There are engines that are much more efficient, but they cost a lot more than you want to pay. From our rough calculations, we concluded thatafter efficiency losses were taken into accountthe 10-KW alternator would require about 22 horsepower to operate effectively. Issue #130 July/August, 2011
per square inch, and a temperature around 720 degrees, steam becomes supercritical and actually has a density the same as water. I am always looking for ways to make self sufficiency more comfortable. Fortunately, our choice proved to be a good one. The first phase to building your steam generator is the type of power to use for heat. In Wood Gas Truck: Road Power From Wood Gasification, we detailed how to make a wood gasifier small enough to power a car or pickup for about $125 in parts and materials. Originally published as BACKYARD HOMESTEAD UTILITY in the July/August 1981 issue of MOTHER EARTH NEWS. Steam engines and boilers are usually most efficient at full settings, all valves open, full fire, etc so that brings us to the next subject: In a home setting, electricity is the most common form of energy. Surely someone could do better than that. The cool earth will help to condense any moisture, and the pressurized atmosphere can then be used to drive tools or spray paint. Rt. Sometimes earlier prototypes are not economical, so help in finding better solutions are always welcome. At this point, let me introduce you to the British thermal unit (Btu). Youll get more from somebody if you ask questions than if you try to tell them what you know.
gas generator gasifier wood diy fema stove gasification vergaser imbert fuel plans biomass energy test smoke build energiegewinnung camping woodgas If we contain all of this, as in a boiler, we get a pressure differential (inside vs. outside).
We fitted the block with 11:1-ratio pistons and a low-overlap camshaft, then installed a homebuilt carburetion system similar to the one on our wood-gas pickup and advanced the ignition timing slightly.
Torrance, CA 90505 This is more efficient, safer, common, easy to build, etc. The idea here is to gently unite air and fuel together and give it plenty of space or time to do its thing. P.O. And yes, there are approved designs out there for monotubes, and a professional can build them rather cheaply. Work is best described as the movement or change of velocity of mass. (Premier model making magazine, covers toy steam engines too), Modeltec The engine exhaust will travel into a coil which is inside the large tank and release its remaining heat into the water. As volumetric changes occur, temperature and pressure changes must also occur. Get hands-on with kits, books, and more from the Maker Shed, Skill builder, project tutorials, and more, Subscribe to the premier DIY magazine today, Community access, print, and digital Magazine, and more, Browse and Vote on Your Favorite Projects, Learn More About the Amazing Maker Awards, Graphics and More to Help Spread the Word, Michael Floyd is a creative director and sustainability consultant. Thanks for the time and effort you put here, I found it very educational. Water, in the form of steam, is an excellent medium to transmit energy. This is a monotube design and will use electric pumps and blowers, giving easy control. Therefore, no more on this one. He studied creative writing at Mankato State University in Minnesota. Traverse City, MI 49685 Stumbled on to your site when I was pondering a steam powered fan, that installs on the spout of a whistle kettle. Its the United States unit of measure, which is similar to the metric systems calorie. Raising water temperature is easy; changing water to steam is a whole nother ballgame. The system would certainly perform quite adequately with a box stock engine.) If you have a need for large quantities of controllable heat, say to heat a large home, chicken house, or even a kiln, steam plants excel in that the waste heat (exhaust) of a steam engine will give you excessive amounts of BTUs to play with. The container in which we will make our steam is called a boiler. To view the entire project, check it out on Instructables. The combustion gases pass over the tubes of water and then over the air heater and on out the exhaust stack. Hence the name Monotube. If we can provide exacting control of our fuel/water supply, then we have the ideal home-power boiler. Steam is then drawn off the top of the drum where it is routed to its intended use by a pipe.
This is a 195-cubic-inch, long-stroke model, which isin effectthe right half of a General Motors V-8. It provides either one 240volt or two 120-volt 60-cycle circuits, and is designed to cut in at 210 volts so the plant can come up to operational speed without the burden of a load. It is not an actual blueprint and I assume no liability for anyone who uses it as such. By paying with a credit card, you save an additional $5 and get 6 issues of MOTHER EARTH NEWS for only $14.95 (USA only). This article is an attempt to answer some of the many questions people have about steam.
