Listeroid 6/1 diesel with homebrew axial flux alternator

[LincTexPilot]

@davev8app - not talking about the COOLING of the engine, I am talking about the heat generated in the STATOR windings. It has been three years - - is the resin cracking yet?

[macon1007]

Lister Diesels for sale.

oldstylelistersDOTcom

[dieselscience]

@macon1007 site is a blank page

[LincTexPilot]

This design does not use a boiler. It is a diesel fuel type engine, and the "steaming tank" is actually the coolant tank for the engine. The coolant tank uses "thermo-siphon" to circulate engine coolant.

You can use a radiator, but it is more complex because it will require a water pump. The o-ring at the bottom of the cylinder liner will not allow a standard 15-psi automobile cooling system to work. It must remain unpressurized or the coolant will leak into the engine crankcase.

[davev8app]

@LincTexPilot well if you put a indirect coil in the tank the lister can stay unpressurized

[rossott]

Do you have plans for the alternator?

Very neat! Thanks for sharing.

God bless.

[otherpower]

We have plans to build 10' diameter wind turbines both on our website, and in our book 'Homebrew Wind Power'. The alternator we used here is basically identical to the 12Volt 10' diameter wind turbine as built with 2" diameter round magnets ~ and here we run it much faster and charge a 48Volt battery with it. It's pretty efficient, I get about 9kWh per gallon of fuel.

[RVAepiphanyseeker]

@otherpower That's 32c/KWhr ... which is about what I understand typical diesel power to cost for regular multi cylinder diesel engine gensets. But that 32c doesn't include maintenance. My calculation was $2.89/gallon diesel (which is what it was today) divide by 9kWHrs to equal 32c per KWHr.

Have you looked into the heat output for cogeneration (domestic hot water or heated radiant floors from it) and how that affects cost to bennie ratio?

[Trippy518]

You do these in 12, 24, 48 volts. Do you think it was adapt to say a stream design. I seen several over the wheel stream engines. I have been thinking of such a device in a nearby seasonal creek. I have tried the pelton wheel design but my line lose do to distance was bad. Added with pipping cost I was looking for a different route. I have good water for about 3 to 4 months and would like to take advantage of that. I use solar for the most part and have very little wind sources.

[roephotovideo]

This is absolutely Kick ass. Thank you for sharing your project on You Tube. Does the boiler have to be that big in order to sustain pressure?  Can a smaller boiler be used that could be heated by a pellet stove with a thermostat?

I have spent time feeding fires and I like the idea of using pellets to provide a continuous fire while I am sleeping. My cabin pellet stove would typically burn a 40 pound bag of pellets in 24 hours.

Any feedback would be appreciated.

[Trippy518]

The size of boiler will be how long and how much steam you can create. Boilers that are running but not being watched need lots of safety devices in place. Boilers can be very dangerous if not watched. Low water levels usually mean trouble when it comes to boilers. Steam pressure can explode a boiler with the effects of explosive force. As compaired to regular air pressure the explosive force is like 10x fold with steam. I would not advise sleeping with steam going.

[dirtydogvideo]

fellow mastermind!....my hat is off, and i bow my head in shame!...i need to redirect my efforts toward stickin it to the man!..lol!...i'm hot on the trail of wood gas generation to make power!...i'ld like to see that lister runnin on wood gas!...excellent job!

[normellow]

From what I was told, if you step down the three phase voltage from the generator you will get lower voltage and higher current. So you dont have to use 48 volt batteries. I guess you could use 12 or 24 volt batteries in parralel. Any way check out my green monster laser!

[otherpower]

I use 48V batteries to prevent losses in the rest of the system (which also involves 2 wind turbines, solar and a steam engine). 48V has a lot of advantages over 12 and some over 24 when it comes to dealing with significant power.

[vid009]

@otherpower ...Hi, hope your still here ! ....What inverter do you use to convert the 48VDC to 120VAC? The most common I found is 12 & 24VDC input inverters. ...TKS

[mulberry3]

Whereabouts can you buy a Listeroid from these days? I heard they were banned from being imported.

[LincTexPilot]

I really like the compactness of the design....much better than belt driven units. If you have slots in the magnet rotors, you can use a small fan to push some air through to keep the stator cool. I also wonder how the resin-cast rotor will handle the vibrations over time.

[otherpower]

It doesn't hardly even get warm, so the cooling issue is really a none issue. Vibrations... time will tell.

[LincTexPilot]

Is the finned heat sink device on the wall your rectifier and/or voltage regulator? It is home-made?

[otherpower]

Yes, it is a 3 phase rectifier I built. There is no regulator, I have a diversion controller that protects the batteries, although I try to prevent that from coming on. When the batteries are nearly full I usually slow the engine a bit. The 'cutin' speed (the point at which it just starts charging a trickle) is around 500 rpm.

[LincTexPilot]

I really like the compact design. Did you slot the magnets rotors to provide for stator cooling? I think you could still mount a flange/pulley on the remainder of shaft and have a belt driven alternator as an alternate source. The other shaft (away from wall) needs to have a pulley and belt running a "line shaft" overhead!

[otherpower]

I didnt slot the magnet rotors. As it is I expect is around 90% efficiency or better and the alternator barely warms at all, so cooling is not an issue.

Yes - the old belt driven unit is still there, and since we run it off the flywheel I really don't need the shaft! there is a bit of extra shaft sticking out though that could be used.

[marthale7]

Your battery, is it a forklift battery? Just curious. Thanks Also what kind of inverter do you use, or do you just run your items at 48V?

Thanks

[otherpower]

Yes, mine is a forklift battery. Everything runs off a Trace SW4048 inverter (4000 Watt sine wave unit)

[marthale7]

awesome, I am considering getting a forklift battery.  Did you choose the 48V for a reason?

Or if you had it to do over again would you choose another battery?

Thanks!

[otherpower]

48 V systems are usually the best bet these days, inverters and controllers are readily available and the system can handle a lot more power (current is usually the limiting factor so higher voltage is better).

The fork lift battery is great, I got mine for a bargain (Surplus). So - considering my budget... I would not choose another battery. I suppose if I had to buy something new I'd probably buy L16's but I prefer to find bargains on batteries if possible.

[space9888]

what do you power with this?

[otherpower]

Our home / shop is off the power grid and everything runs off a large 48V battery. For the most part we are wind powered, with a little bit of solar. We use this to charge the battery when wind/sun doesn't keep up.