The Thing in the Cellar

[kenboak]

Hi Andy and all the Selfsuficientish Crew,

I found you through Dennis's blog site (Stonehead), and thought I'd join in.

I am an engineer living 20 miles south of London, (no, Redhill - not Surbiton), and I also am a fan of the Good Life.

Unfortunately I have reached that age where I remember it the first time around, probably drawn to it by the lovely Felicity Kendal.

I am a veg oil enthusiast and will be taking my suburban home off grid next month. My water heating has been solar since early June.

The Thing in the Cellar, is actually housed in the shed, and is a 1951 Lister 6hp engine, running entirely on waste vegetable oil and providing all my power, recharging the battey bank and providing hot water and heating.

My Blog is here

http://sustburbia.blogspot.com/

and the broken link to my Lister activities should read

www.powercubes.com/listers.html

I hope to be demonstrating veg oil sustainability at the Great Dorset Steam Fair - starting August 30th.

Anyone in the Surrey/South London area who wants to do sustainable stuff in suburbia, and collaborate on projects in a tenth acre back garden - please get in touch


regards,


Ken

[Shirley]

Hi Ken

Welcome to the forum!

I've had a quick look at your blog... bookmarked it too - wow, so much information on there... will give it the good long read it deserves over the next few days.

[The Chili Monster]

welcome, Ken.

[Wombat]

G'Day Ken,

Well done!

and welcome to the site!

Nev

[Millymollymandy]

Welcome Ken - that all sounds amazing!

[hedgewizard]

Fab Ken - hope to see more of yoU!

[Chickpea]

Welcome, Ken. I've had a bit of a look at your blog and I've bookmarked it for future persual. I love what you're doing, it sounds great, and it also sounds like you're having a lot of fun with it.

[Andy Hamilton]

will have to see if I can make it to the dorset thing sounds interesting. welcoem to the forum ken.

[the.fee.fairy]

Hi Ken

[digiveg]

Hi Ken,

I looked at your blog and am seriously impressed: you're already doing a lot of the things we dream of installing at our new place in Wales. Unfortunately - even though I live in Dorset right now! - I can't get to the Steam Fair 'cos I'm up-to-here (points at ears) trying to get this house repainted etc so we can move out. Sigh.

Anyway, many thanks for all the blog info. You are an inspiration.

Question (probably first of many): how noisy is your Lister? I don't want to turn 'neighbours' into 'mob'.

[cheyenne]

Ken your blog is fabulous, top-rate stuff, and I will be studying it on a regular basis you can rest assured. I hope you don't mind if we start linking to it because a treasure like yours shouldn't be left under wraps. Welcome to self-suffish, too bad you don't live next door--and too bad Tim from Tang isn't from White Center!!

Cheyenne

[kenboak]

Cheyenne, Digiveg & Co

Thanks for the appreciative words about the Blog. Unfortunately I don't get a lot of time to regularly update it - normally only when I make significant progress with my homepower system.

Last week we had interest in the Lister engine generator sets, that we displayed at the Great Dorset Steam Fair.

We met a pub/restaurant owner who got through 100 litres a week of veg oil - enough to run a serious gen-set.

We also met John Petifer of JP Oils (Eastleigh, Southampton) who is happy to supply cleaned, used-once oil, in quantities of 1000 litres for home heating and CHP use. At 30p per litre, this is going to be one of the cheapest available fuels.

I checked with the Customs and Revenue, and there is NO DUTY to be paid on veg oil if used for home heating and power systems.

For those wanting to follow the same Lister engine route, there are still a few of the Volvox 6hp engines available in the UK with matching 3kW alternators.

We ran the Volvox 6hp engine on veg oil for the last 3 days of the show, and used the generated power to heat up a Jacussi/Hot Tub, that belonged to a neighbour's stand.

Whilst I think that renewables such as wind power and solar pV have a place in the UK, they do suffer from the vaguaries of the UK weather. Wind power would have been great in Dorset last week!

For ultimate reliability, you cannot beat the dependable 3kW available from an old style Lister engine running on filtered waste vegetable oil. The glow plug in the head, allows the engine to be started on cold veg oil, by hand, without having to resort to petro-diesel.

If you have a modest property, you are fairly economical with your heat and power utilisation, then a veg-oil engine might be a very viable solution to providing renewable heat and power.

This weekend I will be wiring up my big inverter for the first time, and laying the heating pipes from the engine, back to the house.

My activities are documented at www.powercubes.com/listers.html

An engine and alternator kit can be obtained for about £1250 for those wanting a DIY solution.

Original Listers are also available on ebay, but prices are rocketing this year. A Startomatic gen-set is already up to £800.

regards,


Ken