Why are you interested in Stirling engines? (Or why are you here?)

[Tom Booth]

I originally got interested in Stirling engines because I was living on some land far off the grid. I tried solar and wind power as well, which were easy enough to come by, but a Stirling engine, I thought would be ideal, could run on wood. My wood stove was going all the long winter long and I was cooking with wood even in summertime, so a Stirling engine seemed better for on demand power than any of the alternatives, but, there was nowhere to just go out and buy a Stirling engine.

So I got interested in building an engine and trying to figure out how they work and the reasons why they were not readily available.

If I could buy a Stirling engine at the corner hardware store, like anyone can go almost anywhere and buy a motor, lawn mower or generator, I would have done so a long time ago and that would be that. I would have had no need for posting on a forum.

I guess now I'm on a kind of mission to try and prove that Stirling engine could be a viable alternative.

So, why have others come here?

Just curious, and thought this would make an interesting thread. I see some discussions here have tens of thousands of "views", but not many say what they hoped to find, or why they came.

[Carlos_A_M]

Basically our art teacher told us to do something related to recycling and I figured I could maybe try to make an engine, I google "recyclable material engine" and low and behold I get an ungodly amount of tutorials for beta and gamma stirling engines, I instantly get interest and develop something borderline of being an addiction to trying to get one to work, after trying a lot and giving up on following tutorials I eventually design one and get it to work and quickly start making others, this is where I am now and a side effect of it was searching for stirling engine websites.

[Administrator]

I was at a Hit N Miss engine swap meet in Lodi Calif arond 1975 or so (now it is elsewhere). I watched a group of guys competing for "the slowest running engine" award. A guy with an antique Stirling (don't remember the maker), but he blew every one away!
That made me think about Stirling engines and I worked on making my "Tin Can Stirling Engine" from cans!

I have around 20 or so now, including the one built off the plans in the April 1961 Popular Science magazine.

aircooled_10.JPG (41.2 KiB) Viewed 6807 times

I ran a website for building a version of my Walking Beam tin can Stirling engine for years. It sort of all slowed down a few years back.

Darryl

[Peter Scheltus]

I fear rules are going to change concerning energy production in Europe. Privatisation in the US has already lead to bills in the level of 10.000 dollars in an exceptional month. That would be nearly a years worth at 'normal' rates. The reason for that is that the contract with private clients contain no cap in the case that a severe cold (Texas recently) hugely increases demand, hence high prices to acquire energy. I don't know how laws here will develop, but I intend to anticipate and create our own energy supply mechanism.

We are working on gathering people to man a collective around rural self-sustaining life. Solving the energy source for a couple of families could also spin off to other communities around the world. Now we are at the beginning of that development. We live in the rural heartland of Croatia on pristine hectares of land. And enjoying it to our fullest.

I found a low pressure engine mentioned at Tamera in Portugal. The combination with solar heat collection I found highly intriguing. Anybody here seen it work in reality?
Any experience with making a 5 kw low pressure engine - like the one mentioned in Tamera? Or other sources. I find very little on the web. Also I am inclined towards fermentation to get flammable gas and woodgas. We have hectares of forest.
Otherwise, I hope some free flying mind invents something revolutionary that will work on a bigger scale.
I am looking forward to exchanges.

[staska]

Hello. 5kw for atmospheris kind of too optimistic way. On the other hand - you do need more than 100-150 watt constant power for lights and appliances if hot water/heating is done separately..

For sustained tractors - go for charcoal gasification..

[normandajc]

The reason I was interested in the Stirling engine was that I installed 30 square meters of solar thermal panels on the roof of my house. In summer, I cannot use this solar energy source, I do not have for example a swimming pool. I looked at the Stirling engine to produce electricity from this solar energy source.I studied the different types of Stirling engine and I said to myself that I had to rethink the engine.
In my opinion, it is necessary to produce locally with the energy sources that nature offers us (the sun, the wind, the river currents, the geothermal energy, etc). We have to design sustainable products, recyclable, without rare materials, without power electronics.

[skypupbob]

When I was 7 or 8 I had a couple of tin cans and some wire and told my father I was going to build an engine from them. After he stopped laughing I gave up on the idea. Many years later I found out about sterling engines and built a Boyds walking beam can engine. I only wish my dad was alive to see my tin can engine running! Thanks Boyd!
I have built 6 more since then and love them! Three of them are solar, but the problem I'm having with two of them is that they don't get hot enough to evaporate the condensation inside and the water drops don't lubricate the steel piston and it gets gummed up. The third solar engine has a diaphragm power piston so no problems. It will run all day ! When I look inside I can see moisture on the cool side.

