Hello. I've been thinking possibilities of this engine type. With access to decent hardware store and garage, would it be possible to make homemade stirling engine powerful enough to move a really small and light car, but light enough to be lifted by one man.
I'm not talking any high-performance or fancy stuff; Just as light and simple wooden frame car as possible, which wouldn't have to run faster than running speed, but could climb small hills. I'm just interested in the possibilities. :)
steam is efficient enough. 1700 to 1 expansion ratio. thats much more than gasoline. downside i suppose would be lack of instaneous conversion. steam can be used more than the intial conflagration, like gasoline.. the titanic used the same steam 3 times in different engines on the same drive train. a sterling car is a great idea.. green? no. but design a heating chamber with liquid combustible lines, gaseous fuel lines, even a tray for coal, trash.. and yo ucould run car on anything
heat differential indeed proportional to work of heat engine can be extracted - and a blow torch is a pretty big one lol!! If the blow is supply 10000W of power straight to heating the air, then thats going into translational, rotational and vibratilonal degrees of freedom in mocules. Trans relates to heat and K.E. If velocity of fan increase, then some of the blow torch energy, (but not air's energy) is being redirect to fans kinetc energy, rather than heatering (temporary process) no?
This is problem common to almost all these home stirling projects - terribly inneficient. 95% of the heat from gas torches just flew away in the air and did not make it into engine. If we combine it with low efficiency of low pressure air stirling engine, we get something like 0,25% efficiency. Sad.
rpm has nothing to do with torque regards your "proportional" idea. A motor can have low RPM and high or low torque and also high Rpm and high or low torque. Sorry to burst the bubble on your self-answered question.
yes, no doubt about it. they used to make fans like this one but smaller, that you could pot on top of your wood burning stove. to spread the heat around your house.
My guess (as a mechanic apprentice ) is that to ony hard part about using the excess heat from an internal combustion engine is fitting displacer cylinder on the exhaust or block.
can i see your reference? I'm trying to see where you found those records and numbers because i can't find them. only asking because I'm interested, thanks!!
High Power stirling engine design wanted!! The U.K use stirling engine to run a military submarine, Use nitro fast expen/freez heat cool transfer but too expensive become inpracticle, if extent the lenth of the chamber for transfer is that help? I know the heavy flywheel help, pls comment
I'll tell you a good experiemnt. Put a stirling on a vacume flask of hot water. The only way for the heat to escape the vacume flask is through the stirling engine. This makes almost all the heat in the water convert to mechanical work, rather than waste heat! Now imagine you could keep heating the water inside the vacume flask! Eventually the temp difference between hot and cold sides of engine would be large enough to have higher power.
the best thing for a petrol car engine to do is to retain heat and convert that heat into mechanical work, but would imagine would be technical limitations trying to achieve that.
If somehow, energy from petrol were released continuously in an insulated closed chamber (with no constant exhaust), massive temp and pressure would occur. Maybe then eventually a stirling could power a car, or if not, then many stirlings. Idea being that nearly all heat could convert to mechanical work.
Loves me some stirling engines, and I applaud this guy for building one that actually runs, as it's not that easy to do. That said, while I do think that there is a role that they could play in energy production, I have not deluded myself into believing that they are efficient. The efficiency of this model here, judging from the 15000+btu input and 50 or so watt output, is probably less than 1/20%, which isn't a slam, as the best of them really aren't that good, usually around 10%. Good Job.
Id like to see instead of torches ,the heatsource to be the exhaust and cylinder of a gas or Diesel engine.thus cool the engine and harvest more power in the process.Has anybody tried this?
Never heard of it, but that sounds brilliant. It sounds like a great component for a hybrid car. On highway trips where it can't recoup power this could recharge so of the battery power.
Of course like so many things stirling, the technology (even though it's from the 19th century,) is still 20+ years away from either of our ideas...sorry for the cynicism.
no, it shouldnt blow hot air all over the room, as such, but the overall temp in the room would increase by less than by just having the candel burning without the fan, since the fan is powered by some of the energy in the flame; it has created mechanical work with some of the energy that would have otherwise have heated the room.
Not true, the work is done because of the difference between the hot and cold sides of the engine. The heat moves through the engine, but is not consumed by it. Entropy increases as heat passes through it, and that is what makes the engine work.
I have some background in thermodynamics with an emphasis on heat engines (a few yrs back now...), so I would say yes: entropy will increase. But as long as the fan is in motion, the room will not be as hot as it would otherwise have been, since only a certain amount of energy is avaliable. Once the fan has either stopped, either through frictional forces or braking, then all temps balance. K.E of all molecules + K.E of fan = total K.E no?
