I found this little gem on the Forestry Forum of Wayne sorting his mail back in the day.
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Hello Mr. Bill
A lot of water has ran under the bridge from when that picture was taken .
I think that ole truck had about 5 different gasifiers on it 
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Yep. Yep. had to do exactly the same thing on my 94 Ford F150, for the same reasons - works OK-good.
Since I use the public computers at the local card-in/key-pad in Library annex, I’ve been OFF-LINE for a few days since our last Friday “Spring” windstorm front passed through.
97-50’s mph winds at the Coast. 78-50’s mph winds here in the inland valleys.
Many power outages. Areas here still without grid power. Reported 144,000 grid electrical services out Mid-Friday morning in the four Portland metro area counties. Times 3 for the other counties "outlying " areas.
Friday, the wife got up before me and made the electric (grid) drip-pot of coffee. I got up coffee cup in hand, and wind staggered out and let the chicken out to forage. Wife in the shower. Came back to a mad wife, L-O–N-G wet hair towel wrapped saying she would have to drive all the way (24 miles) to her urban school and hope for power to blow dry her hair.
Sigh. Will they ever learn?
Un-covered the little her little Honda2000 out on the front porch. One “girl” rope pullstarted up. Plug in the prelayed out, been-used, coiled-up set aside HD 12 awg commercial cords and said “Go dry your hair”.
By then our satellite TV system generator corded plugged-in too had re-loaded and re-initilized. And I got to watch live US Ambassador’s Nicky Haley’s whole addresses to the UN Security council. Whole community was info “in the dark” the whole day. Restaurant power out closed. Drive thru Coffee stand closed. Coffee shop/bar closed. Bank closed. Store was door open and they were taking cash and hand writing transactions. Unable to pump gasoline/diesel though. Amazing how many people drove up to the pumps wanting/needing, oblivious to just-why-not-possible with the grid-down. Local Auto-Shop with the bulk propane tank service unable to pump out sell any.
Ha! Ha! Mistake! Wifie said she was going to bring home that evening for the weekend both the 2 and 4 yo godchildren. SO . . . since I was making power that I could electric power vacuum the whole house. AND she had to plug it in and do a hallway just to prove capability before she left.
I just left the Honda inverter unit running all day for the satellite system and corded in adding different rooms for reading/general lighting LED lights as the grid came back on and dropped out four different times for 30 seconds to four minutes all of that day.
It Was very, very windy, gusting, keeping servicefolk forced down out of their boom trucks. With additional cascading failures wind storm made.
Got “cheese” hungry later and corded up and made nacho’s in the electric microwave oven. Inverter-genrator powered.
By the time they made it home at 7:30 PM the house was generator LED rooms lighted, kids demanded Elmo and Mick-mouse DVD’s available. Microwave oven, electric rice-cooker, toaster oven, electric cooking hot plate all available, sat-out and tried-out already.
Wood stove going all of this time of course. Two big tea-pots and the 21st century hard anodized aluminum roaster pot with ~4 gallons of hot water woodstove top heated up available.
By six hours into no power I could hear two different neighbors with 3600rpm scream-a-matics generators roaring away so they could power up their whole house propane heating systems. Was a 40’s to barely 50’sF cool’ish day. One niegbor with a pellet stove, was like me was using thru-out a super economical Honda Inverter unit. A 1000 model. He/they had space heating, hot water and sattlite info/entertainment thru-out.
He used only one gallon gasoline for our 16 hours of no Grid. I used 1 1/2 gallons. The 3600rpm scream-a-matic folks used 3-4 gallons for just six-eight hours of running.
And what has this to do with woodgas, you may say??
Woodgasing electrical generating would come after the 3, 4th day of no Grid and I’d do it with the larger 2800 Yamaha inverter gnerator with only a 45 minutes a day wood prepping commitment for our 16 hours a day of Quiet 1600 to 2000 watts of power.
Like the one character who was Yossarian’s friend in the Joseph Heller “Catch 22” story/movie. The one always getting shot-down and recovering. The one always winter kerosene stove carburetor fiddling.
Practice makes for capability come the time of needing.
The two god-childern are little girls.
So, braniac woodgas developers can you make girl-useable systems too, eh?
I can. And DO. Woman useable is a requirement of both VesaM and Dutch John on their systems too.
