I thought I might elaborate on my system since it's raining out and I have a minute. For the last 3 years I have been driving on WVO and have converted 3 cars including a Suzuki Samurai with a turbodiesel 1.6. With all of the oil I've collected, and experience I've gained, I decided to build a CHP system using a Metro 6/1 listeroid and an ST5 gen head. As I was searching and researching I found an ad for 10 golf cart batteries and an inverter in our local swap sheet and immediately contacted the seller and hit the road. I managed to get the 10 batteries with all the cables, 3000 watt inverter, Xantrex C6o load controller, 2 automotive 2/50/225 amp battery chargers, power pulse battery helper and a 60 amp fused disconnect for 500 dollars. The family used the system with a generator to live off the grid and finally ran power lines to their house. The controller and disconnect had never been installed and after testing one of the batteries was unable to take a charge. I later bought 4 identical batteries for 68.00 each and have staggered them throughout the bank. The inverter will be upgraded when I finish some of the other stuff and find the right deal.
After much research, I found his wiring was way too small and have upgraded the supply wires to 4/0 welding cable with a 400 amp t type fuse. Buss bars were made inside the battery box from the bars in a 200 amp panel I had scavenged. The controller was wired to divert the charging amperage to the glowplugs after the bank reaches the predetermined voltage. It took awhile to size all of the wiring and fuses to make it all safe and workable. While studying different ways to make dump loads, my cheapness took over and I started wandering around my junkpiles, I mean parts stores, with an ohm meter and discovered that my VW glowplugs were about .8 ohms and would work fine when added up to get rid of the extra juice. Inside the control box is a 12 volt fuse panel with 30 amp fuses to protect that part of the circuit.
My Listeroid generator is still being finished up. I wanted to have a load for it before I ran it too much, so I've been working on the stuff in the pictures. It will power a seperate panel in my house that I can connect to a generator transfer panel with some of my loads on it. Other loads will run off my battery bank which will be charged whenever the Listeroid is running. Being water cooled the generator will heat a storage tank of water for heating and/or DHW. I have also been working on a setup to reclaim the exhaust heat though it will be a small amount. Just thought I would share some of my RE adventures with you all.
