I’m a fan of small and redundant. I have a 6500 watt set up with wood gas, a 4400W on propane and a 2000W inverter on gasoline. Since I have bought a 450 and a 1050 power station and we are thinking about adding another 1050W power station. I also have a 500WH lead acid set up with a 3500 W inverter. Didn’t know about power stations when I put that together. You may have guessed that electric power is kind of important to me.
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I meant how you ran the pipes between the boiler and the tanks, I have a 2600 liter tank and a 500 liter tank with a hot water tank, I get a higher temperature in the small tank, it’s easy for it to boil.
I want the generator as emergency electricity, I have a larger one for the tractor, it would be good to have one that I can take to the forest if I need to weld.
Maybe it’s better to buy one that has 3 phases?
My boiler is leaking inside the wood storage above the secondary air, I’ve welded that edge once already, but I’ve seen some miracle product on Facebook that seals and keeps out heat, but I’m doubtful if that’s true.
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Jan, my tanks are unfortunately different sizes too. The main one, with the small tapwater tank in it, is 2800 liter and it’s connected to the boiler via the thermostat and pump (laddomat). The second tank is only 1200 liter and is not as tall. It’s connected to the main one via separate outlets. It lives its own life - no pump. As the bigger tank’s upper half is getting warm, it slowly starts to circulate into the smaller one automaticly - and of course the other way around when the fire is out and I’m only consuming.
Depends of course on what you’re planning to use it for.
I’m sorry, but I don’t belive in miracles. If it was me I would wait for milder weather, drain, clean up and stick the welder to it. I don’t see any other way around it. Since it’s inside the firebox you don’t have to worry about something catching fire and it doesn’t have to be pretty.
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I have a similar problem. I have two black iron pipe grids inside my fire box that feed the small storage tanks I pump through my floors. One started leaking a couple of weeks ago and I drained the water out of the system but can’t stop running the stove long enough to pull the grids and find the leak. There is a separate grid for first and second floor tanks and only one is leaking but getting the piping all disconnected takes more than a little time. Not sure we will get warm enough days to not run the heater for at least half a day any time soon. Not really a issue on the first floor since the stove heats that fine but without the floor heat upstairs I’m looking at about a 25 degree temp drop. We have only had a few single digit F temp days so far so it hasn’t been a problem. Hoping we don’t get one of those polar vortexes this year.lAs far as the welder goes, I have done a lot of repairs out in the field running my MIG welder with flux core powered at 120v with a generator.
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The problem with welding this is that I have difficulty seeing the back, it is the lower edge that burns up, because the secondary air channel bends and is destroyed by the heat.
I could perhaps cut a piece out so I had an edge to weld against, but the boiler is from 1990, so quite old, and the ceramics are very poor.
I got an Egor 25 from my father-in-law when he installed geothermal heating, I could switch to that too, but I don’t know how good it is if it is enough for my cottage.
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Those of you who have small power plants, is it better to buy an inverter plant with a single phase instead of a regular one with 3 phases?
I need something that I can power the pumps for the boiler with and something for the stick welder in the forest, it’s a small kemppi, very good, I thought it needed a cleaner current
https://www.amazon.se/maXpeedingrods-Generator-nödgenerator-campingtur-byggarbetsplats/dp/B0BBZZ9ZH5/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?crid=S3BJSS67O674&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.5o1ZTCr8p-ygle3x0wZ142JGxCK7Zbb_KDCKetpTL6tSbc1Lr5HWnzf0H-fmNes2zjt2yFZ_f8MJonPQx7G0iXAELXvF3QvAzpTOVDfmk9LGARRAMYFq5ISD41oWPG458xALWs9sGllPW4G7FOKSCrHKdMk4HhUVaSGKkkQCmtMDXa1NuEVAHjf_epA7bfnyAuZdsfxfWp0AlmOqP9nR4w.yno5qCqhQTRffqLQo6Xf1y5Or5agZjtLV5M34kFNmcM&dib_tag=se&keywords=elverk+inverter&qid=1768251062&sprefix=elverk+inverter%2Caps%2C123&sr=8-2
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Sunday was my birthday, so I got to take the day off from projects. I have been thinking of taking some star video, so I programmed an Arduino to control the shutter on my Canon EOS. This allowed me to use the bulb setting to take long exposures of 15 seconds continually for a couple of hours until the camera battery died. I can then assemble the stills into a video,
The first night was cloudy, but here is a video from the second night.