Lancaster, PA 17608 There are literally thousands every year. Efficiency is nice, but if the fuel is free, why should you care? The shows are definitely a family affair. I ran a 1kw D.C. steam power plant as a tourist attraction here in Branson, Missouri, for a time and fell in love with high voltage D.C. If youre thinking steam is old-fashioned, consider this: Almost a century ago, steam cars and ships attained speeds and efficiencies which are still difficult to attain, even with todays modern internal combustion engines. We use cookies to continuously improve our websites for you and optimize its design and customization. But were not, by any means, finished yet. (See Mothers Hydroelectric Plant. Since the head and flow at our water-power site offer a potential of little more than 2 KW, we decided to replace the oversized AC generator there with a more suitable 2.5-KW alternator, thus making the larger unit available for use with the wood-gas plant.). Steam is a dry, clear, tasteless gas. Box 328 An example would be: A single cylinder engine has a bore of 3 inches and a stroke of 4 inches and runs at 100 lbs of average cylinder or mean pressure. Our websites use cookies to improve your browsing experience. From the English-language comments: On the tracking system, indeed we plan on using 1 single motor to track all mirror facets. The project takes us a step further in the transition to a distributed, sustainable energy system. Usually, it takes only a few minutes of conversation to reveal that the caller needs more education in the basics of steam engineering. (Loaded with old engines and machinery, large classifieds), Steam & Gas Show Directory
However, with little reserve capacity, they are sensitive to fluctuations in fuel and water supplies, not to mention loads. Hi That layer is unburned gases like carbon monoxide and is caused because the surface temperature was below the ignition temperature of the burnable gases. We also replaced the conventional exhaust manifold with a water-cooled marine unit, and built a water jacket around the exposed exhaust pipe in order to extract waste heat to use in a thermal storage system. Turbines are nice, and I have one myself, but in home scale sizes, they are very inefficient. When the vapor leaves the in use unit, it goes directly into a ten-foot-long, slightly inclined horizontal condenser which [1] removes a good deal of unburnable water vapor and some residue, and [2] cools and thus densifies the fuel charge, making it more potent. Engine displacement is another important factor. Our experimentation wont end there, either.
Our boiler is 70% efficient, so 344,400 Btus divided by 70% gives us the figure of 492,000 Btus actually required (344,400 / .70 = 492,000). As near as we can figure, the stout little four-banger, originally rated at 110 HP at 3,800 RPM, kicks out nearly 70 ponies on its wood-gas diet at that speed which translates to a supply of about 30 usable horsepower to the alternator at 1,800 revolutions per minute (and that also happens to be the speed at which the powerplant develops its maximum torque). Times that by 100 pounds pressure x 2.31 = 231 and divide that by 2, and you get 115.5 foot-pounds of torque. By the same token, it incorporates an overspeed governor that cuts the unit out at a voltage of 270. I like the way you explain, I imagine you are, or used to be a professor, I am a bit of a catalog of more efficient ways of accomplishing things. To put that in perspective, that is a hefty armload of wood. It is this pressure that we will use to do our work. Generally speaking, a boiler gets 60-70% of energy transfer from radiant energy, rather than hot gases. There seems to be enough surplus power in the engine to allow us to operate even an automotive air conditioning compressor, which should be capable of cooling a small house. Too much air and youre heating air. When oxidized (burned), it releases energy, and if we make steam with that energy, we can use the steam to transmit that energy somewhere else to do useful work. Let me interject here that if you burn solid fuel (wood or coal), you will attend your boiler at all times. The Water Tube. Box 328 Large sawmills usually have a power plant, and engineers are congenial folks who always want to show off their baby. Tour old ships or refineries, and dont be afraid to ask questions. These will be stored in your browser only with your consent and you have the option to opt-out. Having done that, our steam will have condensed into water and is forced through a vacuum pump which exhausts into the hotwell. From this point, it is pumped back to the boiler via a high pressure feed pump to start all over again. What we want to do with steam is extract work from it. Read more . However, come fall we plan to expand this into a full-scale hydronic system by installing baseboard heaters in the 1,200-square-foot structure, which should make full use of the 170F water that the engine provides. I know there are plenty of folks out there that will argue this point, but if they can come up with an efficient, home-scale turbine and sell it at a reasonable cost, Ill buy it. If you use a 5Kwatt gasoline portable generator to power the 2K LitersPerHour HHO generator, you would spend $84.00 every 24 hours (at unleaded gasoline price of $1.75) two gallons per hour approximate. 2022 Leaf Group Ltd. / Leaf Group Media, All Rights Reserved. Basically, the design incorporates a series of tubes that stem downward from a drum and surround the combustion chamber (firebox). There are set formulas for all of these factors, and your boiler builder will know what to do once you tell him what your needs are. Topics such as microcontrollers including Arduino and Raspberry Pi, Drones and 3D Printing, and more. If you plan to burn wood, you should know that it is a very established science to gasify wood and burn it in an internal combustion engine.
