Agreed, such a system is more complicated and expensive but makes far better use of fuel, reduces noise pollution from the engine and greatly reduces maintenance of the engine.kenneal wrote:[
In a domestic situation the best method of using a genny, IMO, is to use it to charge a battery bank, running it at high power for a few hours once or twice a day. When the genny is not running you run your lights, a fridge, telly and computers through an inverter. Washing machines, hair dryers, freezers (chest), other high power stuff and, of course, the battery charger can only be used when the genny is running. It requires two separate circuits, preferably with different socket types to protect the inverter from the "wrong type of load".
This way the genny runs at its most efficient rate. If the cooling system is connected to your hot water system you have up to about 10kW, in my case, of heat available as well. It does require a heat exchanger on the exhaust as well as the engine cooling to get full output. A large hot water cylinder is also useful, 200 - 300 litres. It's called combined Heat and Power (CHP).
last year I designed a somewhat similar system for a friend, this however uses no inverter, all lighting and small appliances being 12 volt, with the battery charged from PV modules, or the generator.
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