anyone make a stirling engine water pump?

[LanceA0]

i cant beleive how much info is on this site. i never knew what a stirling engine was till today. now i was wondering if anyone made one that sat on top of a stove and  powered a pump. like a pump to move water for a wood boiler.

i just installed a wood burner in my house and im tring to heat my DHW with it along with some baseboard heaters in my basement and a library room that is 10x11' with 7 single pane windows in it.

 

[ghurd]

Best advice?  Buy new windows!

And insulate the place between the block and the ceiling (the basement ceiling or 1st story floor?).

No reason a standard wood burner would need a pump, if properly set up.

Easiest to pre-heat the DHW.

I figure the stove is NOT in the basement?

Fans work.

"Boilers" are very dangerous for regular people.

There needs to be a very high level of understanding and caution.

G-

[spinningmagnets]

You can be the first...here's some fun links:

http://www.boydhouse.com/stirling/

Toy rocking beam Gammas from junk, easy and cheap to build

http://www.windstuffnow.com/main/newpage3.htm

Ed's desktop Stirlings, water-cooled with integral water-pump

http://www.stirlingsouth.com/Roy/others/lyonnet/asap.htm

super simple Gamma beer can Stirling, balloon diaphragm.

http://www.fieldlines.com/comments/2008/9/2/133816/8543/10#10

sofa-sized 2-1/2HP double gamma + lunchbox-sized 100-Watt gamma

I agree with Ghurd. I am losing measurable heat through the glass in my windows, and I have double-glazing. Single-pane is much worse.

Some things I have learned from Gary's www.builditsolar.com site:

The hot gasses rising in the chimney tube cause a strong up-draft and pull air from the room. This causes a slight vacuum and every tiny crack and leak will flow cold air into the room from the outside. If you duct cold outside air into the intake of the wood stove (instead of using room air), you will dramatically reduce the amount of wood needed to heat the home.

Temporarily covering the inside of the glass panes with clear bubble-wrap will cheaply reduce heat losses until proper 2 or 3-paned windows can be installed.

Set a rolled towel at the foot of doors that leak cold air (later install proper weather-stripping) and caulk cracks as soon as possible.

[scottsAI]

LanceA0,

Stirling engine seems so simple anybody can build one!

Searching the web, hundreds of designs.

Yet, they are not commonly used? Why?

Internal combustion engine easy to get 25% efficiency, 30% not too bad. Yet above 30% is difficult. Steam engines; not easy to get above 10%, yet with careful design 40% as seen in most power plants is possible (multi stages). Stirling engine theory promises better than 40% with a seemly simple design.

The reality is not so simple. Two to 10 years development times to design 1 engine. Requires massive testing, tolerances are tighter than it may look etc.

After researching Stirling engines for 6 months gave it up, once I understood the design problems.

The web designs out there are models, many produce just enough power to make them spin. Few can supply a few watts. Wood stove the heat is essentially free, would be nice to use a Stirling water pump to spread the heat around!

May I suggest you look into a small steam engine? Easier to build a 50 watt water pump steam engine. Use a flash boiler for safety please. Turbine engine, closed loop.

Have fun,

Scott Beversdorf.

[LanceA0]

thanks for the replies.

Ghurd:  windows are not an option right now, i wish they were. the house was built in 1925 and has 15 single pane windows on the first floor, and no insulation in the walls what so ever. i have every window caulked shut and the shrink wrap pastic over them. then i have reflectix bubble wrap 4' up the windows to help keep the heat in. i got the wood burner so that i can make more heat in the house then what can excape through the lack of insulation. i dont plan on living here more then 4 years, so im just tring to make it cheaper(gas, electric) for me to live here, and somewhat easier on the the next owner. i got gary's $1000 solar DHW heater planned for this year. it will be modified to run off solar in the summer and off my wood burner in the winter. i figured if they made a stirling water pump i could use one for the winter, to help offset the electric for the winter. im using 2 ceiling fans, a fan behind the stove, and a fan in my library to get the heat moving around.

wood burner is on my ground level(600 sq ft).

my basement has block walls that leak air in the crappy morter job, also where the sill plate is. ive put tripple foam in the gaps and still need to add another layer. then insulate it of course. im planning on tring to seal that up better this summer.

spinningmagnets: thanks for the links. i will check them out.  im not ready to take on any more projects, exspecially ones that might not work. the only thing is my wood burner doesn't have a intake that can be hooked up to the outside. i would have to make all the custom, and im not sure im ready to start cutting holes in my wood burner or the side of my house.

scottsAI: thanks for shareing your info.  it sounds like stirling engines were to good to be true. they would be a great thing if they could get them to produce more power i guess.

[hiker]

heres my little modle engine--all cranked up..[stove top]i belive you would need somthing quite bigger......... :}

[ghurd]

Newer than my house!

Check into blown in insulation.  We saved the cost back in less than 1 heating season.  And that was having a company do it.

They did a crappy job, and I had to do a bit more myself.

Any Stop-Gap measures?  Like insulate the top of the walls in the attic?

Two of my 4 walls were open from the sill plate to the attic.  Could feel warm air flowing up.

The wall next to the 1st to 2nd floor stairs was open half that far. (no stairs to the attic)

Makes me wonder how many $1,000 would have been saved if someone would have jambed a foot of fiberglass into those openings 100 years ago.

G-

[LanceA0]

blown insulation and new windows are in the works, just not this second. the money just isn't there for them. i removed the 3" of insulation that was up there, sealed all the vents, and holes that go into the living area with tripple foam. then layed down two layers of R-25.  im also thinking about maybe insulating the south facing wall (not roof) in the attic. it would only cost me about $20 and im sure it would have to help some to reduce heat that would radiant in.

[ghurd]

Hint:  Wire everything to the hilt, twice, before insulating.

Outlets, phones, cable, cat-5, etc.

I even ran extra 110V wires from near the box to the attic, just in case.

Wow.  3"?  This one had 2.5"! (2.25"?)

I didn't know they made it that thin until I saw it here.  

G-

[ghurd]

Also might want to look into moving any cold air returns from outside walls to inside walls, he said smacking himself in the forehead repeatedly.

I am sure that is a huge loss for me.

G-

[stop4stuff]

imagineered

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2004/12/7/204910/690

[Davetech23]

I was hoping to use a solar powered stirling engine to circulate water from a solar collector to a preheater holding tank to feed my electric tankless water heater. All I could find were desktop curiosities or huge industrial. Nothing in between. I know a stirling has little torque but I was hoping with a little gearing it could at least move water slowly. (Slow is fine... gives the water more time to heat up in the collector).

Dan Rojas at GreenPowerScience put up a good video that explains the workings of the stirling and has promised a follow up video that shows diy'ers how to build their own

from "off the shelf parts". I think he has something bigger than a curiosity in mind but so far the second video has not appeared.

Here's a link to the first one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fP6UH4Vuxsc

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Oh, and LanceAO, you said "the only thing is my wood burner doesn't have a intake that can be hooked up to the outside. i would have to make all the custom, and im not sure im ready to start cutting holes in my wood burner or the side of my house."

I thought the same about my wood burner since it just has an air inlet in the door which has to swing open to add wood. But I found a way. It was quick, easy and very effective. I have a page on my project site devoted to how I adapted the fresh air intake to my Scandinavian style wood burner.

http://davetech23.tripod.com/freshair.html

Hope it will help. The site also details my solar powered water preheater project.

Davetech

[Kwazai]

I recently started putting a stirling together out of craap I had laying around. here's a video of it working. just food for thought at the moment.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFaZzWETYGU

L8r

Mike