J-I-C Steve Unruh
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Very convincing Steve; I suppose the beginning is to find a suitable gen/inverter. We had 55 mph winds up here for four days. I would have been scrambling if the electricity went out but fortunately it didn’t. It left me with work to do-- in my time. It blew a section of steel off the barn, and blew one of the windows out in my shop — frame and all. Then my nice three tail fence that we have been so proud of after a good paint application this fall, blew over three sections. I knew I had a couple of loose posts in that area, but they had held up for 6 or 7 years , no problem.
You said you had a gen/inverter on the porch with an already connected sufficient long electric cord. Do you hook that up to you house electric box so that anything in the house can be run off from it, or how does that work? TomC
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You guys have stired up the air all the way across the pond. All electric below 10 kV is under ground by now so that’s not a problem, but it’s too windy to get anything done outside and I’m getting itchy.
If we did lose power for a longer period of time I would give the freezers a burst from the genny from time to time, that would be all. Wood boiler radiator water circulates on its own, kitcken wood stove provides hot meals and a couple of candles, an oil lamp and flashlights will do for lighting.
I remember powerouts from when children where small. Those where the happiest moments. VCR, playstation, TV-set - all quiet. The whole family got together for a game of cards while wood provided the necesseties.
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I decided I could not create a user friendly charcoal genny. At my level of obtanium and cheapnest it wouldn’t be possible. So the 8 l16 batteries inverter and solar makes it possible to go 24 hrs without problems. Lights work, circulator pumps work, water works, fridge and freezer can be switched over if it lasts. Within 24 hours with no sun David would have to pull things from storage and fire up the propane inverter genny or the gas/ Woodgas larger genny. Heather remains happy, I remain married; win win
Happy spring everyone.
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O.K. Reply’s given in order asked.
No TomC. Not connected into the main circuit breaker box. That would require a MUCH higher generating capacity; an electrical permit/inspection; spec certified equipment costs for the transfer switching; and a licensed certified electrician for an insurable, installation code approval. My electrician B-I-L refuses to do this kind of work. I worked toward this with first my 20 hp Kohler V-twin and a four pole 1800 RPM 8.5 kW MeccAlte gen head. Then the 12 kW Miller/Kohler welder generator.
Whole bunch of problems with these “solutions”. When in use the wood fuel consumption would have been at least 2-3 hours a day in prepping. Turning me into a woodsweating slave.
Next problem was I actually need spots of power in a longer term than 72 hours grid-down across the place in four different locations in up to 500 feet apart areas. Deep well pump. Freezers room/ wood shed. Chicken house. My all metal shop building. Green house.
Solution to the deep well pumping is go from submersible 240vac for the seasonally up to 170 feet deep down, to a Baker Monitor Jr. jack pump system. A deep well modern 12/24 vdc submersible pump solution would need ANOTHER battery bank to have to set-up/maintain. The jack pump solution only needs 1/2 hp ground level mechanical/electric power. A Portable generator solution.
Freezers only need a 4 hour, once in 24 hours power input cooling down. A portable generator solution.
Double AA rechargeable LED headlamp works just fine in the wood shed. Now have ~40 AA, 40 AAA, and 12 D cell Lion rechargeable’s with five $20 plug in rechargers that I recharde top-up cycle through in generator running times.
Ha! Chickens can do without forced seasonal lighting. Maybe an actual roof top small PV for them. Might get a few nightime hours out of it here in our Oct thru March solar-not, time of the year.
So for now I just HD contractor commercial cord into the actual used things inside to the house. Legal. Actually safe for temporary use.
Yes the cords my wife’s biggest complaint.
Long term grid down I will just security band pop off the grid supplier meter head; and unplug their meter, to disconnect myself. Pull off the house breaker box face and remove all of the 240 vac supply breakers. Then little gen feed only into s-o-m-e of the 120 volt circuits. “Train” the wifie/user by gen overload cutout’s, not to multiple/use overload and “scheduled” her intermittent 1000 watt usages.
She had a Woman’s Veterans of Foreign Wars meeting last night. All the other gals complained about the power outages, life-as normal interferneces. Melinda wife said, “Not me”. My husband gave me my own little Honda (inverter)generator. I dried my hair, and carried on. And I can even put it the back seat of my car and carry it to anywhere I need to nurse service visit, come-what-may.
Hello JO. You seem to read, write and speak English well. May I recommend reading a current American energy/cultural writer’s four book story’s titled, “A World Made By Hand”. James Howard Kunstler. These began published in 2007. Last book in 2014. So very current. Set in upper New York State supposedly the near future, ten years after no more mid-east, African, Venesualian oil imported. USofA currency/economy over-paper-printed dollar crashed. Canada keeping all of their oil stocks by then for their own needs.
