sailor mcgee Posted December 8, 2018 Report Share Posted December 8, 2018 hey, i need your help, i am designing an experimental sterling engine for electricity generation in winter, my idea is to use the backboiler of a fire to passivly pump heat round a central heating system and include in that system a coil of pipe or a hollow chamber on top of a sterling engine, this creates a heat difference between the bottom of the canal (which can be freezing) and the warmth of the hot water on the boat meaning the engine will turn and some electricity may be generated to help the battery when the diesil is not working as the canal is too cold. for this I need to know how cold the water is in different situations eg the canal water in a marina may be a degree warmer than on top the penine mountains; can you throw a thermometer overboard on your boat and record water tempriture every morning between 6 and 8am once a week over winter? or for liveabords as often as you can? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WotEver Posted December 8, 2018 Report Share Posted December 8, 2018 3 minutes ago, sailor mcgee said: some electricity may be generated to help the battery... I don’t think milliamperes would really be of much help at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Harold Posted December 8, 2018 Report Share Posted December 8, 2018 What's a Sterling engine? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sailor mcgee Posted December 8, 2018 Author Report Share Posted December 8, 2018 no, a larger one can generate up to 150 kilovolts Just now, Mad Harold said: What's a Sterling engine? it uses a difference between heat to make energy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterboat Posted December 8, 2018 Report Share Posted December 8, 2018 I have a Stirling engine in my Whispergen it runs at burner degrees C in the top chamber[exhaust is at 400 c] and liquid nitrogen in the bottom! it creates 70 amps at 12 volts and works well I suspect you may be onto a hiding to nothing with your plans but have some fun trying because you might get lucky 5 minutes ago, Mad Harold said: What's a Sterling engine? google it they are fun Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WotEver Posted December 8, 2018 Report Share Posted December 8, 2018 8 minutes ago, sailor mcgee said: a larger one can generate up to 150 kilovolts Not using the 50C difference between central heating pipes and the canal it can’t. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sailor mcgee Posted December 8, 2018 Author Report Share Posted December 8, 2018 2 minutes ago, peterboat said: I have a Stirling engine in my Whispergen it runs at burner degrees C in the top chamber[exhaust is at 400 c] and liquid nitrogen in the bottom! it creates 70 amps at 12 volts and works well I suspect you may be onto a hiding to nothing with your plans but have some fun trying because you might get lucky google it they are fun have you tried to generate any electricty with a sterling engine? they are used in renewables in spain. they generate electric and used on swedish ships and submarines to the point where the americans where impressed and leased the submarine fleet for a time to improve thier own engines. mock me if you wish. 1 minute ago, WotEver said: Not using the 50C difference between central heating pipes and the canal it can’t. hot water would be 100c and so even if the water in the canal is 10c or-10c then itd be still generating energy. more than 50c difference Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterboat Posted December 8, 2018 Report Share Posted December 8, 2018 14 minutes ago, sailor mcgee said: have you tried to generate any electricty with a sterling engine? they are used in renewables in spain. they generate electric and used on swedish ships and submarines to the point where the americans where impressed and leased the submarine fleet for a time to improve thier own engines. mock me if you wish. hot water would be 100c and so even if the water in the canal is 10c or-10c then itd be still generating energy. more than 50c difference I have used mine for 6000 hours, making electric and 5 KW of hot water, I am just installing a new one, but a 24 volt model and with luck this one will be just as good, as you can imagine I know a great deal about stirling engines over the years of my ownership of one! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MtB Posted December 8, 2018 Report Share Posted December 8, 2018 "sterling engine" Sounds expensive to me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark99 Posted December 8, 2018 Report Share Posted December 8, 2018 I got one whizzing around at the moment on the stove. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Harold Posted December 8, 2018 Report Share Posted December 8, 2018 Just had a look at "Stirling Engines" on Wikipedia. Would post a link if I knew how. Quite fascinating how they work. Best of luck,Sailor. