Why Aren't Stirling Machines Available Commercially?

http://www.kockums.se/Submarines/aipstirling.html

I believe Stirling machines never caught on because they are relatively expensive to manufacture. However there does happen to be a book on "How I Built a 5 Hp Stirling Engine" if you would like to build one.

There is also a book "Around the World by Stirling Engine" by Brent H. Van Arsdell.

STM corp is building a 55 KW Stirling engine for a CHP application in Minnesota IIRC. It will burn sewage generated methane to fire the engine, generate electric power to run the sewage plant and the exhaust gas waste heat will heat the digester and the plant facility.

To find more information on all things Stirling go to: <notscar.wiki.com>

Stirling engines are also used in the manufacture of liquid gasses, one of their best applications.

http://www.stirlingengine.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=800&sid=6a09861684af84ae185610b36cae6cb2

From what I've read about them, they are not as powerful as internal combustion engines. That was probably the biggest, single, disadvantage for their commercial demise.

Interest in Stirling Engines, however, seem to be picking up again. We might yet see >5hp Stirlings in the not so distant future.

i've doen a bit of research on these engins it's importatn to rember that your hp rating depends on how much of a temperature diffrence you have

Hopefully you are wrong and someone will specifically provide a source for 5-10hp stirling engines. I recommend everyone purchase a stirling fan from the small manufacturing business in Hunstville Ala. The cost is a mere $200. With financial resources they will expand to a larger 1000W "generator" size. www.thermalengines.com

take a look at www.stirlingenergy.com

Solar powered - fine - but I'm at the 45th parallel - So what about geothermally powered??

The output temperature from a single-stage geothermal heat pump is only in the 120- 130 degree F range. Could not a refrigeration cycle be incorporated to give the temperature differential needed to effectively run a stirling engine that is going to provide me with the electricity to power my home and to charge the batteries for my (hopefully) soon to be developed electric Silverado(or will it be Daewoo)?

How much temp. differential does one need to make a GO of this?

On a completely different note: The value of such a generating system is in the multi-tens of thousands per user -based only upon the costs being displaced and that are currently suffered.

Which leads us to THE political note: Unless a way is found to TAX stirling electricity from a benign source we could inadvertantly deconstruct a serious piece of our tax base.

Awww Shucks!

I weep at the prospect!!

NOT!!! - SO AGAIN - does anyone have knowledge of a geothermal/stirling example?

whispergen sells water cooled stirling generator, burns gas, for yachts and such at 20 kW, the waste heat is used for comfort. there is a domestic stirling countertop model with 1KW out put used in flats in the uk for heat and power. for medium scale power production from 70C and 4C-- 4MW--- go to <<< yourownpower.com.>>> this is an organic rankine cycle, but whatever.

The first Stirling Engines were capable of running on a temperature differential of 0.5 degrees. They still sell some small ones that will run off of the heat from a person's hand or a cup of coffee.

The value of the materials and the time needed to build a 5hp Stirling-cycle engine exceeds that available for a combustion engine by a fair margin. 5hp is the size of a small outboard motor for a boat; a new one of those could be bought in the UK for around £500 over-the-counter, with a manufacturer's warranty and including Value Added Tax.

Nowadays one can buy solar panels over-the counter and many years ago that either wasn't possible or wasn't attractive. Up go energy prices (relative to materials) and up goes the availability and the desirability.

The Stirling engine's time will come...

Build your own 5 HP Stirling engine similar to the ST-5 formerly made by Sunpower in Ohio. A book, "How I Built a 5 HP Stirling Engine" by Dr. L. Merrit Lockwood is available from <stirlingengine.com>

The book chronicles the construction and employment of the Stirling engine to run a rice hulling mill and dispose of the hulls by using them to fuel the engine. The local rice mill eliminated trips from villages to centralized mill and back as well as solving the problem of hull disposal. A set of plans is included for anyone who would like to build a similar engine.

You can preview Chapter 6, which contains the original color photos associated with the text, by downloading a pdf document from:

<http://www.stirlingengine.com/download/lockwood_chpt6.pdf>

because they arn't good enough for the bottom line, or something. People stick to their traditions

http://www.infiniacorp.com/technology/how_stirling_works.htm

good striling

Build your own of 2.5 HP - 1.8 kw. Like Jim Symanski did.

Photos and some descriptive material on <starspin.com> under Jim Dandy #6.

More informations and photos is Around the "World by Stirling Engine" by Brent H. Van Arsdell, from <stirlingengine.com> or Amazon.

A man in New Zealand is setting out to not only duplicate Jim's machine but to improve on it using Jim's suggestions for an engine he never got around to building.

Kockums have been playing with Stirling engines for quiet a while and I believe they do build some pretty big ones for use in their submarines but they tend to be fairly secretive about this. Here is a link to the Kockums Stirling Engine web page that you may find helpful.

Stirling Technology, Inc., 178 Mill Street, Athens, Ohio 45701 | (800) 535-3448 [toll free], (740) 594-2277, (740) 592-1499 [fax]