Generator exhaust

[heyu]

Out here in the country alot of amish have the water pump generators exhaust piped straight out their basement wall to the outside,,I was wondering if anyone ever ran a backup power generator through a chimney? I have a brick chimney in the center of my house and I actually could position my generator next to a steel door at the bottom ,,,in the basement and could 90 degree the exhaust up into it

 

[simple_gifts]

Not enough heat/exhaust to get a draft IMHO. The exhaust will cool down and drop back down into the basement. Flues are sized for a reason. JMO.

 

[bullwinkle]

Originally Posted By: heyu
Out here in the country alot of amish have the water pump generators exhaust piped straight out their basement wall to the outside,,I was wondering if anyone ever ran a backup power generator through a chimney? I have a brick chimney in the center of my house and I actually could position my generator next to a steel door at the bottom ,,,in the basement and could 90 degree the exhaust up into it
The Amish have generators?? Thought electricity was a BIG no-no for them?

 

[heyu]

Originally Posted By: bullwinkle
Originally Posted By: heyu
Out here in the country alot of amish have the water pump generators exhaust piped straight out their basement wall to the outside,,I was wondering if anyone ever ran a backup power generator through a chimney? I have a brick chimney in the center of my house and I actually could position my generator next to a steel door at the bottom ,,,in the basement and could 90 degree the exhaust up into it
The Amish have generators?? Thought electricity was a BIG no-no for them?


They are not as goody goody as the TV programs show them as(or as the old days)They have ALL electricity by means of solar panels,cell phones,gas weedtrimmers,even some of their elders have self propelled mowers,,they even have computers,,And this is in the 4 th largest community in the world-----If you only knew but seeing is believing

 

[heyu]

Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
Not enough heat/exhaust to get a draft IMHO. The exhaust will cool down and drop back down into the basement. Flues are sized for a reason. JMO.


Ok that makes sense ,,Thanks

 

[WANG]

Originally Posted By: simple_gifts
Not enough heat/exhaust to get a draft IMHO. The exhaust will cool down and drop back down into the basement. Flues are sized for a reason. JMO.


I concur with this.

 

[JHZR2]

In the Caribbean, a lot of the more well to do folks have diesel gensets in their garages, and the exhaust is piped out through essentially black iron pipe...

But it is generally horizontal runs and not the volume that an empty chimney has.

Id be worried about losing too much heat on the vertical rise.

 

[JTK]

Even if you had a means to completely pull the exhaust out of the basement, you'd still have fumes from crankcase blow-by. Your house would stink like crazy.

Joel

 

[RF Overlord]

I got yelled at here for running my portable gen in the garage with the door wide open

...putting it in the house is grounds for a permanent ban.

Seriously, I agree with the others ^^^ that it most likely won't work...it would also be rather noisy I imagine.

 

[heyu]

Originally Posted By: RF Overlord
I got yelled at here for running my portable gen in the garage with the door wide open

...putting it in the house is grounds for a permanent ban.

Seriously, I agree with the others ^^^ that it most likely won't work...it would also be rather noisy I imagine.


They run them in the basements out here and pipe it straight outside open exhaust ,,run anytime,anynight,,no noise restrictions out here

 

[eljefino]

My modern and overly complex oil boiler has an electric fan "turbo" that comes on to blow air, and potentially exhaust, up the flue a few seconds before the boiler itself even lights off. It would be interesting (don't try it) if one could use the generator's cooling fan to blow its waste heat up the chimney.

 

[rslifkin]

I wouldn't run it up a chimmney, personally. As far as installing a genset in a basement, it's doable. Just make extra sure the exhaust connections aren't set up in a way that they can leak, try to isolate it from the rest of the basement a bit, and provide ventilation for the space it's in. Not much different than an engine room on a boat.

 

[HerrStig]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
My modern and overly complex oil boiler has an electric fan "turbo" that comes on to blow air, and potentially exhaust, up the flue a few seconds before the boiler itself even lights off. It would be interesting (don't try it) if one could use the generator's cooling fan to blow its waste heat up the chimney.
A slick installation would be to use one of those fans with it's own exhaust outlet for the genset.

 

[HerrStig]

Farmers used to bury a 55 gallon drum out in the "dooryard" and pipe the generator exhaust to it, damped the sound WAY down and the cows didn't go dry, or whatever.

 

[Fleetmon]

I would be just as worried about raw gasoline vapors from the fuel tank vent gathering on the floor and igniting when found by an ignition source.

 

[heyu]

I thought overall it would be a good idea to route the exhaust up the chimney and alot of good points and reasons not to on here ,It's just a basic 8hp from the late 70s generator and very heavy to bring up to the house just to use it,,Thanks for all the input

 

[JTK]

Yep, like said, you'd need some type of vent hood over the rig. The fumes coming from the fuel system and crankcase alone would stink the place up and be potentially lethal.

Joel

 

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted By: Fleetmon
I would be just as worried about raw gasoline vapors from the fuel tank vent gathering on the floor and igniting when found by an ignition source.
If installed indoors, the fuel tank vent line should be run outside. Basically, you treat it like a marine install where the #1 design goal is to not allow ANY harmful fumes into the engine space, and provide a way to remove them if needed.