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Cold Alaskan Weather

Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 5:27 pm
by cannex
There has to be a way to utilize this cold Alaskan (or elsewhere)
weather to run a Stirling engine of one make or another. It could be
used to power a home off the grid during the winter. Then maybe I
wouldn't hate this cold Fairbanks weather as much anymore :-) Maybe
with the difference of temps outside compared to a shed the engine
could be in. That would be like free energy in the winter.

Response to Cold Alaskan Weather

Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 5:51 pm
by bptdude___2569
While my pet peave is lack of respect for the cold side of typical Stirling engines, for the very very cold in Alaska, you could even use a specific design that mostly is driven by the cold side.

Look for a engine design that uses the a displacer on the far cold end, with the middle being just the regenerator.

The extreme cold will collapse the volume of the working gas quite nicely, and then atmospheric pressure will drive the cold end piston in. This is actually one of the earliest heat engine designs, but is not really considered a Stirling.

Check it out, maybe it would work for you.

Good luck.


Response to Cold Alaskan Weather

Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 7:48 am
by stan.hornbaker
The cold Alaskan weather can be uilized as an excellent heat sink to run a model Stirllng engine in conjunction with the hot pot bellied stove in the kitchen.

Please note that HEAT ENERGY ALWAYS FLOWS FROM A REGION OF HIGHER TEMPERATURE (SOURCE) TO A REGION OF LOWER TEMPERATURE (SINK)

All a Stirling engine needs is a higher temperature heat source than the colder heat sink to run.

You can find lots of good ideas at with lots of links to all kinds of information on Stirling and Hot air engines.