Stirling Engine Generator for T.V. Sat. Truck

gordon.jenkins · Post by **gordon.jenkins** » Wed Jul 22, 2009 8:12 pm

Would it be possible to use a Stirling Engine/generator for a
television station satellite truck? If those Stirlings are quiet,
they would be good for on site studio/audio work, where acoustic
pollution would be a problem.

stan.hornbaker · Post by **stan.hornbaker** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 7:29 am

A Stirling engine driven generator would be a great idea for your proposed application IF you could buy one. There is nothing on the open market suitable and the cost could be prohibitive if it were.

bptdude___2569 · Post by **bptdude___2569** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 9:41 am

Get a fuel cell and a tank of hydrogen. It will run totally silent, even a special ops ninja would be impressed. Fuel cells are available in very large commercial sizes, as in many kilowatts. Unlike batteries, it will run for as long as you have fuel, or keep refilling the fuel tank.

And you could even run it indoors, unlike any other generator, since the output is only water vapor. Thus solving more than an acoustic pollution problem.

Cost is your problem.

stan.hornbaker · Post by **stan.hornbaker** » Thu Jul 23, 2009 12:04 pm

While a hydrogen fuel cell is a perfectly good solution, it is NOT a Stirling engine with which these forums at are concerned with.

gordon.jenkins · Post by **gordon.jenkins** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 11:37 am

On further internet searches, I found the WhisperTech website. They have an 800 Watt Stirling generator for R.V.s called the Whisper Tech. Here is the pdf brochure:
http://www.whispergen.com/content/libra ... ishUS1.pdf

Their generator seems to be based on this research paper:
http://www.whispergen.com/content/libra ... opment.pdf
There are a couple of problems:
1. The generated power is only 800 Watts.
2. There are no Canadian distributors for this New Zealand-based (Volvo affiliated: Volpower) company.
http://www.volpower.co.nz/wawcs0131756/ ... ergen.html

3. I can't find competing products that would put price/innovation pressure on WhisperTech. (Is big oil, shutting them out of North America?)

Conclusion: It hasn't been done yet. It hasn't even been tried.
This spells O.P.P.O.R.T.U.N.I.T.Y.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/opportunity

More engineering, R&D, competition is required. Is it possible and feasible? It seems increasingly so, but maybe not just yet.

stan.hornbaker · Post by **stan.hornbaker** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 12:03 pm

Elsewhere in these forums is a post on the criteria to produce a commercially viable Stirling engine generator at a reasonable cost.

The principal requirement being that there be sufficient market demand to make a specific design applicable to a large market segment.

A 1-off or low volume demand simply does not justify the costs of design and production

bptdude___2569 · Post by **bptdude___2569** » Sat Jul 25, 2009 10:05 pm

At 800W electrical energy per hour, the WhisperGen unit can
effectively provide up to 19kWh/day at 12 or 24 VDC.

Inverters and battery banks are used to store the energy and later power devices. So, it is effectively running on batteries with a longer delayed recharge using diesel fuel.

Yes, there are worldwide dealers.
http://www.whispergen.com/main/off-grid/

gordon.jenkins · Post by **gordon.jenkins** » Sun Jul 26, 2009 5:24 pm

The little Stirling has big players messing with it. From WhisperTech and WhisperGen to Volpower to Volvo and Shell behind Volvo (see the attached picture of a Volvo 204 hauling or being powered by a Shell Fuel Train in Australia). Running a WhisperGen from Shell Diesel in a Volvo R.V. is starting to make cent$. If you own the engines AND the fuel to run those engines in a monopolistic, collusive, anti-trust kind of way. It shouldn't suprise anyone that that big oil would get its big, greasy paws into this little open-source, energy-for-all Stirling forum. Disinformation campaigns to stiffle interest in Stirlings should be expected. Contradictory posts, like you can't do it, the costs are prohibitive, oh thats already posted non-specifically somewhere else, tells me somebody is trying to muck about, disuade, demote, denounce the proliferation of Stirling Engines. I say hands off! Open source it! Copy left, not copyright, and patent an unpatent, so that technology benefits us all and not just the greedy!

http://www.truck-photos.net/picture/number204.asp

stan.hornbaker · Post by **stan.hornbaker** » Sun Jul 26, 2009 5:35 pm

We and others make sincere attempts to provide factual information in response to requests for information or to further discussions.

This is a technical forum and has no room nor place for politically charged posts or rants. They will not be tolerated any longer than it takes to have them deleted.

bptdude___2569 · Post by **bptdude___2569** » Sun Jul 26, 2009 7:09 pm

The WhisperGen unit has to be understood as a mobile CHP, combined heating power unit, that it is. If I lived/worked up in Canada, this unit would be just the thing, providing good heat, and getting me ample power for no extra cost or equipment. It is cool stuff for the special purposes it would fit.

Do not be so hard on companies like Shell. Dispite the collapse of the Iceland economy by uncontrolled speculators roaming all over Europe, Shell built an amazing infrastructure that uses geothermal energy to supply hydrogen at normal looking gas stations. This engineering wonder is something few Americans have heard of.

How is this related to Stirlings? Because there are a number of good companies struggling to get Stirlings off the ground as products, and they have rights to their time and investments to a challanging manufacturing process.

Expect things to heat up even more, as more practical Stirlings start showing up in the marketplace. This is a good thing.

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