Close up of stirling engine

Here one sees the closer mechanical power connections of the Pete's latest Stirling engine

Stirling Engine generating power / electricity

Here Pete's Stirling Engine generating an electrical current. Magnets are placed along the edge of the spinning disk. Placed fairly close to that disk is another disk holding 12 coils, all linked. When the Stirling engine is running, it spins the disk, which allows the magnets to interact with the coils, hence producing a current of power. As this prototype is optimised and evolved, it will be capable of producing a stronger current... a god level would be when it is able to charge cellphone. South Africa live below the convenience line, but cellphone penetration is extremely high. And mobile phones can liberate people due to the power of multimedia communications for one's business and personal life.

Generating power from a Stirling engine

Pete upgraded his latest Stirling engine to generate power. Not much watts at this point, but enough to prove the concept. magnets attached to the spinning wheel, facing 12 coils, thus inducing the current. Enough to drive an LED quite brightly.

Faster and faster: Stirling engine optimisation

Pete has optimised the latest Stirling engine to run at an even higher rate. Later today I'll post some videos and photos of this and how he achieved it. Exciting stuff!

Another sterling engine: this one rocks!

While optimising the Stirling engine shown below, Pete decided to complete another one he has built. Here are some videos of this speeding baby in action.
It's heat source is a simple flame not much larger than that of a candle. A great way to charge a cellphone, as one of its many possible applications.


Here we get it started by adding the flame to the hot side of the engine, waiting a tad for pressure to accumulate, and then giving it a gently spin to get the motion process going.



Here one sees it running at high speed. One has to actually stop it some some point in fear that it would cause mechanical damage. These are all issues to be resolved while evolving such a piece of machinery.



A video clip of the Stirling engine running at high speed, with some close-ups showing some of the mechanics involved

Some photos of the Stirling Engine

2010 Soccer World Cup: start building Stirling engines now!!!

To channel the Sun's energy to power the infrastructure during the 2010 world cup soccer event. In the Karoo, Northern Cape, there is mega hectares of desert-like area with immense energy from the sun per square metre than most places around the world.

Build solar Stirling engine farms much like here on Youtube.

It's worth the investment because subsequent to the world cup, South Africa would be able to benefit from clean, abundant energy. We could even then pump some of it up into Africa to become and even bigger energy supplier to our neighbours, Zimbabwe included. We would hope that by that time Zim has settled down back into the rich prosperous country that it actually is, if it weren't for Robert Mugabe's self-centred rampage.

See below (previous post) for video clips of my friend Pete getting into building one.

Building a Sterling engine: Photos and videos

Pete has built another in a series of Stirling engines, each one better than before, experimenting with permutations towards the ultimate engine.
Below is a series of video clips that takes us through the creation and installation of a
new displacer, as the previous one one was damaged during experimentation.



Here the displacer is being cut using a hot knife and guided by the chamber.


The new displacer being removed from its previous state in a sheet of polystyrene.



The displacer was not cut 100% correctly and thus needs to be filed off to obtain a maximum roundness., which is important for its smooth functioning.


To further smooth off the edges, insulation tape is being used to seal off the edge of the displacer



The displacer gets inserted into the chamber.



The top and bottom ends sealing the chamber get screwed on tightly.



More tightening of the sides, this time shot from the bottom.



The Stirling engine tries to start up, but some part of the system is losing too much energy.



Re-sealing a pipe that accesses the chamber, on suspicion that it is the part of the engine that's causing the problem.



Another attempted start of the Stirling engine



And finally, it runs, albeit slowly and with a bit of difficulty.
The next step, which will be uploaded soon, is a more optimised, smoothed-off, running of the Stirling engine.

More pics and videos to come of this project. The aim being to create one that operates smoothly and produces electricity merely from a difference in temperature, that can easily be achieved by heating the one side. Such possible heat sources include sunlight and fire.

The basics of a sterling engine: (from Wikipedia)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirling_engine

A Stirling engine is a type of closed-cycle regenerative heat engine with a gaseous working fluid. "Closed-cycle" means the working fluid is permanently contained within the engine's system, which also categorizes it as an external heat engine. "Regenerative" refers to the use of an internal heat exchanger called a regenerator which increases the engine's thermal efficiency.

