[Vwdiesel] Heads up (fwd)

[Val Christian]

About 10 or 15 years ago, York, the PA based HVAC company, had a 
residential heatpump offering that was an air source heatpump,
with the compressor powered by an Otto cycle one banger. The 
engine was advertised as being a ceramic, although I don't know 
how much ceramic.  

The idea was that it ran the compressor, which accounts for the 
majority of energy consumed by a heat pump.  Running on natural 
gas caused it to have a lower unit energy price.  Additionally, 
in the wintertime, waste heat from the engine was used to augment
the heat source.  I believe it also had some kind of NG powered
heat capability for extreme cold.

At the time, I looked into one of these, although my existing 
air source HP was not old enough to justify replcement.  I recall
that the engine was manufactured by Briggs and Stratton.  The 
maintenance schedule was a 1qt oil change every year.  As I recall,
under heavy usage the spark plugs sometimes needed replacement 
before the oil.

About 5 years after offering this unit, it was discontinued.  Probably
a good thing I never got one, as maintaining an orphaned unit
can be frustrating and expensive.  I asked the local distributor
when it was discontinued if there were problems.  By their accounting,
it had few problems, except that sales never really took off.
As I recall, we were also into the cycle of "cheap" energy.

I wonder if Briggs makes this engine for other applications.

BTW, relative to heating, when I bought my first Diesel Rabbit (1976),
one of the mechanics at work was telling me about his experience
with the diesel generator on the family hotel in Alaska.  Apparently
they had a big one-banger diesel generator, with a huge flywheel.
They used it for over 20 years.  The couple of times they had to 
shut it down, required a unique starting process.  They would take
a dumptruck, and position a rear wheel to have friction contact
with the flywheel.  With jacks and blocking on the other wheels, the
dumptruck would start the flywheel spinning, and then someone 
would turn on the fuel.  The wheels would be unblocked, and the 
truck (aka starter) would drive away.  The diesel heated their
water at the hotel, and supplied electricity.

Val




Forwarded message:
> 
> Gm did the same testing in 1979 thru 1981, the results were very good, 
> very cool running, used no oil for lubricant, no rings for the pistons. 
> Cost was the reason GM scrapped the program, or so my dad told me, he 
> had worked on the project.
> On Dec 25, 2006, at 2:40 PM, Andrew Buc wrote:
> 
> > On Dec 24, 2006, at 11:10 PM, James Hansen wrote:
> >
> >> Ideally, a ceramic head, if you could seal it, would
> >> kick butt because you could let it glow red, and it would be no big
> >> deal.
> >>
> >
> >
> > Some years ago a Japanese company (possibly Mitsubishi, but I could
> > be wrong) built some experimental all-ceramic engines. Great thermal
> > efficiency, no need for a cooling system.