Nov
13
Can I Build A Wood Fired Domestic Electricity Generator Power Station In The Garden?
ByI have unlimited supply of wood. The excess heat to be used to heat the house and swimming pool. Excess electicity to be sold to the grid.
Would the capital cost be prohibitive? The running costs are not a problem. Is there a commercial turbine on the market.
My capacity to burn is determined by the cost of one man and a J C B to load a commercial incinerator.
I would exect a large input of D I Y in this project.
I know that planning permission may be required
6 Comments
November 13th, 2009 at 6:48 am
Its difficult to give a complete answer here.
Firstly we have to say that however you build your project it will be extremely difficult to make it green.
The reason is that the amount of Carbon you release will be enormous compared to the amount released by a commercial power station producing the same amount of electricity.
So from a commercial point of view have you looked at the price you will get from the buyer??
I assume you are in the uk.
If you look into selling to “the grid” you might find that the price will be very low indeed.
The amount you could get would depend on when you generated, ie were you only on at peak times,
If you produce electricity only now and again which is the most likely case I expect the amount you would get paid would not cover the cost of the diesel to power your loader and the man’s wages.
First check what you could get paid for the power you produce and when it is produced.
(it would most likely be very very little) It is not legitimate to look at what you are charged for electricity.
So your best plan I believe is to generate enough electricity for yourself and forget about export.
The problem with this normally is that you have to have your power station going 24/7.
Thats a lot of work.
What you could do is build a mini hydro scheme.
This is done very little but is very green.
The draw back is that you need two enomous ponds of water separated in height by about 10 feet (min).
You have a water wheel which runs 24/7 producing your electricity.
This is powered by water running from your top pond to the bottom one.
Now once per day you need to pump up the water from the bottom pond to the top. You can do this with very simple steam lift system.
Anyone with basic engineering skills could build this system.
If you could make your ponds big enough you can run your wood/steam powered lift system less often.
BTW solar is the best way to heat your pool. Very inexpensive effective systems now available. DIY systems cannot compete here.
Solar or wind could also be used to pump water to the top pool. This method means you dispense with batteries which are only 70% efficient and not Green. They are expensive and need to be replaced every 5 years making small projects using batteries. .
Micro-Hydro is the way to go. you will not find much on the web. You are welcome to mail me if you want to know more.
I know you will be disappointed in not being able to sell your power but the cost of the equipment compared to the payback time would make it a bad plan.
(like I say it would also be very un eco freindly)
Good luck with whatever you try.
November 13th, 2009 at 8:48 am
okay if you are planing to sell back to the grid then check with your local electric board to make sure that your area is capable of taking what you plan to pump in.
However it does sound like a great project to uses the heat the house…there are schemes like this when large power plants supply hot water to the locals or reuse it in some way. But you have to be sure that you still can get cold water back into the boiler. If hot water goes back the effiececy of your machine would decrease. All bare in mind heat exchangers can be very costly, so where they can be avoided they should be!
I am afraid turbines dont really come ready made…because they need to rated for the job to max the power output…but i sure if you look hard enough!
oh check out the site before it might be able to sort you out!
November 13th, 2009 at 9:50 am
Look at building a gasengizer if thats how its spelt. It burns wood twice and you can use it to power a petrol engine to drive an alternator. They were used during the war when fuel was short . I have thought about building one myself but never got round to it. It used to be called gasengizer but now gasifier
November 13th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
Power station in the garden with unlimited supply of wood? Do you live in a rain forest?
November 13th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
It is possible but it will take loads of time and energy
November 13th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
depends really on where you live and what kind of restrictions your area has on such emissions, you should check with the environmental health service. Sounds a great idea but won’t you get lots of whiners banging on about your carbon footprint?