Re: off-grid - battery & winter 12V-generator?

Richard Smith <[email protected]> wrote:
> Somethign you folk from North America will be familiar with.
> 
> There is a 12V light, fridge and occasional inverter to mains-voltage
> system with 12V "leisure" lead-acid battery and photovoltaic (PV)
> charger and charge-regulator.
> 
> For winter when our days are short and sun not bright - would it be an
> efficient solution to have a small gasoline engine running a 12V
> generator eg. from a car?
> Would be efficient to have a small engine which runs full-power for a
> shortish time - something like an hour? - then stops.
> Smallest Honda "GX" engine is 100cc.
> Small engine+12V-generator & battery is much more fuel-efficient than
> running a generator supplying power on-demand?
> Tempting thought is - that would happen when it is dark and *cold* -
> therefore if you coudl recover the waste heat of the generator engine it
> would be welcomed.
> 
> I have no knowledge of this - anyone want to get this going?

Minimizing generator size is critical to efficiency, but 12V
car alternators are optimized for cost and size, not efficiency.

I've got a UPS-style inverter/charger setup based on Amazon 
components for my fridge and communications equipment. My
generator is grossly oversized, luck of the second-hand draw.
Something like a Honda EU-series or equivalent would be much
more appropriate if planning ahead. 

This is a fairly deep rabbithole, I'd suggest starting the burrow
at alt.energy.homepower to keep it on-topic.

Thanks for reading,

bob prohaska