Brian Whatcott wrote in
:

You don't want to extract too much from the exhaust
stack for various reasons, but the warmth of the cooling air is a
freebee.


In the winter (not much winter as I live in SC) I run my little Honda
EU1000i suitcase genset INSIDE the stepvan to power and heat it. I
welded a pipe nipple to the tiny little exhaust pipe sticking out of it
and put a right angle fitting to convert it to 1/2" metal natural gas
line, the flex they use to connect natural gas appliances to fixed piping
safely. The line is nicely ribbed, making a very nice heat sink to
radiate exhaust heat in a little coil against the back door of the van.
This pipe goes through a hole in the van's deck and out about 6"
underneath. By the time the exhaust gets outside, you can hold the pipe
in your hand and the gas coming out of it is barely warm.....recovering
100% of the waste heat from the gas engine INSIDE the cold, leaky van
shop. It's a little noisy but I don't care. In Winter I can power and
heat the truck for about a gallon of gas for all 8 hours at work. The
genset is behind a cabinet and I glued foam around its position to form a
sort of sound cabinet out of the fixed cabinets and truck body. Plenty
of air inlet and outlet to move the heat into the space....(c;

I can't do this with the EU3000is as the exhaust outlet is buried into
the airstream of the cooling air inside the quiet cabinet. The new
diesel genset is easy with its external exhaust "stack" sticking up out
of it. You could even use some A/C ductwork to duct its heat into a
living space while venting the exhaust outside separately.

Hmm....I could plumb the cooling air outlet into the floor heat ductwork
of the hovel in winter....recovering heat and not loading the electric
plant...(c; That would increase my efficiency markedly, making the house
toasty warm in the process. I've already got CO gas detectors in here.

Larry
--
Grade School Physics Factoid:
A building cannot freefall into its own footprint without
skilled demolition.