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MtB Posted December 8, 2018 Report Share Posted December 8, 2018 8 minutes ago, mark99 said: I got one whizzing around at the moment on the stove. Me too, but the low temperature differential Stirling cycle engine only develops microscopic amounts of power. Ecofan territory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark99 Posted December 8, 2018 Report Share Posted December 8, 2018 1 minute ago, Mike the Boilerman said: Me too, but the low temperature differential Stirling cycle engine only develops microscopic amounts of power. Ecofan territory. Agree. I got a massive wood fire going and ok the fans smoking but at low delta temps forget it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sailor mcgee Posted December 8, 2018 Author Report Share Posted December 8, 2018 2 minutes ago, mark99 said: Agree. I got a massive wood fire going and ok the fans smoking but at low delta temps forget it. physics disagrees Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark99 Posted December 8, 2018 Report Share Posted December 8, 2018 (edited) 4 minutes ago, sailor mcgee said: physics disagrees Always open to pursuation. Link please. I have two engines. One has more rotational mass and struggles to spin enough torque to overcome friction despite loading more wood fuel to bring the base temp up. It could be the heat transfer is not efficient in my set up. Sort of makes me think you need to scale right up to silly sizes to get useful power output. Edited December 8, 2018 by mark99 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MtB Posted December 8, 2018 Report Share Posted December 8, 2018 3 minutes ago, sailor mcgee said: physics disagrees Really? Could you post up some figures to illustrate please? I'm intrigued now. Much obliged. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sailor mcgee Posted December 8, 2018 Author Report Share Posted December 8, 2018 ill make one. that may show you Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterboat Posted December 8, 2018 Report Share Posted December 8, 2018 2 minutes ago, sailor mcgee said: physics disagrees It doesnt Mike has a stirling engined whispergen as well, we both know how they work, and when the heat differential is very small they produce little power, but copious amounts of hot water Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sailor mcgee Posted December 8, 2018 Author Report Share Posted December 8, 2018 oh, perhaps we misunderstood, thank you for explaining better @peterboat i agree. its to compensate the lack of solar Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MtB Posted December 8, 2018 Report Share Posted December 8, 2018 1 minute ago, sailor mcgee said: ill make one. that may show you It certainly will. I'll be staggered in fact as I think it can't be done using hot water and cold water with a typical delta T of perhaps 80C as the energy source. What Wattage output are you planning your Stirling cycle engine powered generator will deliver? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sailor mcgee Posted December 8, 2018 Author Report Share Posted December 8, 2018 Just now, Mike the Boilerman said: It certainly will. I'll be staggered in fact as I think it can't be done using hot water and cold water with a typical delta T of perhaps 80C as the energy source. What Wattage output are you planning your Stirling cycle engine powered generator will deliver? i dont know yet, i am going to make it with a few ceramic bearings so it moves efficiently, i asked a few friends in one of the sigs i am a member of for help Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MtB Posted December 8, 2018 Report Share Posted December 8, 2018 4 minutes ago, peterboat said: It doesnt Mike has a stirling engined whispergen as well, we both know how they work, and when the heat differential is very small they produce little power, but copious amounts of hot water Red herring. The OP is claiming hers will generate useful amounts of electricity, using hot water in the first place as the energy source. Our Whispergens have an electrical power output of 750W, using a delta T of about 800C Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peterboat Posted December 8, 2018 Report Share Posted December 8, 2018 1 minute ago, Mike the Boilerman said: Red herring. The OP is claiming hers will generate useful amounts of electricity, using hot water in the first place as the energy source. Our Whispergens have an electrical power output of 750W, using a delta T of about 800C I know Mike thats why I said to her have fun making it ? anyway you have jumped the LifePo4 route at long last Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MtB Posted December 8, 2018 Report Share Posted December 8, 2018 3 minutes ago, sailor mcgee said: i dont know yet, i am going to make it with a few ceramic bearings so it moves efficiently, i asked a few friends in one of the sigs i am a member of for help I'll be delighted if you can demonstrate one. I'm always willing to turn my opinion 180 degrees on a sixpence when I'm proved wrong! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mark99 Posted December 8, 2018 Report Share Posted December 8, 2018 Bearings. Swerve to engineering detail instead of scientific fundament. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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