BrokenTrack
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2018
- Messages
- 1,551
- Location
- Maine
- Tractor
- Tractors, Skidders, Bulldozers, Forestry Equipment
The other day we lost our power, but the kids did not even notice because I hooked up my PTO Generator to my Tractor, and made power that way. But as I checked on my tractor, the engine and generator were pretty warm after running for 18 hours...not dangerously hot, but warm.
Well my home is radiant floor heated, utilizing the two loop system with metering valve on a PLC. It is pretty simple but efficient, mostly because as long as the main boiler loop is between 100-212 degrees, I have a warm home. I built my heating system this way so that no matter what I want to heat with, propane, coal, firewood, solar, geothermal, compost heat, etc, it can heat my home.
So it got me to thinking, I have a couple of liquid cooled diesel engines kicking around, what happens if I put one of these engines on my PTO Generator and then plumbed the cooling lines to be circulated through my main boiler loop? I could conceivable produce enough power to power my home, and heat my house at the same time. This would be no different then a spit swapper on a tractor, and they obviously work.
In doing the math, it would seem to be expensive at first, me saving myself about $3800 in costs for heat and electricity, but consuming about $5400 in fuel. BUT...my generator produces 20 KW no matter what my house consumes, so with net-metering, I could kick extra power on the grid. At 16 cents per KW, I would not make a lot of money, but I would make some. That is I would make more money then I consume in fuel.
IF nothing else, being hooked up in spit-swapper fashion, when my generator was shut off, the propane boiler (or whatever is heating my home) would push the warm water back through my engine, and keep it constantly between 100-212 degrees so that it would also start no matter how cold it was outside.
I cannot see why this would not work.
Well my home is radiant floor heated, utilizing the two loop system with metering valve on a PLC. It is pretty simple but efficient, mostly because as long as the main boiler loop is between 100-212 degrees, I have a warm home. I built my heating system this way so that no matter what I want to heat with, propane, coal, firewood, solar, geothermal, compost heat, etc, it can heat my home.
So it got me to thinking, I have a couple of liquid cooled diesel engines kicking around, what happens if I put one of these engines on my PTO Generator and then plumbed the cooling lines to be circulated through my main boiler loop? I could conceivable produce enough power to power my home, and heat my house at the same time. This would be no different then a spit swapper on a tractor, and they obviously work.
In doing the math, it would seem to be expensive at first, me saving myself about $3800 in costs for heat and electricity, but consuming about $5400 in fuel. BUT...my generator produces 20 KW no matter what my house consumes, so with net-metering, I could kick extra power on the grid. At 16 cents per KW, I would not make a lot of money, but I would make some. That is I would make more money then I consume in fuel.
IF nothing else, being hooked up in spit-swapper fashion, when my generator was shut off, the propane boiler (or whatever is heating my home) would push the warm water back through my engine, and keep it constantly between 100-212 degrees so that it would also start no matter how cold it was outside.
I cannot see why this would not work.