Yes, I suppose the fan moves because the molecules in one piston smack harder into it than on the other piston and the fan takes up this energy, but something tells me it's not something you could measure or notice by standard means.
put it this way: if you were in a room with a fan-stirling and a blow-torch (enclosed enviroment), then the fan would indeed never, over a period of time cool the room because, as you rightly point out, the process is not one way. The fan will have to slow down, and the energy would be converted back to heat. I think this is what you meant?
cars are 2% efficient 98% wasted heat, don't you just love our society. oh yeah fuck Bush in the ass with a rocket, that stupid cunt has pushed up oil costs 400% hope he dies from eye cancer
actually, the stirling engine is the most efficent engines that can be made, it just doesnt produce much power, but its highly efficent with what energy passes thruogh it.
I'd like to get one of these to stick on top of my wood stove so that I can circulate its heat throughout my house. Anyone know where I can get one, or how I can build one to serve this purpose?
some woodstove companies sell a very similar device just for that very purpose- sorry don't remember the names. I remember it looked like a CPU heatsink with fins everywhere and a fan. Sorry I can't be more specific but it IS on the market.
Although stirlings have been around since the 1800's, we still seem to have another 20-30 years before these are available for the homeowner. The typical response I get from the companies that do answer is that there is no demand...
Excellent work, especially if you did the requisite machining. Looks like you have done so. You have no doubt found that parasitic frictional losses are significant for engines pressurized at or near ambient vs. a pressurized working fluid [gas]. Very good...thanks for sharing your work.
Brilliant! Probably one of the best examples of a more powerful homebuilt I have seen - You wouldn't by any chance be willing to let me have the plans, would you? : )
make it upside-down and use a sun-dish/collector as a heat-source, bundel the heat ^^ you'd be suprised how much energy you can make if you hook it up to a small generator .... for free
that fan
"puts on sunglasses"
blew me away.
elbacano97 1 month ago
Hello. I've been thinking possibilities of this engine type. With access to decent hardware store and garage, would it be possible to make homemade stirling engine powerful enough to move a really small and light car, but light enough to be lifted by one man.
I'm not talking any high-performance or fancy stuff; Just as light and simple wooden frame car as possible, which wouldn't have to run faster than running speed, but could climb small hills. I'm just interested in the possibilities. :)
Lanthoriel 11 months ago
steam is efficient enough. 1700 to 1 expansion ratio. thats much more than gasoline. downside i suppose would be lack of instaneous conversion. steam can be used more than the intial conflagration, like gasoline.. the titanic used the same steam 3 times in different engines on the same drive train. a sterling car is a great idea.. green? no. but design a heating chamber with liquid combustible lines, gaseous fuel lines, even a tray for coal, trash.. and yo ucould run car on anything
carpetmonk 1 year ago
Okay, so where do I get a Sterling set to power my house?
JesusDillinger 1 year ago
heat differential indeed proportional to work of heat engine can be extracted - and a blow torch is a pretty big one lol!! If the blow is supply 10000W of power straight to heating the air, then thats going into translational, rotational and vibratilonal degrees of freedom in mocules. Trans relates to heat and K.E. If velocity of fan increase, then some of the blow torch energy, (but not air's energy) is being redirect to fans kinetc energy, rather than heatering (temporary process) no?
geoffart 1 year ago
nice rig there good job
captkirkconnell 1 year ago
what is the max watts can be produced on a sterling ?
dan020350 1 year ago
nuclear power?lol joking nice job!
cesaronimaniaboy 1 year ago
This is problem common to almost all these home stirling projects - terribly inneficient. 95% of the heat from gas torches just flew away in the air and did not make it into engine. If we combine it with low efficiency of low pressure air stirling engine, we get something like 0,25% efficiency. Sad.
Stepanfo1 2 years ago
Torque of the engine depends on its displacement,weight of the engine's moving parts and flywheel.
Henzzman 2 years ago
i guess by "power" this guy reckons is equal to RPM and not torque. Pity.
CraziestOzzy 2 years ago
Is RPM proportional to torque?
Exactly.
CmdrTobs 2 years ago
rpm has nothing to do with torque regards your "proportional" idea. A motor can have low RPM and high or low torque and also high Rpm and high or low torque. Sorry to burst the bubble on your self-answered question.
CraziestOzzy 2 years ago
Comment removed
CmdrTobs 2 years ago
correction, proportional to power.
CmdrTobs 2 years ago
no, the "power" is the amount of air (didn't you see fan ?). RPM would be much greater if there were not this fan.
spanjel1981 2 years ago
If you burned same amount of flame fuel inside an engine, how much more power would it produce?
