Solar power

Static PV concentrator?

Your not serious? Half mirrored spheres with suspended small costly PV cells... Sounds like them.

SW

No s*it?!!!

Thats a hell of a battery and if it has the life span...we are indeed living in the beginning of a new age.

Got any links??

This is indeed interesting!!

Gunner

One could not be a successful Leftwinger without realizing that, in contrast to the popular conception supported by newspapers and mothers of Leftwingers, a goodly number of Leftwingers are not only narrow-minded and dull, but also just stupid. Gunner Asch

"Ed Huntress" on Fri, 16 Jul 2010 14:42:13

-0400 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

Oh, but where's the fun in that?

I was thinking a small one. Maybe made of wood & bamboo. I think I saw something like that on MythBusters....

pyotr

There is a misunderstanding here - the wing does not have to be long and flat.

The edge and varying thickness is the trick. Many fans are curved. They get longer that way.

Mart> "Stu Fields" on Thu, 15 Jul 2010 08:17:58 -0700 typed

Hmmm...maybe a balsa wood engine?

If you like steam, do steam. Then you can be an engineer, pull the whistle and all that -- and watch it all the time it's running, to keep it going.

Stirling it delightfully drama-free. If you screw something up, it just stops. Small ones are very simple. However, making one larger than 1 hp is quite a project.

"Ed Huntress" on Fri, 16 Jul 2010 23:14:39

-0400 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

I've heard stories over the years, of using Sterlings for electricity. Dead dumb simple operation, so ..."light fire, stand back." No blinkenlichts to watch, but .. "we were happy."

Yep I had links and now can't remember where I put them. Damn it is inconvenient to get older. If I can find the link I'll stick it in here. Stu

When I was designing wind and solar in the early 1980's the lament was, "If only solar would come down from $100/ Watt, things would be possible." That was when in the Northwest, retail power cost 1 cent/ kw-hr.

The problem with wind in the Northwest is that we get 6mph wind all the time, except for 24 hours per year of 50 mph wind. What would be better is 15 mph wind all the time.

The trouble with solar heat was that it is dark, cloudy, and 40 degrees all winter.

The only things that really paid were solar lighting and super insulation.

There was no detail only a teaser that DOE was interested in getting their SBIR (Small Business Innovative Research) money out there and spent before they lose it. I can remember having to come up with something to spend the SBIR money so that we could get some next year. GEESH..I sure hope we get more and bigger government to take care of me...

Request research funds to devise a method to tax the electricity individuals make with solar power at home for thier own use. Off grid people are of course not paying thier fair share of taxes.

Best Regards Tom.

They have a charm of their own. They've beome a cult machine, but, unlike another cult machine, the Tesla turbine, they actually work.

There have been a number of high-output prototypes, by Saab, the US Navy, and others, and one navy (Sweden?) powers some of its submarines with them. They're used to generate electricity in some deep-space probes, using nuclear isotopes for heat.

But if you want efficiency from them, they're expensive to build, requiring superalloy heat exchangers that are expensive to fabricate. If you don't care about efficiency, there are some teachers in Japan who have their kids make Stirlings from a coffee can, some rubber balloons, and wooden sticks. They run very well.

azotic wrote:

Off grid people of course dont get the benefits the on grid tax payers get. So its seems fair to me that we( off grid folk) dont pay the tax to which you refer. . Afterall (correct me if im wrong) you dont pay for services you dont get. Ie you dont pay your plumber or whatever if hes not doing anything for you. Off grid electricity cost more per watt than on grid. It does have its compensations tho. If anyone is interested , weve been off grid for some 40 yrs, and our setup uses the following. Ex British rail standby signalling alkaline batteries, I bought them at 10 yrs old at £30.00 a ton, had 3 tons. Have a useful life in excess of 50 yrs. We used from the 70 crates, there in 316 stainless steel in hard wood boxes, some 20 at present, powering a 3kw outback system. We charge them with a 6kva Lister diesel generator controlled by an Outback mate. Recently, we came by 1000 galls of diesel fuel at £1.00 a gallon. so weve plenty put by. The proper pump price of this tax free tractor fuel here in the UK is £2.50 a gallon. we plan to cut this generating cost by building a 48v. DC generator powered by a 650 rpm Lister 6/1 single on waste vegetable oil.Weve 3 of these engines put by. Currently we get this WVO from a local hotel for free. So were stock piling it for future use. We think that this way of providing electricity is the cheapest way, much more efficient that solar power. We will add another 3kw outback in due course to give us a steady 6kw power supply. Our main power usage is our fridge freezer. hope this is of interest. Ted in rural wilderness Dorset UK.

Ted: Having driven around in the UK, I can believe that solar might not be the most efficient way to generate power. Only saw the sun a couple of times in two weeks. However, have you ever logged your time collecting WVO, diesel, and maintenance? I'd be interested in knowing the cost interms of amount of labor req'd. It does sound like you've been pretty inventive in taking care of your power needs. We have people living not to far away in the mountains that have come up with combinations of solar and diesel to answer their forced off grid lifestyle. I really like the no moving parts and minimal maintenance of the solar and we live in the desert where we are truly wasting sunshine. With two helicopters, my wrench twisting time is already more than I like.

oooh, that sounds like fun ! That's what I need to find, a Lister. I found them on the Internet while looking up a cast iron gas tank I found in the woods for a hit and miss named a Monitor. They don't make gas tanks like they use to. I need a 220V generator I can run for long periods just in case the power goes out while its 30 below. Almost landed a VW diesel pickup for $75 and was about to start collecting oily stuff cause I can get as many of those fuel oil tanks that I could possibly need for free. Was not happy, thought the VW was in the bag after about 1.5 years of negotiating of who really had the title.

See if you had sun I could show you how to cure that reefer problem. Solar thermal is my favorite. Run it off the exhaust heat!

What I don't and never have understood is how one controls the timing when the fuel is ignited by pressure alone. Why won't it light off on the way up? Maybe it does and won't work till the ratio is just right... Lots of backfires till ya get it right?

SW

The first four hits or so look like what you want:

Sunworshipper on Fri, 16 Jul 2010 15:03:08 -0500 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

"standing wave" is what I'm thinking of - there is probably a technical term in fluid dynamics that applies.

Bingo Leon.

I'm not buying into all this global warming stuff but if we devise a decent battery and go solar, it would seem that it would have less impact on our enviroment.

Not that I'm worried we are ruining it burning oil and gas. Coal has some issues, undermining property, heavy metals, and the danger to those that go underground to mine it.

Now if we could find a battery with the energy density of gasoline with a long life and isn't made of toxic chemicals, a lot of changes would take place.

The next 20+ years may be interesting.

Wes

-- "Additionally as a security officer, I carry a gun to protect government officials but my life isn't worth protecting at home in their eyes." Dick Anthony Heller

If I read you right, you might need to read up how a diesel engine works. To put it simply the fuel is sprayed at over 100 bar into the hot compressed air as a very fine mist just before top dead center on the compression stroke, whereapon it catches fire by itself. As to finding a 6/1 lister diesel, theres a few here in the UK at engine rallies and steam fairs. We find it easier to heat the house, the water and do the cooking on a large cast iron cooking stove . A Rayburn no1. Made in the 1950/60's. As with everything else we have a spare put by.But then we have always planned on the long term.