It is nothing but a unit of heat. 1, Box 262 To impart energy to a mass is one thing, and to transmit and use that energy is another. Gas and liquid type fuels are the ideal type of fuel for monotubes because they are easy to regulate. So, in an effort to ease the strain in both cases, the folks out at MOTHER EARTH NEWS research center have spent the past several months designing and testing various systems that use inexpensiveor sometimes even free wood scraps as a replacement for costly fossil fuels. Tiny Power has 13 different models of engines plus accessories, and we cater mostly to hobbyists such as retired machinists and steamboaters worldwide. If this is successful in several years you would see MINI STEAM PLANTS powered by HHO in every home, need thousands of techs to maintain. The exact tank design will depend on the power source you will use. So, we take one pound of water from 60 to 212 degrees and it takes 152 Btus. Issue #112 July/August, 2008
(Lists all shows in Canada and U.S.
wetz steam table engines john boiler engine tractor For the initial investment in this most labor intensive form of home power, you could probably buy a diesel generator and 5-10 thousand gallons of fuel with no significant changes in your lifestyle. Around 25% of the total energy used in industrialized countries is consumed as heat, much of it generated by burning fossil fuels. And I guess the first question is: can it save the world, at least as far as your personal energy needs are concerned? To start with, rather than using just one gasifier, we chose to utilize twoplumbed independently of each otherto permit the engine to operate without interruption. Modern motels use a variation as water heaters. The Solar OSE team (Open Source cologie France) took on this energy sustainability challenge during POC21, developing this solar concentrator to allow mid-sized local enterprises, like small-scale industries or artisans, to generate clean, free heat or steam by harnessing the power of the sun. Our shop unit has been in use for the last 18 years producing 4000 watts an hour. Do not put too much water in the tank to prevent dangerous pressure buildups. It uses 20 NEMA 17(?) http://ng.cba.mit.edu/neil/06.08.fab/project_solar_collector_steam_turbine.jpg.html. (Old steam tractors and stationary engines, large classifieds), Engineers & Engines (For the steamboat connoisseur, all sizes, great reading! Right? Using flexible pipe will allow the steam to be routed to something like a piston or a turbine. If you would look around in YouTube for Homemade hydrogen production devices , which are Electrolysis devices. Unfortunately, A.C. requires precise speed controls in the form of a delicate governor and heavy flywheel. The Solar OSE team is a part of the Open Source Ecology project which has developed an open source library of machines to rebuild the world as we know it. Believe it or not, only about one-third of the energy in a given fuel does any useful work as its burned in an engine. In addition, we use third-party cookies to help us analyze and understand usage. Solder a small steel pipe through this hole. Use your browsers BACK button to return to this page. We strongly recommend one called The Steam Show Directory listing over 500 steam shows in this country and Canada. Generators are either A.C. or D.C. and both have their applications. Box 1226
One Btu is the amount of heat required to raise one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit. . Theres a ton of dialogue in the Instructables comments, and the team agrees with your point on stepper motors, and plan to address this in the next prototype.
Homemade biodiesel helps you speed past the gas station toward fuel independence. We have units to measure the properties of mass. (212 60 = 152) Now we add one more Btu and it all turns to steam at atmospheric pressure. Whether young or old, lying in the grass and searching for four-leafed clovers is timeless fun.
It takes energy to do work. I probably do not need to send you a pic of a steam powered kettle fan, you may be pondering designs as you read this. 7 x .33 = 2.31. Turn a car alternator into alternative energy by building this cheap and easy homemade wind generator. If you can, be prepared for perpetual bliss. Lets spread the load over two hours, and we can see that we will burn 35.2 pounds of wood an hour (70.3 / 2 = 35.2), or about 35 pounds. At Tiny Powers shop, our 4kw Winco is A.C. This is a must have). All that brings us back to the question of why steam vs. other forms of independent energy? St. Cut the top out of the can and make holes for the immersion heater elements so the electrical component will not be inside the tank. That depends. Keep an eye on future issues for more reports about our cogeneration system, because well be keeping you informed of our progress as we go along. That also makes piston engines produce enormous torque at almost any rpm. The excessively hot steam will pass through the desuperheater, releasing some Btus into the incoming water. This layout is far less cumbersome and complicated than the pulley pincher, though well need to do a good deal more testingand possibly make some modificationsbefore we can fully vouch for its effectiveness. Membership connects and supports the people and projects that shape our future and supports the learning initiatives for the next generation of makers. The water will enter the outside coil, pick up heat, go into the heat exchanger (desuperheater) and into the separator. Whether you need help solving quadratic equations, inspiration for the upcoming science fair or the latest update on a major storm, Sciencing is here to help. It is so powerful that here at Tiny Power, makers of steam engines, at least once a week we get a call from someone who is going to save the world with steam.
