Stirling (hot air) Engines

[Swift Fox]

As i type this, in the background is the tick tock of my low temperature stirling engine running off the heat of my router (link to video below). That got me thinking as a stirling engine would make a great energy source as it can use a wide variety of heat sources, the only problem is at the moment they are more common as toys and i don't think many large scale engines have been built.

For those of you who don't know what a stirling engine is i'd recommend the wikipedia page for starters:

Stirling engine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'm hoping in the future the Stirling engine might be considered as an alternative energy source and be developed into something that would be useable instead of something that just runs on my desk.

YouTube - Kontax Stirling running on router

[Jim Ford]

I believe there have been larger Stirling engines built for Third World use.

NASA have also sponsored research into LTD Stirling engines.

Did you build yours or buy it (good ones are usually every expensive)?

Jim

[Kleftiwallah]

For my Technical Authorship City and Guilds I tried to find out about the Stirling external combustion engine but couldn't locate sufficient info' so switched to the heat pump. The first source of information I looked at said "The Stirling engine is an ideal power source for a heat pump"! When I've finished my list of projects, I hope to build a Stirling engine. Cheers, Tony.

[Jim Ford]

Originally Posted by Kleftiwallah

The first source of information I looked at said "The Stirling engine is an ideal power source for a heat pump"! When I've finished my list of projects, I hope to build a Stirling engine. Cheers, Tony.

If you drive a Stirling engine, it will operate as a heat pump.

I've got this book, which details the construction of a LTD Stirling engine.
It has lots of interesting info.

An Introduction to Low Temperature Differential Stirling Engines: Amazon.co.uk: James Senft: Books

The author, James Senft, is an authority on them as has done some work on them for NASA.

Jim

[Swift Fox]

I have heard of James Senft although i havn't read much on his work, this site also features a nice animation of a LTD engine working:

Animated Engines


Jim, i bought my LTD engine from Kontax directly (link below) who are based in the UK, you can buy them as kits or ready to run and they are nicely made and not too expensive. Germany is the place for good quality high temperature Stirling engines with several well known manufacturers based in that country.

Kontax Low Temperature & Thermo-acoustic Stirling Engines

[Jim Ford]

Originally Posted by Swift Fox

Jim, i bought my LTD engine from Kontax directly (link below) who are based in the UK, you can buy them as kits or ready to run and they are nicely made and not too expensive. Germany is the place for good quality high temperature Stirling engines with several well known manufacturers based in that country.

Kontax Low Temperature & Thermo-acoustic Stirling Engines

They're not bad prices. I wouldn't like to make them for twice the prices.

Jim