Archive for December, 2008

PostHeaderIcon help me understand some 'clean environment' claims concerning my 18 wheeler.?


The makers of the Alternate Power Unit claim that the environment is cleaner when you use it while your truck is parked instead of idling your truck for access to heat and air conditioning. the 'apu' is a small, generator-like aparatus that has its own ac/heater and which is much less polluting than the diesel engine. but my questions are 1) since the apu also operates off diesel fuel, doesnt it polllute a little? 2) the apu weighs something so when you drive the truck with that extra weight dont you use more diesel fuel and make more pollution than when you drive without the apu? it seems to me that with the apu we simply move pollution away from the parking lot and place more of it on the highway.
the normal duty cycle for an 18 wheeler is 11 hours driving and 13 hours sitting still per day. of the hours spent sitting still you usually need to be in the truck for 10 hours sleeping.

You would have to calculate the emissions of both for the time in use. They must have some stats on their product. After all they cannot make claims without the threat of lawsuits. That is if they are reputable. Check to see if the have any info on experimental tests they have done and if they are available to the consumer. If not they are probably blowing hot air (no pun intended)

I found the following below

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PostHeaderIcon How do I connect a submersible waterpump to an diesel generator for a rural area irrigation system in Africa?


Has anyone got a plan of how to set up such an irrigation system?

Do yourself (and the world) a favor … including those this generator-pump system is being designed for. Do NOT use a diesl-powered geneerator … it won't operate long, since getting the diesel fuel will be prhibitvely expensive and nearly impossible after the initial setup.

Use a wind-driven (or maybe even solar, depending on the terrain) source for powering the pump.

You'll neeed a level switch to know when the pump can be operated (i.e. there's enough water to actually pump) and a starter/controller connected between the generator and the pump to allow the pump to start … otherwise the initial current draw will probably shut down the generator on overload protection.

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PostHeaderIcon Ample Power DC Battery Charger Genset


This is Ample Power’s DC Battery Genset during start up and operation. It is a Kubota 300 cc model EA300 horizontal, water cooled 4-cycle diesel engine that is running on biodiesel to charge a 24 volt DC battery bank.

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