I am going to order a dummy battery - basically a USB connector in the shape of a battery to power the camera for longer periods.
My next project would be to build a motorized mount so I can slowly pan the camera over the several hours of exposure.
edit: Youtube is defaulting to a low res showing. 1080 is the native version.
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i love night sky videos/photos, thanks for sharing. ))
another option to long exposure times is to use an image intensifier, you can shoot real time videos that way.
night vision was my hobby few years ago, still have some parts and bits around.
such as 90mm F1 and 50mm F.75 lenses ))
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That was pretty cool! I think I saw the North Star!! JK. 
Not to get you caught in an expensive hobby that isn’t woodgas. but there is astroberry which is astronomy software that works on a raspberry pi.
I don’t do it. I would spend all my time looking for spacecrafts. Then my luck I would actually find one, and accidentally delete the file or something similarly stupid.
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Thanks Martin, that was different. Interesting. Not very often I have the oppertunity to watch the stars from down under.
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I caught about 2 dozen photobombing my video. 
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Jan, from what I understand of 3 phase generators, unless you balance the load on all the phases you can run into problems (inefficiencies, overheating, damages, etc.). The generator would have to be oversized to service a single phase load. Unless you have a need for 3 phase, it doesn’t make sense. I have both a 3.5kw single phase and 12kw 3 phase generator. The only reason for the 3 phase gen is for a motor that powers a cable car and it is dedicated to that purpose. The single phase powers everything else (lighting, refrigerators). It can even do the welder if other loads are removed.
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I would add, that 3phase make sense only with load balancer between phases. It is not uncommon, since they are used havily in solar intalations in home with 3phase power cabling.
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| Anslutningsspänning | 230 V ± 15 % |
|---|---|
| Elektrodstorlek | 1,5 - 3,2 mm |
| Mått (H × B × L) | 265 mm × 123 mm × 320 mm |
| Skyddsklass | IP 23S |
| Säkring - trög | 16 A |
| Svetsområde (MMA) | 10 A/20.5 V - 140 A/25.6 V |
| Tomgångsspänning | 85 V |
| Vikt | 4 kg |
Thanks, yes I’ve started to understand why I shouldn’t have 3phase.
Now I would need to know what size I need to run this welder, a kemppi miniark 150, doesn’t need to have. 3.2 wire can use less.
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3 phase is great for 3 phase motors with their even torque.
It’s also great for rectification into DC, again because the multiple phases even out power when combined.
For single phase use cases, yea it’s pretty awful. In the US hobby machinists use VFDs to turn domestic single/bi phase power into 3 phase for the (formerly) commercial lathes and mills they inherit.
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I can’t believe how small, light and cheap these got for the knock-offs. (the wp17v torch to give it tig capabilities costs 40-50 dollars or about as much as the welder. lol)
Portable 2IN1 MMA Welder 110V/220V Mini IGBT Inverter with LIFT TIG Household . | eBay?
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Theoretically, any inverter generator rated at 230 V with 16 A output fuse should work. But you should be carefull when using maximum current settings of the welder. It consumes cca 3600 VA which might be more than the rated power of the genset. I saw several ones rated 230V/16A with max power 3-3,2 kW.
If you are are able to borrow the genset somewhere, either friends or tools shop, do some tests before you buy it.
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Thanks, there seems to be a huge difference in price from 13 to 16 amp.
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Yes, it is. IMHO because up to 13A switching unit could be handled by simple full H-bridge. More pover output require double or rather full H-bridge with two parallel transistors in each arm. Also bridge input capacitors would be much bigger or doubled to handle more power.
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Hmm, I found out that the welder needs an 8.5kva generator, so I can probably forget about that one, but a 3500w one should be enough to power the cabin.
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