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BTW, I just sent for two of these: Compress_20240505_164820_0963.jpg If there really is no heat getting through, putting two of these together, cold bottom plates adjoined. They should, in effect, refrigerate each other, helping keep each other's cold sides cold. Since they would be sandwiched toget...

Sorry, that was the wrong video, still in my clipboard from the last post. Not sure why it wasn't updated. Anyway, this is the video of the engine with the "compartment" intended for running it on ice. https://youtu.be/cR31i09PnNQ I had been running the engine with ice previously. So perha...

Hey Tom have all your below ambient results been with an acrylic hot plate? I just realized that and it explains why my engine with metal plate always heat soaks the cold plate. I know the metal hot plate is way overkill for these small ltd engines and have been meaning to test a plastic hot end. S...

... I don't think the majority of the elevated temperature of the power piston and cylinder is due to friction. If it was, the engine would have stopped. I think it's due to them being made of materials which pass heat more readily than the acrylic plastic and aerogel. ... Compress_20240504_125427_...

Tom, in the name of science I spray painted half of a Pyrex bowl flat black and tested with the thermal gun at room temperature and after hot water exposure. There was no discernable difference except for a small variation where the paint transitioned to clear glass. I also tested a piece of black ...

150° temperature difference between boiling water on the hot side and 60° ambient air on the other seems sufficient to see some heat flow across a 3/4 inch displacer chamber, unless something were holding it back or taking the heat away or both. In the video you linked, you'd placed a scalpel scall...

If only I could afford the shipping I'd take your junk off your hands for you. 12kW of solar energy costs no more than time and effort, plus some space blankets and ingenuity, Over at my petite ruine in France I have many 20' lengths of 2" bamboo to lash up a parabolic framework with. And an a...

I'm a lazy engineer. I don't stuggle to make sense of tiny temperature differences with comparatively big error ranges for unusable power outputs when I can play with bigger projects. If I were you, I'd be spending this part of the year making parabolic mirrors and stocking up on free tube and reba...

So you think this "finickyness" selectively shows power pistons glowing red/white hot with adjacent cold plate readings indicated by dark purple/blue how or why exactly? Because the IR camera uses the full palette of colours for whatever range of temperatures/reflectivities/emissivities a...

Tesla at least saw through the Carnot caloric theory nonsense 200 years ago. It seems he failed to share the secret of longevity with anyone before he died in 1943. :laugh: Oh, you got me. Not 200 years. A mere, what was it around 1900 when he wrote the article? In the article he said he was contem...

Tom I actually think possible the self cooling aspect of these engines you are exploring. But these ir guns are finicky, even my expensive one. If you paint everything flat black, then we can start talking. It still will not be a very accurate overall reading, but at least the general comparison of...

Compress_20240504_125427_7507.jpg For supposedly not doing any work, the heat from friction at the power piston is easily visible, at least 12° ∆T above the "cold side" generally So that is 12 joules of heat generated from mechanical motion 0 joules of "waste heat" going out thr...

The flywheel on your small engine is very light and is as easy to turn as it is to stop. So there's not much work being done for heat to be converted into. Logically, a well insulated engine is going to equilibriate with and accept very little heat from the heat source. So if there's not much heat ...

All very interesting Tom. In the test I just did with my 'LTD' (now a medium T diff) I found the engine was still speeding up as the 'cold' side got hotter, even though the hot side was stable at 148C. Whether this is due to bearings getting freer as they warm, or the wire wool round the edge of th...

Maybe you might also be interested in this experiment. A different model but this engine also has acrylic sides and top for retaining heat, or put another way, to eliminate the cold "sink". In addition to the low heat conductive acrylic, I also put additional Styrofoam insulation on the in...