Boyntonstu 2 years ago
Is this not an engine?
I will guess from the use "inside" you mean an Internal Combustion engine.
The answer is NO, the IC is nowhere near as efficient as this Stirling.
BTW If you are trying to compare this to a mass machined IC then... Christ.
CmdrTobs 2 years ago
wow!
monstercameron 2 years ago
Man, that's just awesome! If you spin that puppy much faster, you might have to upgrade to a 4340 rotating assembly. ;) Very cool.
Positrack1 2 years ago
This has been flagged as spam show
careful with that axe eugene
jonnyasprin 2 years ago
Der Motor ist super, wenn du den Durchmesser von Arbeitszylinder vergrößerst wird er noch stärker. Mit freundlichen Grüßen Jörg
HerrJoerg 2 years ago
wonder if it would be possible to get enough heat of a car exhaust manifold to power the alternator with a stirling engine.
saladdogger 3 years ago
yes, no doubt about it. they used to make fans like this one but smaller, that you could pot on top of your wood burning stove. to spread the heat around your house.
My guess (as a mechanic apprentice ) is that to ony hard part about using the excess heat from an internal combustion engine is fitting displacer cylinder on the exhaust or block.
Andreask93 2 years ago
The power is measured in fleapower.
colt4667 3 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
"High power" and "Stirling Engine" should never be in the same sentence.
oisiaa 3 years ago
Wtf are you saying? Many powerful sterling have been realised.
Ford and GM have done extensive research on Stirlings, at least 20 prototypes of stirling-powered cars have been realised.
In 1985 a Chevy Celebrity powered with a 90hp Stirling could run 0-60mph in12 secs...
Please don't speak if you don't know what you are talking about man
mizrael77 3 years ago 13
well said.
Crusafriedchiken 2 years ago
@mizrael77 but ford and gm make crappy, non-efficient cars, they have the worst gas milage of any car manufacturer
boldziga 7 months ago
can i see your reference? I'm trying to see where you found those records and numbers because i can't find them. only asking because I'm interested, thanks!!
triketrek11 6 months ago
NASA made one that worked in space. 200HP. Helium.
I've yet to see a stirling that's worth anything unless the fluid is helium under pressure.
Navigator7777777 3 years ago
Nice job. How many horses are you getting out of that?
imikewillrockyou 3 years ago
maby hes getting like .05 horse or .9 lol
30GB 3 years ago
Très interessant projet. Peut-on avoir le plan ?
ibercaracole 3 years ago
High Power stirling engine design wanted!! The U.K use stirling engine to run a military submarine, Use nitro fast expen/freez heat cool transfer but too expensive become inpracticle, if extent the lenth of the chamber for transfer is that help? I know the heavy flywheel help, pls comment
fdoca 3 years ago
love the project. what did u estimate is the power output equivalent in HP ?
wvadam 3 years ago
I'll tell you a good experiemnt. Put a stirling on a vacume flask of hot water. The only way for the heat to escape the vacume flask is through the stirling engine. This makes almost all the heat in the water convert to mechanical work, rather than waste heat! Now imagine you could keep heating the water inside the vacume flask! Eventually the temp difference between hot and cold sides of engine would be large enough to have higher power.
geoffart 3 years ago
@geoffart
They work better if the differential is higher. Think molten lead temperature rather than hot water, in order to fit the thing into a car.
WorBlux 1 year ago
the best thing for a petrol car engine to do is to retain heat and convert that heat into mechanical work, but would imagine would be technical limitations trying to achieve that.
If somehow, energy from petrol were released continuously in an insulated closed chamber (with no constant exhaust), massive temp and pressure would occur. Maybe then eventually a stirling could power a car, or if not, then many stirlings. Idea being that nearly all heat could convert to mechanical work.
geoffart 3 years ago
Loves me some stirling engines, and I applaud this guy for building one that actually runs, as it's not that easy to do. That said, while I do think that there is a role that they could play in energy production, I have not deluded myself into believing that they are efficient. The efficiency of this model here, judging from the 15000+btu input and 50 or so watt output, is probably less than 1/20%, which isn't a slam, as the best of them really aren't that good, usually around 10%. Good Job.
AndrewShearon 3 years ago
how many HP does this engine produce?
Mattys2007 3 years ago
hello!
király lett a motor.
