[RE-wrenches] Gen preheat in cold climates

[RE Ellison]

A block heater and off grid will not mix well at all.
Might want to look at a "Wabasto heater" It is a mini furnace designed for
over the road trucks. Reasonable on fuel and power consumption. I think it
is www.webasto.com 

Just a thought,
Bob

-----Original Message-----
From: RE-wrenches [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On
Behalf Of jay peltz
Sent: Friday, April 03, 2015 11:45 AM
To: RE-wrenches
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Gen preheat in cold climates

Hi guys,

I don't live in super cold. 
I'm curious about the block heater part. With the good synthetic oils that
are thin at really cold

Is the issue heating the block or battery or heating the intake for propane
units?

Thanks
Jay
Peltz power




> On Apr 3, 2015, at 8:21 AM, James Jefferson Jarvis <jj at aprsworld.com>
wrote:
> 
>> On 4/3/2015 9:32 AM, drake.chamberlin at redwoodalliance.org wrote:
>> We are dealing with a generator that absolutely won't start when 
>> cold, so I was considering a block heater. Below 20 deg F it has 
>> proven worthless, and we can see -20 F on occasion.
> 
> I had a generator like that. Below zero it wouldn't start. Replaced it's
cranking battery with a bigger battery and it starts great. There are also
super-capacitor based solutions to get better cranking. If you have a 24
volt system and your generator is near your battery bank, you may even be
able to put a 24 volt starter on the generator and start from your battery
bank.
> 
> 
>> My concern is using power from a low battery on a cold cloudy day to 
>> heat a generator. How long does it take to make a difference? Has 
>> this method proven 100% reliable?
> 
> What type and how big of engine are you talking about? How big is the
block heater? My limited block heater experience with vehicles, tractors,
etc is that an hour won't be enough. A couple hours is needed. With coolant
heaters and fuel injected engines, an hour can actually cause problems. A
pocket of coolant gets warm and tricks the engine management computer into
thinking the coolant is warm. Then it tries to do a warm start and fails.
> 
> Getting a generator that starts reliably is the best solution I see for a
moderate sized off grid installation. Otherwise you are putting a lot of
energy into warming up an engine that might not start. And leaving you in a
worse situation than you started.
> 
> -James Jefferson Jarvis
> APRS World, LLC
> +1-507-454-2727
> www.aprsworld.com
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