The Solar OSE uses Arduino-controlled motors to pivot the array of mirror strips at the base of the structure to track the sun, automatically maintaining optimal solar concentration on the pipe. Remember, these are real world figures and are dramatically different from what some pink-hands so-called educated type will come up with. A 450-pound hog will provide a lot of delicious meat. steppers to position the mirrors. >Click on this image to view the full page version (111K). Our home will need 2400 watt/hours of electricity per day. Oxygen has been common in Welding industry for decades now. If you are going to use an immersion heater, fashion a bracket to suspend the immersion heater in the water tank. It is important to note that most steam engines are designed to take steam on both sides of the piston, which makes it a single-stroke engine. Actually, were limited only by our imaginations when it comes to thinking up new tasks for our generator to perform. If you look in the yellow pages, you will find certified boilermakers who will do the job right. So, to take advantage of this squandered resource, we routed the powerplants cooling systemalong with the jacket that surrounds its exhaust manifoldinto a 15-gallon closed loop which in turn dumps its thermal energy into a 500-gallon storage tank thats connected, through a pump and 1 1/2 line, to a second container of equal volume. There are several magazines about steam engines. An example of this is a piston going down in a cylinder creating more space or volume (expansion). They work best on continuous, steady operation. It takes a lot of energy to change the physical state of matter. Basically, they consist of one continuous coil of tubing or pipe in various configurations. Drill a hole for a small metal tube. Steam turbines were and still are, responsible for generating most of the world's electricity. I wont put it on the market until the system is foolproof, efficient, and affordable. We figured it was better to utilize an inexpensive salvaged engine that came close to our needs than to buy an ideally matchedbut costlynew powerplant. Also, too much space and we can lose our coefficients of radiation. The system ran lights and motors at 120 volts. Its easy and straightforward because all mirrors rotate the same speed. Fish tank air connectors work well. A good water tank can be made form an empty grapefruit juice can. The cloudy stuff you can see coming out of a kettle is actually just water vapor and has no use for our needs because if you can see it, all the work has gone out of it.
boiler steam plans engine vertical boilers tube fire steamboats locomotive history riveted horizontal preventative maintenance customized It is also the most dangerous (tends to blow up). A project collaboration and documentation platform. Availability and cost come into play, too.
The tab on our Lilliputian utilitynot counting laborcame to approximately $6,000, including its housing, which consists of a slab and a protective roof. Water gone crazy with the heat is as good an answer as any. Only dry steam produces usable work. What is steam? The answer is yes. Box 629 By Charles Sanders
If you would recall in high school chemistry, hydrogen and oxygen can be extracted from water (oceanwater is more efficient) by running electricity thru water and HHO bubbles out from zinc and copper terminals. As the engine stands now, it produces more than enough power at optimal generator speedwhich is 1,800 RPMto do its job effectively. In reality, however, there are friction and efficiency losses. I would suggest that most folks should use D.C. instead. For those folks who think they are going to use their woodstove to make steam, please do the following: put me in your will, send the kids to live with grandma, give fair warning to the neighbors, and pay off your ocean-front property in Arizona. Middlebourne, WV 26149
The steam at 212 degrees and at atmospheric pressure (or 14.7 lbs. Any hobby shop should be able to tell you where one is in the area. It consumes about 250 pounds of water (that has been turned to steam) in one hour. Monotube or flash boilers. Now, if that steam isnt allowed to expand into those volumes because it is contained, we get an increase in pressure.
You'll find tips for slashing heating bills, growing fresh, natural produce at home, and more. I am attached with an online business entity that I heard about and I have earned such great cash. But rather than use the variable-width pulley arrangement that originally came with the generator, we utilized its speed sensor and servomotor only, then connected the latter component directly to the engine throttle. It also needs the right amount of space to burn. For our summertime demonstrations, weve plumbed a small hot-water space heater into the primary loop from the engine. Solder the top of the can in place with the immersion heater protruding through the top. The project is fully documented on Instructables and can be built for around $2100 in a week with a dedicated crew. Steam is very hot. If you are making a larger steam generator, consider installing a pressure relief valve to lessen the danger of explosion. (As an added benefit, this setup also allows us to clean or service one chamber while the other keeps the plant running.) Originally from the US, he has been a Londoner for seven years. Also, if we make the air meet the fuel too quickly, we get too hot a flame. Big ships and power plants use these designs as well. The steam produced has many uses, some of which include: cooking, sterilization, pasteurization, distillation, chemical processes, heating, extraction of essential oils, water purification, wood treatment, and even hammams. Paste this sticker on your brain: There is a stick of dynamite in a gallon of water. 4314 W. 238th St. The only drawback is D.C. is hard on contacts and switches. A celebration of the Maker Movement, a family-friendly showcase of invention and creativity that gathers together tech enthusiasts, crafters, educators across the globe.
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