én ma halottam ezekről először és máris egy ilyen építésén töröm a fejem pedig holnap töri vizsga :D
egyedpeter 3 years ago
Id like to see instead of torches ,the heatsource to be the exhaust and cylinder of a gas or Diesel engine.thus cool the engine and harvest more power in the process.Has anybody tried this?
tomterahedrob 3 years ago
Never heard of it, but that sounds brilliant. It sounds like a great component for a hybrid car. On highway trips where it can't recoup power this could recharge so of the battery power.
Of course like so many things stirling, the technology (even though it's from the 19th century,) is still 20+ years away from either of our ideas...sorry for the cynicism.
ericj9 3 years ago
Excellent! Good work.
kevinthenerd 3 years ago 3
wouldn't it just blow hot air all over the room?
salemcripple 3 years ago 2
no, it shouldnt blow hot air all over the room, as such, but the overall temp in the room would increase by less than by just having the candel burning without the fan, since the fan is powered by some of the energy in the flame; it has created mechanical work with some of the energy that would have otherwise have heated the room.
geoffart 3 years ago
You could also extend the driveshaft of the fan from outside of the building if you wanted to provided that it was supported properly.
ericj9 3 years ago
@geoffart
Not true, the work is done because of the difference between the hot and cold sides of the engine. The heat moves through the engine, but is not consumed by it. Entropy increases as heat passes through it, and that is what makes the engine work.
WorBlux 1 year ago
I have some background in thermodynamics with an emphasis on heat engines (a few yrs back now...), so I would say yes: entropy will increase. But as long as the fan is in motion, the room will not be as hot as it would otherwise have been, since only a certain amount of energy is avaliable. Once the fan has either stopped, either through frictional forces or braking, then all temps balance. K.E of all molecules + K.E of fan = total K.E no?
geoffart 1 year ago
@geoffart
Yes, I suppose the fan moves because the molecules in one piston smack harder into it than on the other piston and the fan takes up this energy, but something tells me it's not something you could measure or notice by standard means.
WorBlux 1 year ago
put it this way: if you were in a room with a fan-stirling and a blow-torch (enclosed enviroment), then the fan would indeed never, over a period of time cool the room because, as you rightly point out, the process is not one way. The fan will have to slow down, and the energy would be converted back to heat. I think this is what you meant?
geoffart 1 year ago
nice
EnergyBum 4 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
cool but the most inefficient thing i have ever seen
HugMyNutz 4 years ago
actually I bet your Petrol/Diesel car is less efficient
V2DK 4 years ago 10
cars are 2% efficient 98% wasted heat, don't you just love our society. oh yeah fuck Bush in the ass with a rocket, that stupid cunt has pushed up oil costs 400% hope he dies from eye cancer
HugMyNutz 3 years ago 5
actually, the stirling engine is the most efficent engines that can be made, it just doesnt produce much power, but its highly efficent with what energy passes thruogh it.
geoffart 3 years ago 4
Awesome hope I can achieve even close to that!
441rider 4 years ago
I'd like to get one of these to stick on top of my wood stove so that I can circulate its heat throughout my house. Anyone know where I can get one, or how I can build one to serve this purpose?
karaool 4 years ago
some woodstove companies sell a very similar device just for that very purpose- sorry don't remember the names. I remember it looked like a CPU heatsink with fins everywhere and a fan. Sorry I can't be more specific but it IS on the market.
Although stirlings have been around since the 1800's, we still seem to have another 20-30 years before these are available for the homeowner. The typical response I get from the companies that do answer is that there is no demand...
ericj9 3 years ago
Excellent work, especially if you did the requisite machining. Looks like you have done so. You have no doubt found that parasitic frictional losses are significant for engines pressurized at or near ambient vs. a pressurized working fluid [gas]. Very good...thanks for sharing your work.
EngineerGuy2 4 years ago
Very Good. I would like to see a video showing how much horse power or joules(whichever you like to work with) it can produce.
jrangle 4 years ago
Brilliant! Probably one of the best examples of a more powerful homebuilt I have seen - You wouldn't by any chance be willing to let me have the plans, would you? : )
greatestdirectorisme 4 years ago
make it upside-down and use a sun-dish/collector as a heat-source, bundel the heat ^^ you'd be suprised how much energy you can make if you hook it up to a small generator .... for free
SCTV 4 years ago 2
I am interested in stirling engine. Can you provide construction/ design details if they are for public interest.
ravipardeshi 4 years ago
I do however feel, that the 'motor' should have been mounted properly at least?
produKtNZ 4 years ago
COngratulations! Very good run for a can. What is the material of the power piston and cilinder?
Congr again
impazzitoinvolo 4 years ago
How much power is this machine producing? What is the ratio of power conversion from Heat to motion?
seshkanuri 4 years ago 2
you mean efficiency?
derjew 4 years ago