diy generator

Don't! Generators are complicated equipment, and easily put out enough electricity to kill you, your family, and power company workers down the road working on the power lines.

If you must do this, buy a non-powered generator -- one that is designed to be used by farmers, and is powered by the power-take-off (PTO) on a tractor. Then attach a PTO driveshaft (Carden driveshaft, usually) up to your diesel engine. Then you can plug the generator into the PTO on your engine, and produce electricity.

If you wire this up to your house wiring, please be sure that you have a proper disconnect from the power lines. Otherwise you could kill a power company worker, or have your generator burned out when the power comes back on.

I intend to build this generator to test sustainability of bio fuel energy for the home. I am an architecture student and specialize in sustainable design, and I have access to controlled environments for these tests. Thank you for your reply and concern.

http://search.harborfreight.com/cpisearch/web/search.do?keyword=generator

you will want to install a manual transfer switch below your meter base, this disconnects power company from your house when running generator, and protects generator from incomming volatage when they restore power durning an outage....

thanks for the web site. as i stated in my reply to the gentleman before the project will be in a controlled environment not on the electric grid of any utility provider so the transfer switch will not be necessary. however i intend to build the system to power a home from the bottom up for my final project and thesis for my first degree in the summer of 2008. thanks again for th esite to acquire materials for my project. and any further info will be utilized and appreciated.