Hmm. I see a few practical issues with this. I need to keep a fire burning the whole time? Not practical for many (most) homes and also will result in a lot of wasted heat.
Kickstarter project for $100 - 1 kW - stirling engine
21–30 of 63 posts
Re: Kickstarter project for $100 - 1 kW - stirling engine
#22Variant 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.
It will be kind of heavy though. For simple charging of appliances, other projects are very interesting: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryochijiiwa/bootstrapsol... http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/davefoster/lilypad-using...
I have a solar charger/battery. Surprising how often you can't get enough sun to matter, as you need many hours of continuous direct bright light to collect anywhere close to enough.
I'm imagining a sort of pencil-sized Sterling; stick one end in the fire and the other in a cup of cold water. Not reliant on ambient/weather conditions for power.
Re: Kickstarter project for $100 - 1 kW - stirling engine
#23Yes 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 h…
Hi, thanks for the question -
The fuel source intended for the Volo Engine is some type of biomass - for the biomass the plan is to use a gassifier to get the heat out of the biomass. Solar is a good possibility, but not enough solar in the northern part of the US to make enough heat.
Re: Kickstarter project for $100 - 1 kW - stirling engine
#24Earlier quoted context omitted.
It will be kind of heavy though. For simple charging of appliances, other projects are very interesting: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryochijiiwa/bootstrapsol... http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/davefoster/lilypad-using...
I have a solar charger/battery. Surprising how often you can't get enough sun to matter, as you need many hours of continuous direct bright light to collect anywhere close to enough. I'm imagining a sort of pencil-sized Sterling; stick one end in the fire and the other in a cup of cold water. Not reliant on ambient/weather conditions for power.
aah, that's very interesting.. though I'm skeptical a pencil sized one will be able to output that much of power :).
The problem with Stirling engines is that power output is kind of low when compared with a similar sized IC engine.
Re: Kickstarter project for $100 - 1 kW - stirling engine
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
WhisperGen is also only available in Europe and costs two orders of magnitude more than this device would last time I checked.
But this device is vaporware, and its price is a pipe dream.
Lets hope not - we did complete a working prototype, proving out the mechanics, linkages, and feasibility. We are pretty close to budget on the full sized model - bearings may take us slightly over the $100 mark.
Re: Kickstarter project for $100 - 1 kW - stirling engine
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
WhisperGen is also only available in Europe and costs two orders of magnitude more than this device would last time I checked.
But this device is vaporware, and its price is a pipe dream.
Lets hope not - we did complete a working prototype, proving out the mechanics, linkages, and feasibility. We are pretty close to budget on the full sized model - bearings may take us slightly over the $100 mark.
Re: Kickstarter project for $100 - 1 kW - stirling engine
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
It will be kind of heavy though. For simple charging of appliances, other projects are very interesting: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ryochijiiwa/bootstrapsol... http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/davefoster/lilypad-using...
I have a solar charger/battery. Surprising how often you can't get enough sun to matter, as you need many hours of continuous direct bright light to collect anywhere close to enough. I'm imagining a sort of pencil-sized Sterling; stick one end in the fire and the other in a cup of cold water. Not reliant on ambient/weather conditions for power.
I've got a miniature Stirling on my shelf. It's a two cylinder setup that runs off of two small alcohol lamps (about the equivalent of two candles), and is air cooled. It weighs about a pound (but could probably be lighter). I don't know exactly how much power it puts out, but it's not much - you can stop the flywheel with light finger pressure.
More heat would produce more power, but I think pencil sized may be a bit optimistic. I like the idea though.
Re: Kickstarter project for $100 - 1 kW - stirling engine
#28"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…
Your right, there would need to be a storage device in the system - this is just the first piece that coverts the heat to work - The temperature range we are designing to is about 420 degrees F hot to 100 degrees F cold. Think of it as a small outdoor appliance. It would need some type of fire box for heat generation - we are outlining a small gassifier for bio mass but that will come latter.
Re: Kickstarter project for $100 - 1 kW - stirling engine
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
But this device is vaporware, and its price is a pipe dream.
Lets hope not - we did complete a working prototype, proving out the mechanics, linkages, and feasibility. We are pretty close to budget on the full sized model - bearings may take us slightly over the $100 mark.
What would be useful is an apples-to-apples comparison. The WhisperGen is about £3,000 in the UK but that's a complete installable unit in the home that burns natural gas and hooks up to the electricity and water supply.
It sounds like your $100 is for just the motion part of the engine (perhaps I'm wrong about that). Do you have a sense for what it would cost me to go from having nothing to a working system in my home generating electricity?
Re: Kickstarter project for $100 - 1 kW - stirling engine
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sterlings are normally run on solar heat.
I don't know why you're being downvoted. One of the primary uses of Stirling engines, especially for off-grid homesteaders (at whom I'm sure this is aimed) is concentrated solar. All you need are a giant Fresnel lens (~$100), some black metal to act as a collector, and heat transfer compound to attach that to your Stirling engine and you're off to the races.
Not a downvoter, but maybe it was the "normally". The cool part of a Stirling is that it is indifferent to fuel.