Kickstarter project for $100 - 1 kW - stirling engine
kickstarter.com
Kickstarter project for $100 - 1 kW - stirling engine
1–10 of 63 posts
Re: Kickstarter project for $100 - 1 kW - stirling engine
#2Seems like a huge long shot. Even if you wanted to get one now, it's $250.
I guess I've never seen this yet, but what happens when they can't' deliver you the working product? Do you get your money back?
Re: Kickstarter project for $100 - 1 kW - stirling engine
#3Looks like a cool project.
One note to entrepreneurs using Kickstarter, or creating any slide presentation for potential investors: Take the time to spell check your slides.
Tim Sefton (creator of this project), if you happen to be reading this, here are some notes that may help you make your presentation more professional...
"One thing.. The Sterling engine is about 10% more efficent then the gasoline engine, but strugles with changes in suden acceleration - like what is needed for cars."
If you are the author of the presentation, you may want to correct the four errors: efficient, than, struggles, and sudden. Also misspelled is "temperature" (on the previous slide),
Not a big deal to me, but some potential investors will absolutely be turned off by that.
Re: Kickstarter project for $100 - 1 kW - stirling engine
#4"Well the average US household uses about 8,900KWH of electricity per year - that comes down to 24 KWH per day and so our goal is to have a minimum engine output of 1KW so that it can produce close to the average home use of electrical power per day (24 hours of 1 KW output give you 24KWH)."
This math isn't taking into account that the power use isn't consistent, batteries will be needed to handle the variances in consumption. You'll never get 100% efficiency from power storage so the amount needed per day is much higher.
I also didn't see anything about the temperature required to make this run. Does this go on a roof or do they expect me to keep this in the fireplace the whole time.
Re: Kickstarter project for $100 - 1 kW - stirling engine
#5Seems like a huge long shot. Even if you wanted to get one now, it's $250. I guess I've never seen this yet, but what happens when they can't' deliver you the working product? Do you get your money back?
Also, there has to be some sort of mechanism for heat, and then something to actually generate it. All this is going to be is the engine to turn it I believe...
Re: Kickstarter project for $100 - 1 kW - stirling engine
#6"Well the average US household uses about 8,900KWH of electricity per year - that comes down to 24 KWH per day and so our goal is to have a minimum engine output of 1KW so that it can produce close to the average home use of electrical power per day (24 hours of 1 KW output give you 24KWH)." This math isn't taking into account that the power use isn't consistent, batteries will be needed to handle the variances in co…
with this kind of device you just need smart plugs so that your dishwasher/dryer/washinmachine run at night.
Re: Kickstarter project for $100 - 1 kW - stirling engine
#7Yes gas is near $4 - what does that have to do with utility prices, since there aren't any gasoline powered plants in the USA since the 70s ?
I would have to assume the way the utility company produces power is far more efficient than a town with thousands of mini-engines. Only stuff like solar cells work better in distribution.
Not sure how this would work either - what fuel are you going to use to power it for 24 hours without maintaining it? Will it drive an alternator to power an inverter? How stable would the feed be?
Re: Kickstarter project for $100 - 1 kW - stirling engine
#8Seems like a huge long shot. Even if you wanted to get one now, it's $250. I guess I've never seen this yet, but what happens when they can't' deliver you the working product? Do you get your money back?
Also, there has to be some sort of mechanism for heat, and then something to actually generate it. All this is going to be is the engine to turn it I believe...
Sterlings are normally run on solar heat.
Re: Kickstarter project for $100 - 1 kW - stirling engine
#9"Well the average US household uses about 8,900KWH of electricity per year - that comes down to 24 KWH per day and so our goal is to have a minimum engine output of 1KW so that it can produce close to the average home use of electrical power per day (24 hours of 1 KW output give you 24KWH)." This math isn't taking into account that the power use isn't consistent, batteries will be needed to handle the variances in co…
with this kind of device you just need smart plugs so that your dishwasher/dryer/washinmachine run at night.
That wouldn't work either since this power isn't clean and steady. Same goes for SV and wind. All these solutions need batteries to even the flow of power.
Re: Kickstarter project for $100 - 1 kW - stirling engine
#10Variant idea: a small portable version for camping. Stick one end in a fire, USB plug for power connector at the other. 2.5W shouldn't be hard to get under conditions where "unreliable" is normal.