Hi Coote, welcome to the site.

Thanks for sharing. I do like the old Listers, I dont have one, but always keep an eye out, hoping one comes my way some day. I would like to convert it to bio fuel, or at least thats the plan.

If your hands on, and it sounds like you are, then a combination of solar and home made wind is the way to go I think. You already have the diesel generators to carry the big loads, so you can get away with a smaller solar/wind/battery/inverter combination to get you started. The solar/wind will give enough for the lights/tv/fridge, and when you want to run the washing machine, workshop etc, fire up the generator.

The pelton wheel sounds interesting.

Glenn

The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago, the second best time is right now.
JAQ

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