My apologies for the brief response I was on the road. There are two options I have done. I normally try to get batteries stored in a heated room, so adding the gen if there is room there is an initial easy fix. We vent the exhaust air with a motorized louvered damper controlled by a room thermostat( located up high in the room opening around 90 deg F. Until the air is dumped outdoors it outdoors there is a spring loaded bypass door to dump the heated cooling air in the room. Most decent sheet metal shop can assist you in this setup. I have also tapped the glycol coolant on the gen and via a heat exchanger run heat thru the radiant floor slab to heat the entire room and again this was controlled for overheat. We did not use the gen heat till the unit was up to temp and then the floor pump cycled on and off till the return water was stable. A 4-6 hour run can totally heat a decent sized shed with an insulated concrete 6" slab. Rodents like this one best!
__________________________________________________________ Dana Orzel Great Solar Works, Inc - NABCEP # 051112-136 [email protected] - www.solarwork.com O - 970.626.5253 F - 970.626.4140 c - 208.721.7003 "Responsible Technologies for Responsible People since 1988" -----Original Message----- From: RE-wrenches [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Benn Kilburn Sent: Friday, April 03, 2015 2:23 PM To: RE-wrenches Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Gen preheat in cold climates Hi Dana, I have an off-grid client (central/northern Alberta) who tried this but the heat from the gen would shut down the magnum inverter due to over temp. This was in an enclosed room (~15'x15') in a much larger shop. The gen was being exhausted outside but it was an air-cooled unit, so blew a lot of heat. He ended up modifying it so the hot air was blown "up" thru the gens enclosure cover (rather than down) and from the ceiling he hung a heavy duty tarp/welding blanket around the gen with an exhaust fan above on the ceiling that operated on a thermostat. Was a great work-around to the overheating issue of having the gen inside. Benn Kilburn SkyFire Energy Inc. 780-906-7807 > On Apr 3, 2015, at 9:11 AM, "[email protected]" <[email protected]> wrote: > > At our high elevation installs the generator gets installed indoors with the balance of the offgrid system we utilize the heat for the room > > Dana Orzel 208.721.7003 > Encourage Free Thinking Self Responsible Free Range Children > > On Apr 2, 2015, at 8:47 PM, Gary Higbee <[email protected]> wrote: > > Wrenches, > > I'm curious what strategies you use to preheat a propane gen in cold climates. This is a large off-grid design in a sub-zero winter climate and ideal would be to turn on a block heater an hour or two in advance, then run the gen cycle. We plan to use either a Schneider XW or Outback Radian configuration (still very interested in which you'd use and why). We could set up a logic/relay system to first send the gen request to the heater for a while and then turn off and initiate a gen cycle but that would eliminate the ability for autostart on short notice. I've read of heat lamps on a thermostat, just wondering if you have seen other solutions. > > Thanks! > > Gary > _______________________________________________ > List sponsored by Redwood Alliance > > List Address: [email protected] > > Change listserver email address & settings: > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > List-Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html > > List rules & etiquette: > www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm > > Check out or update participant bios: > www.members.re-wrenches.org > > _______________________________________________ > List sponsored by Redwood Alliance > > List Address: [email protected] > > Change listserver email address & settings: > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > List-Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html > > List rules & etiquette: > www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm > > Check out or update participant bios: > www.members.re-wrenches.org > _______________________________________________ List sponsored by Redwood Alliance List Address: [email protected] Change listserver email address & settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html List rules & etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out or update participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org _______________________________________________ List sponsored by Redwood Alliance List Address: [email protected] Change listserver email address & settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html List rules & etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out or update participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org
