Stirling Engine - Hydro Question

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sss
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Joined: Wed Feb 06, 2008 1:06 pm
First Name: S
Last Name: Stanfield

Stirling Engine - Hydro Question

Post by sss »

I have been looking into alternative energy solutions for my rural
home in Louisiana for over a year and have not found any clear
solution to significantly create electricity for my on-grid home for
an affordable price. I have looked into solar, standard hydro and
nothing seems very promising to me.

Now for my question: I have two artesian water wells on my property,
one flowing at about 40 gpm with a head of 40 feet and another flowing
at 70 gpm with a slightly higher head. Could I use the water from my
wells to create the same lift as the heat does with the Stirling
engine and then turn a crank shaft to create electricity?

I don't want to spend $50,000 to create this device (approximately the
cost of solar panels), but if I could create this for less than
$10,000, I would be very interested. Any companies and/or advice would
be greatly appreciated.

stan.hornbaker
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Joined: Thu Jun 20, 2002 6:01 pm
First Name: William S.
Last Name: Hornbaker

Stirling Engine - Hydro Question

Post by stan.hornbaker »

For simplicity lets assume 110 gpm at 40 ft head this can be converted to 110 x8.333 #/min x 40 ft = 36,665 Ft#/Min. 1 Kw. = 4.426 x 10^4 Ft#/Min. which results in 0.826 Kw theoretical maximum.
When you take into account losses in a hydroturbine and the generator you will end up with a usable output of something less than 500 Watts.


ixtlan45
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Joined: Sat May 24, 2008 12:57 am
First Name: brett
Last Name: Watson

Response to Stirling Engine - Hydro Question

Post by ixtlan45 »

You are a lucky, lucky man. You are in a most envious position. I speak from first hand knowlege having a farm run on nothing but a mini hydro (pelton wheel) returning 16 Amps at 12volts or 192 watts to my battery bank. This runs everything including a full size frost free fridge, computer,TV and lights. NOT an electric stove or kettle or toaster, we use gas for the hot things except our hot water which is solar with wood stove backup. Basically the water volume and pressure you have is more than adequate for a mini hydro and the energy delivered is 24/7. With a battery bank of around 1000 amps at 12volts and a 1800 watt sine wave inverter you are good to go. Cost in todays ( australian) dollars would be, Batteries $4000, Hydro $3500, Inverter $2000 ( I know of a great allrounder that any off line person would be proud of) and if finances allow Six (6) 80 - 120 watt solar panels at $5000. Total $15000 plus installation or $10000 excluding solar panels, for any highload short term operations a standby 5kv generator is sufficient. In every day use your batteries supply the base power to your inverter and the constant trickle from your hydro over 24 Hrs will keep them charged. Keep in mind that at 200 watts delivered power you are talking about
4800 watts per day. The average home uses 5000 watts per day. Solar panels deliver about 4-8 hrs per depending on location and weather. Wind is unpredictable and easily damaged. Hydro just keeps on keeping on. My only hesitation is with the spillage of 5-10 litres ( 2.5 us gal)per second, thats a lot of water just to pour on the ground 24/7. My system is out of a creek at one point and 22 metres fall later over 400 metres in 90 mm poly pipe and its back in the same creek, no waste. anyway I hope this helps, Good luck
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