[aporetics]

The DIY is fun, but if you want to think about it on a larger scale:

https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/D81N8CPF

From the abstract:

> This thesis specifically highlights the value of small, mass-manufactured internal combustion piston engines retrofitted to participate in non-automotive system designs. The applications are unconventional and stem first from the observation that, when normalized by power output, internal combustion engines are one hundred times less expensive than conventional, large power plants.

And:

> The largest single component of this thesis is modeling, designing, retrofitting, and testing a reciprocating piston engine used as a compressor. Motivated again by the low cost of an internal combustion engine, this work looks at how an engine (which is, in its conventional form, essentially a reciprocating compressor) can be cost-effectively retrofitted to perform as a small-scale gas compressor.

[danans]

> when normalized by power output, internal combustion engines are one hundred times less expensive than conventional, large power plants.

That's quite the caveat because with the higher power output comes far lower efficiency. That's fine for an emergency backup scenario, or for spinning reserves as the paper mentions, but it's a very operationally expensive for normal power generation. The idea of modularity is good, but that's already a part of the VPPs that are being built now.

[cortesoft]

Isn't that market already served by portable generators? Engine manufacturers like Honda have been selling gas generators forever.