Very good NE USA region area story set, with wonderful characterizations, and learn to make-do personal life stories. Without electricity they learned to make their own music, community events, and home life entertainments.
Very good for showing after just ten years grid-down the growing up youth never having internet, smartphones, video’s and current culture distractions had gone back to reading paper books. And developing their own then current relevant to them, social culture and values.
J.H. Kunster has everyone candles lighting. Poor bees. No made electrical lighting. ??! Not even oil lamps.
My wife’s father growing up way back when; (1920/30’s) way up in the mountains of Tennessee with only oil lamps and candle lighting always maintained that candles were only good for getting wet wood camp fires finally going; and for burning down houses. He’d seen houses candles and oil lamps burned down a lot buildings. Children as the biggest, “ooppsie”, fire-makers.
My whole woodgasing work is about keeping clean, safe electric lighting available, lighting up a personal world. Any other power uses from that capability is just a bonus off of that.
My personal opinion is that of all of the post 1860’s modern tech developments it was electric lighting that stands head and shoulder above all the others. It really sucks to read by candle lighting. Sucks; to do detail fine work like sewing, stitching, knitting/darning by candle lighting. Surgery? Wound care? Sucks the worst by hot, stinky and weak, combustion lighting.
And personal use sized internal combustion engines beginning in the 1920’s finally was what gave “everyman” the ability and freedom to give electric lighting to his could be anywhere, home-place, for farm and family. And now easy pack around, pull starting 21st century inverter-genrators gives this all-places, all-times, have-power capability to “everywoman” too.
Central generated; Gridded-Out electrical power to all of us true-Rural-living was the technological/social/cultural Mistake made here in the wide spread out US/Canada rural in the 1930’s. And that social experiment, we can be reel back from NOW, currently anytime a fellow would put his mind, and grit-sweat, to it. My new in 2005 all metal shop has NO grid electricity to it. Never has. The other outbuildings are being weened off grid-dependecy, one by one.
Ha! Yes DavidB. The real problem going Rural Local on-site generated DIY electrical is no longer a technical problem.
It is the current culture driven now unaware, sheeple/dependency’s on multiple levels. A social set of problems.
Social compromises are well needed if a fellow does not want to be sleep alone, in a too quiet of house, no longer a family made home by his overboard brainiac idealism’s unable to compromise.
Ha! So I use cords. Wait for the power to go off for my Hero days. Power back on and “your cords” just have to go . . . . coiled up, waiting for another, will-needs day.
Again. When you cannot have the World you wish to have (Mr J.H. Kunstler!!), you must get-along, adapt into the world that you actually do have.
J-I-C Steve Unruh
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I really enjoyed reading that book, he makes a compelling case that our world is over integrated, and overly driven by technology. .I also agree that his vision isn’t perfect, the world he describes seems to be full of technophobic Amish people, who are also amazingly skilled to get by without modern infrastructure. I doubt an average cross section.of the north American population would do as well. Good lively story though.
Also agree with the unappreciated tremendous value of electricity, light being by far highest on the list. A house with light is liveable. A few more things on the list, particularly electric motors and tv, and that’s most of the good of the modern world. Maybe add welding equipment…
There should be giant monuments to Nicola Tesla, he built our world.
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Sorry, I don’t mean to change the subject, although I do need to share.
This is my new favorite stuff. It comes in different colors if needed. I used it on the old tin I put on the roof of my sheds and it worked well. No leaks at all.
I used it to seal up this squirrel cage fan. There were no manufactured vents so I felt it was okay to seal up.
I think it would work well on the cool parts of our gasifiers.
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Good stuff for rusty bolt exposour and probley for hose.clamp protector. I had an old can of sand papper glue in spay, that works. Too.I will have too try some of the rustolium now.
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Further to what @SteveUnruh was saying about not needing to be tied to the grid, or that being tied to the grid may not be even a good thing in the bigger picture, I tend to agree, although comparing the alternatives of today. 70 years ago when rural areas were electrified, the world changed, electric milking machines ,and electric motors to replace the Maytag gasoline motors (which did lead to houses burning down)… etc. It was the best solution for the time.
But now, other solutions have really matured. I am with David regarding solar as a dead simple, and practical solution. Price and practicality have converged. Recognizing what Steve says about the PNW, and absence of sun for months on end.
