Stirling engines for the third world

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stan.hornbaker
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Joined: Thu Jun 20, 2002 6:01 pm
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Response to Stirling engines for the third world

Post by stan.hornbaker »

As the last poster noted this web site and the forums are for discussion of Stirling ENGINES.

Be forewarned.
Any off topic posting(s) are subject to deletion without notice.

There is a Hot Air Engines forum on Yahoo which would be appropriate for such discussion.
bptdude___2569
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Joined: Sat Jan 13, 2007 3:31 am
First Name: Joe
Last Name: McLean

Response to Stirling engines for the third world

Post by bptdude___2569 »

Here is something about Stirling engines.

http://www.ctamachinery.com/

I went to this:
Connecticut Antique Machinery Association show

Mostly they had steam engines, but they had one working Stirling.
I stood there and watched it.
They had a small firebox underneath, and it cranked quite well.
It was probably 100 years old.
This could easily drive an electrical generator for my house.
I could feed it coal or firewood.

As I just stood there staring at it, all I could think of is why why why can anybody just make these things again.

Why is it so hard to find or buy a Stirling engine?
Why do so many "experts" say it is not possible to build one?

Somebody throw me a clue.

By the way, it is a way cool show, they have it once a year.
The steam engines were very interesting.
I did find people that had old small steam engines they might sell.

You can't even find these steam engines new, oddly too.

There it was though, the Stirling engine, the mythical unicorn, right in front of me, chugging along. It was so frustrating.

cchagnot
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First Name: Catherine
Last Name: Chagnot

Response to Stirling engines for the third world

Post by cchagnot »

Joe,

I have perhaps eleven or twelve various antique Stirling engines in my collection. Every one
of them still run. Most are kerosene fans and do a nice job of wafting warm smelly air at
one. Even the large Rider-Ericson that I have that pumps water works. BUT.....They
actually produce very little usable power. The fans probably around 10-30 watts, if that.
The Rider maybe 50-100 watts. Without regenerators they're also terribly inefficient. You
might be able to run something like a small LED light with one but not much else.

Real Stirlings are alive and well however. The price of oil has finally made it very cost
effective to bring the ST-5 into mass production and we're presently costing for around
10,000 engines per year, with the manufacturing costs somewhere less than $3,000. I
have posted a number of videos on YouTube showing the ST-5 running in Korea and our
lab back in the States. With any luck (and a lot of hard work) one will be able to buy an
ST-5 in the next couple of years or so. I'm in Asia now working on getting it into
production.

Here are a few links to the videos of the ST-5 I put on YouTube.

http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=r6zMCF-IKco (Music from "Terrapin Station by the
Grateful Dead) Who else????

http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=7574w2RMeO4

http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=24SvyVSIcYY

http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=yYXMN-jFe-k

http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=EDWhNzggnO8

The engine pumping water in Korea; http://kr.youtube.com/watch?v=NEg7oNXf0-o


Catherine
stan.hornbaker
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Response to Stirling engines for the third world

Post by stan.hornbaker »

According to recent scuttlebutt a 2-HP self-pressurized Stirling engine will be in production by the end of the year by in or near Huntsville AL.
stan.hornbaker
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Response to Stirling engines for the third world

Post by stan.hornbaker »

Joe McLean: You must have been looking at a Water Pumping Hot Air Engine designed by John Ericsson, not a Stirling engine.

Wikipedia has an article on him at:


Look through the links at and search via Google. There are differences in the operating cycles of Stirling and Ericsson engines.

acacialiberty
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Last Name: Hosking

Response to Stirling engines for the third world

Post by acacialiberty »

I have been trying to research applicability of Stirling engines for Botswana. My current profession is Building Economics.

I have worked in many African countries including Nigeria. NigeriaÂ’s electrical grid is a mess and all activities require gensets. Most of the idea that if America isnÂ’t using it then it is 2nd rate stands as an acute marketing observation.

Living in Botswana we have occasional power cuts due to our reliance of 30% of our needs from neighbouring South Africa that has let itÂ’s system go to pot and is trying to make good.

Botswana we have no shortage of solar energy but most villages donÂ’t have access to power. There was a huge surge in demand for gensets some two years back when the power failures started. However most of the sets were from China in whatever flavour you want but for reliability.

Refurbishing a building to be viable is closing the door after the horse has bolted. Designing it to use LED and alternative energy from the start can mean removing 90% of the electrical infrastructure hardware including smaller gensets using much less fuel. The biggest saving is in the maintaining of worker productivity ( a shadow cost).

I am looking to use a 90f natural heat differential (possibly using evaporative cooling and solar heating to aid this). No it canÂ’t come close to the cost of grid power however in terms of getting a good one in place in a properly designed building I believe that the savings in man hours and genset operations may well show a better picture. But for tropical countries the natural heat differentials are a poor start.

As with solar energy the electricity usage of the operator needs serious reconsideration, usually from the design of the original building. In addition I just still canÂ’t make any system work long term using batteries which is why I am shunning solar cells. Solar hot water yep but batteries nope.






yanto_go
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Last Name: Go

Response to Stirling engines for the third world

Post by yanto_go »

In response to Timothy Hosking: instead of battery, can we use compressed air as a mean for energy storage?
stan.hornbaker
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Response to Stirling engines for the third world

Post by stan.hornbaker »

Can compressed air be used as an energy storage method? YES if you can tolerate the losses due to cooling during storage and reheating on expansion or losses therefrom.

It is NOT a very efficient energy storage medium.
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