Engine Shed Moves

Mid August is a time for reflection on what you have achieved in the year so far, and to focus the mind on what needs to be done before the Autumn arrives.

Saturday 18th was the 7th anniversary of us living here in suburban Redhill in our 102 year old house, and for the first time in those 7 years, I had finally got myself organised and was ready to move my equipment into the new workshop.

Saturday afternoon was wet, but it presented the opportunity for us to work indoors in the new engine shed and workshop, have a tidy up and generally get things ready for moving the heavy engine gensets into position.

The new shed is approximately 200 square feet, ship-lapped on the outside, then a layer of exterior plywood, up to 3"of Kingspan insulation and then lined with OSB (oriented strand board). This type of construction is fairly simple, uses relatively cheap materials and gives a high degree of insulation to make a comfortable building.

On Saturday afternoon, Adam and I finished the insulation panels on the inside of the engine shed ceiling, and cleared a lot of space so that the engines could be re-sited. The old Lister engine in the picture had been in the garden shed for nearly 2 years, and when we disassembled the rotten old garden shed, it remained in place on the old shed concrete base. Now it was just in the way - right in the middle of the new workshop floor - so finally had to be moved toa better location.

On Sunday, Adam (left) and I shifted the Lister gen-set from its old position in what had been the old engine shed to its new position on the much larger engine shed.

Here we see one of the 4 foot wide insulated wallpanels removed from the back of the workshop, and the engine & genset being lifted through the gap into the new engine shed. Lifting the weight of the engine with the engine crane we were able to manoeuvre the engine baseplate on metal rollers and get it into position.

Also visible is the new work 8' bench, which Tim assembled from scrap roof timbers that we found in a neighbour's skip. These lengths of heavy timber, formed the roof of a 120 year old house, and made ideal heavy duty runners for the workbench.

The bottom shelf of the workbench is also used to store the bank of 36 sealed lead acid batteries which power my inverter system. The battery bank can be recharged directly from the Lister genset, and will provide about 1 day's worth of back-up power, before the generator has to be run again.

The engine shed will contain my two generators, a wood fired boiler and a large insulated tank that acts as a thermal store.

Beyond the engine shed floor is a storage area for firewood and the vegetable oil for the engines.

The workshop is 11' x 10' and the engine shed with woodstore is 9' x 10'.