generators and the add benifit that is maybe ignored?

Preparation, Preparedness & Prevention Disaster Preparation & Planning
1

So I have been ready and watching videos on the internet about back-up generators on how to hook them up and how make them quiet with a bigger muffler and quiet box. I had to find out what a quiet box is, what it does and the problems that come with a quiet box. Heat.

I read the thread "NG standby generator vs portable gasoline generator"https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=102095 and “Lessons learned from 9 days without power.” https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=100506. I have not read the actual articles yet.

The one thing that I noticed that was not being used is the byproduct of a generator. Everybody is doing everything that they can to get rid of it. In the summer time I can’t blame them this byproduct does destroy a lot of things. But it does have a lot of uses for us as well. VW Beatle is the one item that comes to mind that, I think, took the advantage of this byproduct that we need. Heat.

I don’t know about you guys, but I like to stay warm during the cold time of the year when I am doing stuff out in the garage (don’t tell the wife but I do it to get away from the family). I like it when she goes to the store and then parks the car in the garage when she gets back, it takes the edge off the cold in the garage.

So taking an idea from the VW Beatle and modifying it. Why not use the engine as the heater instead of the exhaust system like the VW Beatle. Hey I remember being cold in high school driving around in the ’73 Super Beatle with that rusty pitted heat exchange box that VW called a heater. But the basic idea is still the same.

The idea is this, instead of one quiet box there are two quiet boxes around the generator. The first one is of course quite box right around the generator with a fan or fans, depending on size of the fan/s, the second quiet box is the garage it self. Of course the exhaust has to be vented outside and precautions need to be taken when doing something like this, double walled heat ducting like the stuff used for gas water heater and gas furnaces. I would even add a carbon monoxide detector in the garage.

So what are the possible advantages:

  1. Noise reduction from the generator to the outside world
  2. Ease of maintenance since the generator is out of the weather and closer to the toolbox
  3. Personel are not seen by outside world when PM are done and during time of refueling. This is not an issue if the generator is hooked up to natural gas line that runs in the house for the furnace and hot water heater.
  4. Possible warmer “outside” play are for the kids when they should not be outside for security reasons if they are quiet. (yeah I know that quiet thing is a far stretch for kids)
  5. Help keep canned goods from freezing in the winter time.
  6. Heated garage(sort of) to work on stuff (to get away from the family that is getting on your last nerve.) in the winter time

So what are the possible dis-advantages:

  1. Carbon monoxide poison.
  2. Unburned gas fumes in the garage from a fuel leak.
  3. ???

This is all hypothetical right now since I have not done this yet. Would like some input on the subject. Tell what you think, just as long you don’t call me crazy.:smiley:

2

Eh, you might be able to get usable loss heat out of a system like that. The problem is that gases (or gaseous mixtures like air) are very poor conductors of heat, as you found with the heating system in the VW.

I would say one box with the heat exchanger out of an old car, or off a window unit A/C placed in the box with as small a volume an possible connected to another outside the unit with a blower would probably work a whole lot better. Even using my system, you are confronted with the fact that you are actually venting much of the loss heat out of the garage in the form of the exhaust.

Realistically, either solution won’t provide adequate cooling to allow an air-cooled portable generator to be run continuously inside a quiet box. They can’t actually be run continuously out in the open (if anyone here bothered to read the manuals) because of heat build-up issues. The real way around this is to either get a whole-house unit (of which nearly all are liquid-cooled) or use a portable in a quiet box to charge deep cycles on a schedule that permits adequate cool-down and prioritize the amp draw to things like a light or two, the fridge, and in the winter, the blower on the furnace.