Definitely NOT Happy Jan !!!

Finally the enclosure is all covered with two layers of the same aluminised insulation I used in the walls (seeing I had most of a roll of that left too) and all the joints etc. covered with a layer of aluminised joining tape.
Hoist the generator in place and all looks good for a test.
Close the door and press the remote start button. . .
Nothing !!
W.T.F. ???


















Then I had a thought . . . maybe I had been too clever and with all that foil I may have inadvertently created what is known as a "Faraday Cage". I had to build one of these once for a customer to keep out all stray electromagnetic radiation. He wanted half a factory done in this way as he made radio controlled electronic equipment and needed to test it in a "clean" environment to be able to certify the amount of radio emission he was creating.
Anyway it occurred to me that the remote control signal may not have been able to get through.
Turned out that stupid (that's me) just wasn't holding down the button long enough.
A friend of mine was around at the time and he kept up with
"Is it running?"
"I can't hear it! Is it still going?" etc.
It was nice in regard to the amount of noise it was making but a bit silly all the same :)
.
I left it running for about 15-20mins which seemed to be completely OK until I opened up the hatch. You could easily fry an egg on the insulation near the outlet. The rest of the compartment was warm but not too hot. I didn't have a pyrometer handy but a guess based on experience suggested the fan was about 60-70 degrees. This is hot enough to burn you if you touch it. I'm not sure how long it would last under those conditions. Where I could get at the other sides (from inside the house) it appeared that most of the heat had been stopped but it was only 15-20 mins on a day that was 15 deg. to begin with. I need to run it for the air conditioning on days that may well be 45 deg shade temperature when I am out in the middle of Australia in desert conditions and for up to 12 hours at a time.
This is not looking good !

As a first step I built a temporary duct out of insulated foam to guide the exhaust air more directly to the fan BUT away from the motor and box sides/roof. As you can see it's very rough but I wanted to see if it made a difference. Another test suggested that it now took about 30mins. to get everything up to the same sort of temperature.
Better but no where near good enough!


















This is the trouble when you can't get proper information . . . too much guess work.

So I thought I would try Honda again. I guess when I say "Honda" everyone realises that it really is just a dealer organisation whose main focus is on "How many did you sell today?"
Still you have to try.

"I would like to talk to your service technical department please?"
"Yair? What's up mate?"
"I would like to know how much air is required to cool your model 30EUi generator in a closed environment please?"
"Whaddya mean 'closed environment' mate? It's got a fan. You just park it on the ground and start it up. You aren't supposed to use it inside you know!"
"I understand. But I wan't to have it in a box while it is running and of course I need to keep it cool."
"Jeez. Mate. Whaddya want to do that for?"
"Well it's part of my motorhome settup and I would like to run it in the box I carry it in as it's very convenient and it's a bit quieter that way too. "
"But it's the 30EUi which is the quietest model we make. Whaddya need it quieter for?"
"Well in most caravan parks even the quiet ones are considered too noisy and ... and ... and ...
Oh. Forget it!"

You know what it's like . . . .

On the big one I had before the exhaust and the cooling air were separate and in my "mate" Sich's bus he had the same for which I made an adaptor for the exhaust pipe to run it out separately. He has the same setup I am now using and he can run his all day without overheating. Very frustrating.

I guess there is nothing for it but to see if I can separate the exhaust and pipe it outside directly. It will probably mean the end of my brand new 4 year warranty but I can't think of anything else at the moment.

So this is the exhaust end. You can see the grill over the air outlet.
Let's have the plastic end cover off first.























Underneath there is a moulded fibreglass enclosure with a better fit to help with heat and noise.























Opening this reveals only about a 10mm thick fibreglass mat. I know it's fibreglass because I have spent all day itching!























With that out of the way you can see the muffler right up the top.
I'm amazed that this is separated from the fuel tank by only another 10mm of fibreglass mat!
From the right side of the muffler you can see the little exhaust pipe which dumps the gas into the cooling air flow. Just to the left of what looks like a completely useless yellow dot on the exhaust you can see a 20mm diameter hole which is the outlet.























This pipe is joined to the muffler with an oval flange at what happens to be a quite convenient angle. If a new flange and straight pipe are made the pipe would come out straight through the grille. I can either cut a hole in the existing grill or make a new one which better directs the air flow.
I think you can guess what happens next . . .
I am going to make a duct with a new grill and cover them with fibreglass lagging similar to that inside the generator and direct the cooling air straight outside ignoring the extra fan. There is already a fan inside the generator to move this air.
I am then going to make a new exhaust pipe connected by flexible pipe and covered with more lagging and direct the exhaust straight outside. This doesn't need any fan.
Then I am going to leave the extra fan and it's inlets and outlets which will just be used to circulate extra air through the box to keep the enclosure cool.

And if all that doesn't work I will be more than NOT HAPPY !!!!