diesel powered house

Just wondering what you guys think of this brainstorm (hail, tornadic wind, hurricane force, clear out), as in running my old diesel car engine on veg oil, hooked up to a 12 volt 3500 watt converter, to produce electricity for household stuff.
Note. Inadvertently, and with no malice of forethought, I am sort of infamous for creating detectable gravitational waves that evolve into aurorae borealis and major earthquakes when changing batteries in a flashlight. The broad topic of electricity generates 0 fear in me, but for some reason, my family has this strange custom of fleeing whenever I'm working on my latest AC/DC gadget to save the world.

Sounds cool, even if only as a backup generator.
If you can run it on veg oil, you might grow your own.
I recall someone posting about using a derelict diesel Rabbit to church a bank of batteries.
Ran it about once a week.
I think a charcoal or wood gasifire powered gasoline engine would be easier to get fuel for.
Bonus points for using the radiator as a water heater,co-generation FTW.

A friend of mine in WI here makes cold oil presses that he sells. He leased about 12 acres and planted Canola, and the 2 crops per year off it gives him enough veg oil for his vehicles, diesel generator for electricity, and he heats his home with it too. He has another guy in the mid-west with hundreds of acres in Canola, sells the veg oil to area farmers, makes HUGE money, like $10K per month per press. He started off with one press, now he has dozens running 24/7. "It's like printing money" he says. I don't have a farm yet, hopefully soon. When I do, I will follow his lead and grow my own veg oil crop and press it out, sell the rest. Off grid with an income. Now that's worth doing.

That press sounds like it may be interesting to a lot of people. Can you post more about it and the overall system, in maybe the farm income forum?

Scott Cepek wrote:A friend of mine in WI here makes cold oil presses that he sells. He leased about 12 acres and planted Canola, and the 2 crops per year off it gives him enough veg oil for his vehicles, diesel generator for electricity, and he heats his home with it too. He has another guy in the mid-west with hundreds of acres in Canola, sells the veg oil to area farmers, makes HUGE money, like $10K per month per press. He started off with one press, now he has dozens running 24/7. "It's like printing money" he says. I don't have a farm yet, hopefully soon. When I do, I will follow his lead and grow my own veg oil crop and press it out, sell the rest. Off grid with an income. Now that's worth doing.

Does that other guy need an assistant? My skills at gardening and farming are quite legendary. Every plant I've attempted to grow either doesn't or dies within 16 minutes. Haven't tried Canola, but I have a feeling that is the one I've been waiting for all my life. (Only problem is, if i'm wrong and my history suggests I am, not only do I kill whatever it is i'm trying to grow, everything within a 60 mile radius seems to go brown in less than a year. In 2 years, 180 miles.) Come to think of it, perhaps he might want to consider offering me some kind of incentive not to try my hand at Canola?

Scott Cepek wrote:A friend of mine in WI here makes cold oil presses that he sells. He leased about 12 acres and planted Canola, and the 2 crops per year off it gives him enough veg oil for his vehicles, diesel generator for electricity, and he heats his home with it too. He has another guy in the mid-west with hundreds of acres in Canola, sells the veg oil to area farmers, makes HUGE money, like $10K per month per press. He started off with one press, now he has dozens running 24/7. "It's like printing money" he says. I don't have a farm yet, hopefully soon. When I do, I will follow his lead and grow my own veg oil crop and press it out, sell the rest. Off grid with an income. Now that's worth doing.

up hear, canola oil from a crushing plant sells for over $1.00/liter.

I can grow, with low input costs, about 20bu/ac of canola.

one bushel can produce around 20 liters oil, so about 400L/ac.

if you take the time to make biodiesel, your costs increase, but straight veggie oil can run older diesel engines.   and if stored inside, can be used in an oil fired furnace.

I need about 3500L to guarantee enough oil per year for my house, so about 9 acres of canola.

Also, if one has a wood stove to augment, you can press the tailings into blocks and burn them in the wood stove for more heat.

you could probably make up an oil fired water heater.

double your acreage and make enough oil to fuel the farming costs.

up here, pellet stoves using grain were a thing but dropped off.   but cereals can grow good, and provide fuel.