The Stirling engine was used in small low power applications for nearly two centuries, and saw ever increasing scientific development of its technological potential. The Stirling cycle is notable for its perfect theoretical efficiency; however this ideal has proved notoriously difficult to achieve in real engines, and remains an immense engineering challenge. Nevertheless, the current technology is reasonably advanced, and the designs are useful and versatile. It continues to be used and further developed, and this device holds promise for its ability to provide mechanical or electrical power, heating or cooling in a number of applications wherever a heat source and heat sink are available.

Technically, an air-filled Stirling engine is a specific type of "hot air engine", otherwise the two categories of engines are mutually exclusive. The term "Hot air engine" is used generically to include any heat engine with air working fluid. Hot air engines may use any one of several different thermodynamic cycles, including the Brayton cycle, Ericsson cycle or Stirling cycle. Air is just one of many possible gases that may be used in a modern Stirling engine.

Recycling: All you need for your own energy producer

Pete collects discarded computer hardware and peripherals from a a company or 2.
By stripping them down into their components, it results in several collections of all kinds of resources. This enables him to at negligible cost, build renewable energy devices.

Another obvious advantage to recycle or used recycled parts, is our attempt to slow down our devious effect on our planet, our home. If you have not seen 'An inconvenient truth', then please do so and consider what you can do towards this goal of being able to inhabit this planet for a while longer before the environment turns seriously nasty and uninhabitable.

Consider that extracting resources and producing parts of things requires energy, and it is this very energy that is fast becoming a scarce resource.
The equation is simple: Too many people doing too much and consuming too many things.
Consider how you can lessen your 'carbon footprint'.

So, then, lets have a look at some of these collections. Please note that these are copyright-free images taken by myself and is free for you to use and share.

Numerous size coils for all sorts of purposes.

Assorted rubber

Tin cans.

3.5" Stiffy drives: so many of these things lying around

PC speakers

Motherboards full of capacitors and IC's

Heat sinks for pulling heat from devices that require this for peak performance

CPU cooling fans: another cool way to pull heat from areas.

Gears for many ratio-shifting uses

Power supplies filled with interesting components

Wiring for all one's current-carrying needs.

Plastics of all sorts

An assortment of metals

Copper for a variety of applications

More metal

Stepper motors for converting movement into electricity

Welcome

Greets. A friend of my, Pete, is into many interesting things. many of which are focused on recycling and developing alternative energy systems. In this blog you will be shown many resources in this field, as well as various related devices being built.

SaviorTech also contains many links to useful resources with handy descriptions to point you in the direction of much more content you can use to become energy self-sustaining.

Being dependant on oil or national power grids is fast becoming an obviously costly and nonsensical idea, especially in South Africa where we are dealing with the effects of 'Load Shedding', our local power monopoly's term for the way that electricity is cut to certain parts of the grid on a several-weekly basis. This, so that they can conserve energy because the supply cannot serve the demand. In their defense though, the country has seen an overwhelming increase in power-utilising activities due to the rapid growth of the economy over the past 10 years.

Mistakes made years back has now taken us down this path towards what some would call a crisis.

Generator sales have, of course soared. Problem being, even after paying many thousands for your gennie, the soaring cost of fuel is impeding this as a viable solution, especially if its use were to become more frequent.

So, then, the irony (fortunately) is that we have at our disposal everything we need to build many alternative solutions to generate our own power, none of which are overly technical and beyond the reach of any high school student.

This blog will contain valuable information about the following which is to be expanded as the blog evolves.

• Recycling
• Organics
  
• Plastics
  
• Glass
  
• Metals
  
• Wood / paper
  
• Ceramics
  

• Alternative energy generation
• Biofuel
• Heat engines
• Sterling cycle
  
• Rankine
  
• Otto cycle
  
• Breyten cycle
  
• Solar
• Wind
• Fuel cell
  
  
• Alternative energy storage
• Chemical
• Potential

So, then, enjoy the journey through a landscape that makes the energy and fuel crisis seem more endurable, even fun...