[fcheslop]

Just enjoy the challenge of building the more unusual ones
https://youtu.be/mgQd297Bqb0

[JessIAm]

I've joined this forum because Stirling Engines are a very capable and untapped power source. The fact that Stirling Engines are fuel independent makes them ideal for green applications. With a little creativity Stirling Engines can power the world!

For example: solar generator roads are proving to not work with sufficient reliability. However, if the heat created by a road when sunlight hits it could be transported (using a coolant based heating loop), the roads, which produce more heat than the dirt around them, could power Stirling Engines!

[jesi four]

Advantages of Stirling engines compared to internal combustion engines include: Stirling engines can run directly on any available heat source, not just one produced by combustion, so they can run on heat from solar, geothermal, biological, nuclear sources or waste heat from industrial processes.

[Warren]

Hello! I've just made my first stirling engine - or rather a thermoacoustic version as I found the theory fascinating: not that I can make it actually work! I think it's inefficiency in the pistons and connecting rods graphite and adjustment seems to be the answer.

I have often wondered if it would be possible to make a version of an engine to power a raspberry pi - so lots of happy research to do.

[Nobody]

My question is, why would you not want to be here? Procrastination? Ignorant by choice (Ignoice *)? No idea? Lazy turd? LOL, I'm some of that last one.

I'm here for similar reasons to some of you. Live on a farm. Have a plethora of wood. Heat with wood. Have large bon fires to get rid of wood. Would like to convert some of it to work, motive force, electricity, etc... I think the lure of higher efficiency, simplicity, and life span, that good Stirlings show over steam, bio-diesel, thermocouple, and wood gas, is too much to ignore.

I've been studying Stirling Engine literature for 20+ years, have a background in engineering and ran across this website sometime after it first became popular. I had not built any Stirlings, so didn't want to join until I had bragging rights. Good job to all those that have built one or tried. I'm too busy still to do so. Started constructing a test model, however have been pulled away by job, family, friends, home defence and farm duty's. I always thought I could benefit this forum, so am happy it is still doing well.

Probably what, or whom, got me off my duff, and active is the posts and poster Tom Booth. He seems to be pushing discussion in two ways one is in an erroneous direction. His enthusiasm and experience is driving this forum in a very positive direction. I am trying to help him and us. I have been doing research since reading his posts in an attempt not to put forth errors. He has convinced me there is more to thermodynamics than the known science. This is in the area of ideal gas verses real gas, entropy, enthalpy and expansive cooling compressive heating effect. Somehow the theory seems clumsy. I may not be correc and may not be smart/educated enough to understand or discover anything. But I will continue trying.

The Stirling concept is fascinating. What else can be driven one way and liquefy air and the other and become red hot, as well as be an engine that can run either way depending on it being heated or iced with the same sink (room temperature water). Amazing. The same principals also allow fourth grade students to build them out of scrap/discarded-garbage, and even run off the heat of a human hand. The variation of configurations is awesome. Alpha, beta, gamma, Ringbom, with or without a crank shaft, or even a piston or diaphragm. With water pistons, etc... Is the list unlimited? Try that with a IC Engine. Stirling Engines can even run other Stirling Engines, or drive Stirling Coolers for wider efficiency and temperature ranges.

I'm now here thankfully. I hope you all enjoy me.

Why would anyone not want to be here!

* Ignoice: Someone whom chooses to be ignorant. I coined that word many years ago. So don't bother looking it up.

P.S., We are all ignorant by choice. It is impossible to know everything, but we are allowed to try.

[Salamander42]

I just enjoy learning. I also enjoy old tools. I recently acquired an old lathe, date of manufacture likely somewhere between 1900 and 1920, and thought that making a Stirling engine would be a fun project to take on to learn how to use it. I’m still gathering info and figuring out what materials I need/want to use, which is what led me here.

[Tom Booth]

Probably the main reason I'm here on this forum rather than somewhere else is the generosity of Darryl Boyd in giving away free plans and providing web space for people to proudly display their engines. It was a big inspiration to me more than a decade ago, and still is today.

[brian hughes]

The reason that I'm here is that I've got more heat than I know what to do with. My thing is biochar, and I've got lots of surplus heat from the burners... why wouldn't I want to find out more about small Stirlings, and maybe at a later stage, thermoelectric generators? The vision is to have something to take to festivals and offer carbon negative wifi and phone charging.