Uses for 3ph genny power!

[neilarmo]

I have 38kva on tap in workshop and I'd like to have a load on genny when I'm not welding. I have wired up 3 400w SON lamps to it and now have the brightest workshop in the county.
Any other suggestions as to small loads to have to make genny work just a little at tickover?
I've already come up with 3ph water heater to a bank of radiators and just need to think of an antifreeze for it all!
Any source of cheap 3 phase fan heaters too?
I could run changeover switch and have all of workshop fed by genny! 3phase to 3 single phase feeds (lighting and sockets and compressor?)

just thinking out loud. Thanks

 

[Justme]

Split the phases & use any normal single phased stuff. Just balance the load as best you can.

For heating you could use oil filled rads so you dont have the freezing problem or fan heaters.

 

[rtbcomp]

Sell electricity to the neighbours?

 

[Rubber Duck]

I'll have 8Kva off you.

That's a hellava genny!!

 

[the snooper]

if you have the 3 phase split do you have 240 sockets on all three phases if so just plug a fan heater into each phase

 

[mymini86]

Is it cheaper to produce your own electricity? can you feed 3 phase back to the grid?
Charging up some big batteries when idle, then use the battery for lighting? Or run a milk float?!

 

[the snooper]

no its not cheaper to produce your own power
you can feed back into the grid with the right gear and get paid for it.
and yes you could charge a battery bank then run an invertor to power your household gadgets tv, pc, and so on

 

[Luke]

Identical 1ph heaters will sit nicely on each of the 3 phases and keep the total load balanced.

How long's the generator usually running for?

 

[Shox Dr]

no its not cheaper to produce your own power

You cannot assume that, it depends on fuel cost.

 

[the snooper]

you would have to get fuel at a really low cost
i have a 5kva genny it uses about a litre of diesel per hour lets assume that red diesel is 60p per litre
so it will have cost me 60p for 5 kwh assuming i am running at ful load
when im using a couple of hunder watts it going to cost a packet for that say 40p /hour, for that 40p i could have used 4kwh
so unless you make your own bio diesel at an alarming rate and get you wvo completely free it still works out more expensive
obviously the main companys charge the first 200kwh at one rate 24p / kwh but then after that our drops to 10p /kwh

 

[tigler]

no its not cheaper to produce your own power
you can feed back into the grid with the right gear and get paid for it.
and yes you could charge a battery bank then run an invertor to power your household gadgets tv, pc, and so on

It is if you have a Lister 6/1 SOM like mine and run it on waste veg oil or filtered waste motor oil Also heats your house for free too !!

 

[tigler]

I have 38kva on tap in workshop and I'd like to have a load on genny when I'm not welding. I have wired up 3 400w SON lamps to it and now have the brightest workshop in the county.
Any other suggestions as to small loads to have to make genny work just a little at tickover?
Thanks

Try and find an old 3 phase powered water pump and stick the feed & return hoses into a big bucket so the water continuously circulates

 

[neilarmo]

Thanks for comments.

We are half a mile from neighbours so can't sell to them. I have genny because we are off the 3 phase grid, so can't sell back to Elec. co.
I either run genny once a week or all day depending if I'm working at home or away.
I like the idea of oil filled radiators but was hoping to use warm water for hand washing, but I suppose that is what the kettle is for?

I could run a grain roller we have but don't really want that banging away at back of shed!
I have mine and my wifes old stereos from uni days so could have some serious 80's music banging out. At least the neighbours are far enough away not to be bothered!

many thanks for helping me think
neil

 

[snowcat]

You cannot assume that, it depends on fuel cost.

62ppl for Red tday........ gone up 22ppl in 6 weeks... so at the mo, very pricey.....

It is if you have a Lister 6/1 SOM like mine and run it on waste veg oil or filtered waste motor oil Also heats your house for free too !!

waste oil tho has a value of around 12ppl, plus theres the hassle of water removal, dealing with the waste soap etc , waste oil bio costs around 30ppl to produce...

In this weather, straight URSO reassembles lard, 2 days of heat and about 300ltrs of red for the boiler to even get it pumped on the tanker....

 

[thinfourth]

make a really big water tank about 1000litres plus. Stick a load of immersion heaters in the side.

When running the genny heat the water and charge a battery bank.

When genny off run a central heating pump off an inverter from the battery bank and pump the water through some radiators and you have round the clock heating

Make it big enough battery bank and inverter you can run small power tools off it aswell

 

[pidgeon chit welder]

I have 38kva on tap in workshop and I'd like to have a load on genny when I'm not welding. I have wired up 3 400w SON lamps to it and now have the brightest workshop in the county.
Any other suggestions as to small loads to have to make genny work just a little at tickover?
I've already come up with 3ph water heater to a bank of radiators and just need to think of an antifreeze for it all!
Any source of cheap 3 phase fan heaters too?
I could run changeover switch and have all of workshop fed by genny! 3phase to 3 single phase feeds (lighting and sockets and compressor?)

just thinking out loud. Thanks

Split the phases and bung on equal numbers of the old wire element on ceramic formers electric fires three or four bar ones if you can get them put each fire on a seperate switch .. You can them adjust a light loading to get the genny runny at premium state

That's what I used for our load testing rig ,I used to switch anything up to 18 elements on and make the genny's stutter to test the genny and the engine.
some times we use big water tanks and 8 kw immersions then did the maths in temp difference of a known volume of water to see the KW produced.

Ever thought of using the total heat concept when using the genny ?

 

[rtbcomp]

make a really big water tank about 1000litres plus. Stick a load of immersion heaters in the side.

When running the genny heat the water and charge a battery bank.

When genny off run a central heating pump off an inverter from the battery bank and pump the water through some radiators and you have round the clock heating

Make it big enough battery bank and inverter you can run small power tools off it aswell

You may as well just use night storage heaters.

 

[thinfourth]

You may as well just use night storage heaters.

Oh yeah

I forgot about those things as they are utterly utterly useless things in a house, unless you use them as a path or something

 

[brightspark]

just think in a few years time all houses are going to be heated by electric in new builds /eg nightstores ect. there phasing gas out apart from refits

 

[rtbcomp]

Oh yeah

I forgot about those things as they are utterly utterly useless things in a house, unless you use them as a path or something

I had some in my bedroom, like a greenhouse at 4 am and freezing cold again by teatime.