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Thread: Winterizing A generator

  1. #11
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Posts
    28
    So far my cells have not stopped producing with just the KOH as the anti freeze. I know this will not last. It is 15 f right now and I bet I'm getting slush. My next step is to completely wrap the cells in an insulation blanket. Like a home hot water heater. My cells produce very little heat because of the low supply voltage. I'm researching ways on how to create a 12vdc heater; wire wrapped around the cell and a few current limiting resistors might work. (then wrapped in insulation). I put -32 f washer fluid in the bubblers so they don't freeze, works good.

  2. #12
    Join Date
    Nov 2008
    Location
    Brunswick, Maryland
    Posts
    41
    Quote Originally Posted by Randohr View Post
    So far my cells have not stopped producing with just the KOH as the anti freeze. I know this will not last. It is 15 f right now and I bet I'm getting slush. My next step is to completely wrap the cells in an insulation blanket. Like a home hot water heater. My cells produce very little heat because of the low supply voltage. I'm researching ways on how to create a 12vdc heater; wire wrapped around the cell and a few current limiting resistors might work. (then wrapped in insulation). I put -32 f washer fluid in the bubblers so they don't freeze, works good.

    Boy does this open up a whole new complex...huh? Running a 12v heater at x amount of amperage(how much is enough to maintain a just above freezing electolyte temp.). Then how much amp hours does my lead acid battey have, since its not a deep cell its rated in CCA because it isnt designed for long term amp draw(ie Ah or amp hours). CCA = Cold Cranking Amps which is only what needed to be considered until introducing a current draw with the vehicle not running ( ie. alternator not charging). So now how much energy do we need to draw to keep our cells from freezing, obviously will vary due to several conditions ambient temperature/ electrolyte volume and insulation of the cell which for some of us will be a problem. Since we use convection from air flow to keep our cells cool, and to further that thought now we have a load on the battery that we need to figure out how much can we draw and still have our car start the next morning , but what about on the other end? We also now have a partially discharged battery that now we have to recharge by use of the alternator which has a maximum output. Can we prevent to much strain on the alternator from running our cells (ie 30 amps for some) plus now we are introducing a discharged battery into the loop (which i am a former auto tech and have seen many burned up alternators due to bad batterys causing a constant load from therefore burning them up). LOL Holy cow lots of things to be tested. Taking these thoughts even deeper is the energy needed to turn the alternator. Obviously it takes energy (ie. fuel) to produce the current needed to recharge the battery and run the cell. So now you are burning more fuel with the car not even running LOL. Anyone else have this stuff swirling around in your minds lol. Oh i have been thinking about something else which i think i know the answer. but i bought a heating blanket from wal-mart for my cell. Now the purpose of the HHO cell is to maximize combustion efficency and save fuel. IE save money/enviroment so how efficient is running a 12v heater off your battery overnight then recharging on the next drive cycle vs using a 120volt ac heating blanket on my cell plugged into house current. (since most diesel trucks use 120 volt ac block heaters i have to assume that this is the best choice) which makes sense kinda for cost reasons. The electric company produces electricity in bulk so therefore it is probably more cost efficient to heat the cell by use of house current and have that passed on to my elec. bill. Sorry for the long post guys just some thoughts i think i should pass on / get out after all thats what the forum is about huh?? LOL

    Thanks,
    Carl

  3. #13
    Join Date
    Dec 2008
    Posts
    28
    I'm back. Thanks for the long winded reply. I couldn't even finish reading it. As follow-up: I insulated the cells with fiberglass house insulation and never had an issue all last winter. I'll do the same this year. I don't get caught up in all the calculation anymore. I use 90% intuitive observation and 10% raw common sense. I get good mpg gains with my brute force designs and that's my goal! yea baby
    Randohr
    02' Jeep; 18mpg Highway w/o HHO
    23mpg highway w/ HHO.
    Parallel plate water baths, 3vdc, 16A
    Efies(x4), MAP diode, AIT mod, WTS mod.

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