On 11 Dec 2003 06:03:54 -0800, (Don) wrote:

I have an 11 horse riding lawn mower engine. Looking for projects I
can do with it. I have thought that it would be handy to have a
generator around this winter to power the blower to my furnace incase
the power goes out. Any ideas on where to get a cheap generator head?
How many watts do I need?

My neighbor had a motor and a generator and he asked me to make a
portable generator unit out of it. It worked, but lacked many
features taken for granted in a manufactured unit; such as, voltage
regulation and frequency regulation.

The engine had a governor, but it still slowed down, some, when load
was applied. Worst of all, the voltage sagged considerably under
heavy load. I wired in a manual voltage control, so it worked, after
a fashion.

The neighbor didn't figure the project would cost anything, but his
generator didn't have a permanent magnet field. It didn't have any
residula magnetism to start generating, so he had to pay for a battery
to get the excitation started.

Your project is do-able, but you'd be much better off with a
factory-built unit.

Orrin

..