One can now buy a hand-built 500 watt Stirling generator for 4000.00 US
now. http://www.uwemoch.de/english.htm
A stirling engine was used in a GM car back in the 70's as a prototype. The
primary problem with the engine is not enough acceleration to any reasonable
speed. The project was scrapped once oil became cheap again.
Now a car with a stirling engine and modern flywheels would rock! If each
wheel was connected to a flywheel, and the stirling engine was generating
the kinetic power for the flywheels, and the flywheels giving back energy to
the Stirling at every braking, it would be efficient and fast.
Now consider this article on ACOUSTIC Stirling engines:
http://www.cnn.com/NATURE/9906/17/fuel.enn/
The last 2 paragraphs state
" Because the thermoacoustic Stirling heat engine contains no moving parts
and is constructed of common materials, it requires little or no
maintenance, can be manufactured inexpensively, and is expected to have many
future uses."
"Small low-cost engines like this could be used in homes for cogeneration,
for instance. That is, they could be used to generate electricity while at
the same time producing heat to warm the home or for hot-water heating,"
said Los Alamos Researcher Greg Swift."
The problem is that Kamen does not have the patent. If he has invented
something unique, there should not be a patent for the machine.
Man, This is really bugging me! I have just blown a fuse on this one... I
gotta take a break from it.
Chad
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joshua Bell [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Thursday, January 11, 2001 10:56 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Re: What is *IT*?
>
>
>
> Someone on rec.puzzles speculated that it's a home electricity/heat
> generating system based on a practical Sterling engine.
>
> This fits many of the tidbits from the article:
>
> - $2000 seems reasonable
> - It would change city infrastructure, since electric lines
> wouldn't be
> necessary.
> - It might violate existing residential regulations, thus requiring
> permission to install one.
>
> Less exciting, but probably a more realistic guess that
> others we've come up
> with.
>
> Joshua
>
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