I bought a 12V car alternator off of craigslist for $100. I wasn't looking for any specific model, but I wanted a serpentine pulley on the alternator, and it had to look decent. Next was a Predator gas engine from Harbor Freight. In this case, I purchased the 224cc MAX engine, which is 6.6hp. The 212cc 6.5hp engine would have also worked well for this build.
The goal is to make a dedicated generator that can recharge my 48V battery bank. I'm using the EG4 LiFePO4 batteries, which is a little more than 30kWh. Sometimes, during the winter, the solar production doesn't keep up with my loads. That's when I need to supplement my solar with some generator run-time in order to recharge my battery bank. Yes, 48V generators exist on the market, but they are thousands of dollars. I built this generator for about $400.
Intro: 00:00
Theory of Operation: 00:43
Parts Used: 04:44
Alternator Wiring: 07:04
Building the Base: 16:43
Drive Pulley Installation: 21:05
Wiring the Busbars, Rectifiers, Buck Converter, and Capacitor: 27:45
Test Run: 38:29
Conclusion: 44:20
