waste solar thermal heat [RE-wrenches]

[Geoff Greenfield]

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Wow... it really adds up!

We have in our strange little alternate reality enclave of Athens OH, a
company called Sunpower that does mostly high falutin R+D for NASA etc (as
well as the LG fridge company and some Japanese and Korean companies) all
around "free-piston engines" AKA Stirling engines.  These devices use the
heat differential (heat source on one side, radiator or otherwise cooled
dump on other side) to bounce a piston back and forth.  Add windings and you
have a linear generator.  Reverse the whole setup and you have a super
efficient compressor (the fridge part).  This stuff is also talked about as
"external combustion".  The stirling solar projects in the desert use
concentrators on these (I think).

These guys are doing prototypes for the military for portable (big
flashlight sized) diesel fired electric gennys to "power" our electricity
dependant troops. (Apparently energizer is making a lot of $$$ off the
war...).  A few years ago they had a pellet stove based unit at MREF
generating 2KW while heating your house... (I want one).  So....  sounds
like THIS is the technology for turning your "low-grade heat" into moving
electrons.  Last I checked we can't order them from Grainger...  If you are
ready to cobb together and experiment etc, I will try and get a contact
there for you (they are not a retail or even production business.... but an
"knowledge business".)

For a brighter energy future,

Geoff Greenfield
NABCEP Certified Energy Practitioner

THIRD SUN SOLAR & WIND POWER Ltd.
340 West State Street
Athens, OH 45701

www.third-sun.com
(740) 597-3111

te: Thu, 26 May 2005 07:57:05 -0700
From: Todd Cory <toddcory at finestplanet.com>
Subject: waste solar thermal heat



Wrenches,

I am getting about 7000 btu's per hour of waste heat per hour off the
solar thermal system now that summer is here. That 7000 w 3413 (kWh)/BTU
yields some 2 kW/hour. In a 5 hour solar day that is some 10 kWh per day
that is being wasted. When I think of how hard our PV system works to
make 24 kWh a month, this wasted energy representing ~300 kWh a month
looks pretty sweet.

Does anyone know of any kinds of devices that could generate electrical
energy off waste thermal energy? I know some geothermal installations
use freon based generators since the gas boils at a low enough
temperature to run a mechanical generator. These are probably multi
megawatt units... I curious if anyone makes much smaller units?

Just wondering about how to capture more waste from our home system.

Todd
--
Todd Cory
KE6SXS
toddcory at finestplanet.com
Mt. Shasta Energy Services
License C-10 # 811428
P.O. Box 689
Mt. Shasta, CA. 96067
(530) 926-1079

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