Perhaps this isn’t news to others, but I was quite impressed by what I recently discovered regarding LED lighting. I bought an LED automotive dome light fixture. It seems to be roughly the same as a 60 watt equivalent bulb, but draws 7.6 watts. The lighting elements are available from China for not much over a dollar a piece, and should have the extreme life characteristic of other LED lights.
I think that’s about as good as lighting can ever get. No inverter. No inverter losses, or reliability issues. No rectifier losses. The system is pared down to as efficient and simple as could be. Solar panel charges battery, switch activates light. Extremely low line losses. 10 lights could light a house for some 80 watts of power. A 100 watt panel and any car battery would sustainably address the lighting needs of a home.
The next time I build on or off grid, I will be putting in a separate 12 volt lighting system, just for reliability and low voltage safety. Fused through blade fuses in an automotive fuse block, regular switches and 14ga wiring.
And really I would say that it should be the construction standard from now on, grid goes down, lights stay on. And cheaper.
My 2 cents…
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Thanks Steve, I’ll try Kunstler.
Yeah, you’re right. Candles are for short time use, romantic moments, powerouts. A Swedish song title translates: “Wonderful is quick”.
Off grid is another thing. I’d probably adapt and go led too, but I do like Flintstone technology. I hate buttons where a lever works equally well.
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Living off grid, I appreciate electricity. I appreciate generators, batteries, solar panels, inverters and the sun. Life is much easier with available electricity. The suitcase generator was a great option to charge our battery bank. It was quiet and easy to start. 6 hours of run time charged our batteries for the day instead of running a generator all day. The winter was different because the Amp hours were cut in half due to the temperatures.
Running the suitcase generator in the winter cost us about $150/month. Similar to what we paid to keep the lights on in the city in a much bigger house. Before this past winter, I bought a new 3 cyl. diesel generator. I used a 265 gallon heating oil tank to hold the diesel for the generator. I only put in $500 worth of diesel at the beginning of December hoping it would get me through to April. $500 brought the fuel level to about 5/8 full. Now we are in April and the tank is at 3/8 full. The fuel savings is amazing! In the winter I charge the batteries twice per day for an hour at a time.
I kept one of the suitcase generators so I can plug in my diesel truck in the winter to plow our road. It also provides portable power wherever I need it. It will always remain on our homestead. The best tool I have purchased.
I have to say, I love being off grid. When we have a power outage, it take 30 seconds and the power is back on. Having a backup for the backup keeps the wife happy.
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Gary, My father and I built a house that we used 12V wiring through out. The way it worked was; we put a large piece of plywood on the basement wall. The electricity came into a fuse box and each circuit from the FB went through a 12v relay mounted on the plywood and directly to the light socket/ plug socket. We put in 12v switches all over the house— when you came into a room, when you left the room, a master switch in the master bed room that any circuit could be turned on/off. It was not nearly what you are recommending, but at the time it was some thinking out of the box. TomC
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Actually, the way you describe it, I will say that the system you guys put together was more complex than what I envision. Must have been a real feat for the time.
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Tom was tat home in Spooner WI? While out looking at houses with my daughter and son-in-law I came across a house in Spooner wired with 12 relays on all lighting and a master switch panel in MB. It was a high end home on a buetiful lot with true undegroud parking and the highest quality windows I have ever seen. Problem was not the price but the property taxes were over $3600 a year for a lot n town.
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No the house was/is in Sturgis, Michigan, built in about 1955.
Gary once we (( Dad and the electrician) got the 120v wired from the relay to the socket, then with that little fine “cheep” wire, we put switches all over with out the problems of 3 way switches or such. We had four entries to the living room and a switch to the floor socket at each entry I don’t know if that could be done with conventional wiring. And have you ever tried to get all those 120v wires stuffed in to a multi-switch switch box? No problem with that little 20 ga. (?) wire. TomC
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Garry, would it be running through approval? 12 volt systems used to be exempt but now must be inspected and permitted if above 120 watt total. That’s ESA in Ontario. The difference is a breaker based system instead of fuses. Code compliant with main disconnects from batteries about 400 canadian.
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Good point David. I wasn’t aware about the code rule for wattage. But that isn’t CEC yet? But I think with a direct 12 volt LED system for lighting the average house could be illuminated within the 120 watt limit, roughly 15 luminaires.
Still valuable information, and as you point out, not prohibitive, and even if required for a certain size of installation, the homeowner could probably do the install and have it inspected?
You can in Ontario. I think Manitoba insists on a licenced electrician to submit your permit for you for home generating systems. Don’t quote me on that one.
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