Posted by Jim Wilkins on March 29, 2009, 11:10 pm
> sno wrote:
...
Back during the 70's crisis I attended a talk by several energy
inventors, one of whom planned to seal solar collector pipes into
uncoated fluorescent light bulbs and then evacuate them. It might be
worth pursuing if you rolled or welded a bellows section into the pipe
to absorb expansion. Personally I'd use rubber seals and a small
vacuum pump so I could disassemble the tubes if necessary, or compare
the performance of argon and CO2. Like everything else I do that's
fine for experimenting but doesn't make a practical product.
When I learned chemical glassblowing we used platinum wires for glass-
metal seals. I know from trying it that iron seals into light bulb
glass but I didn't have the means to experiment with the leakage
rate.
http://www.espimetals.com/tech/kovar.pdf
http://www.transitionglass.com/stockGrades.php
Jim Wilkins
Posted by Ulysses on March 24, 2009, 6:08 pm
> On Mon, 23 Mar 2009 18:36:11 -0800, "Ulysses"
> >I came to a similar conclusion about the piston engines.
> Like so many of the alternate energy ideas (stirling, solar thermal,
> algae oil, ...) I bought into the hype and desperately wanted to get a
> turbine to work, but after running the numbers I kept getting sucked
> back to the piston engines.
> For small-scale electrical generation the piston engines are more
> appealing to me now. To get a small-scale turbine to generate
> electricity (as best as I can see), you'll either have to seriously
> gear it down (more moving parts/cost) or deal with a custom built
> generator and some pretty hairy frequencies.
Well, the frequencies would be a problem if you are trying to supply
directly but if you are simply using it to charge batteries then I don't
think it's much of a problem.
> A piston engine on the other hand could use less parts/cost, what you
> need for electricity (in theory) is a conductor, a permanent magnet,
> and motion. It doesn't have to be rotating motion it could be
> reciprocating (a linear generator) dump the crosshead and flywheel? As
> the load increases you can in the pressure to keep a stable RPM (or
> frequency in this case).
> Well, so much for this ramble.
> Have fun.
> Curbie
Posted by Lord Gow333, Dirk Benedict's n on March 24, 2009, 4:30 pm
>It doesn't have to be rotating motion it could be
> reciprocating (a linear generator) dump the crosshead and flywheel?
THANK YOU!!! I've seen that idea before in an internal combustion
application, but it completely slipped my mind on this.
Now I've got fun toys to play with... :-)
LG
--
"Keep it simple. If it takes a genius to understand it, it will never work."
- Clarence Leonard "Kelly" Johnson
Posted by Curbie on March 24, 2009, 6:40 pm
My notion of the idea came from one of NASA's Stirling motors. I
goofed round with the idea of using round magnets with plastic washers
sandwiched between (serving as rings) as a "free piston" bouncing back
and forth in a long aluminum cylinder (pipe or tube) wound with wire
(coils) and functioning as a "resonant machine" to generate
electricity (linear generator).
The whole thing was intended to run on steam and had three moving
parts the magnetic piston/ring, pressure valve, and switch (or bounce)
valve. Seemed like something at the time, until material designing a
magnet to withstand steam heat.
Like some other stuff I may want to re-visit this idea again, after I
get settled in with some proven low tech solutions (wind, passive
solar, bio-fuels).
Have fun.
Curbie
On Tue, 24 Mar 2009 12:30:14 -0400, "Lord Gow333, Dirk Benedict's
>>It doesn't have to be rotating motion it could be
>> reciprocating (a linear generator) dump the crosshead and flywheel?
>THANK YOU!!! I've seen that idea before in an internal combustion
>application, but it completely slipped my mind on this.
>Now I've got fun toys to play with... :-)
>LG
Posted by Curbie on March 24, 2009, 10:25 pm
On Tue, 24 Mar 2009 10:08:12 -0800, "Ulysses"
>Well, the frequencies would be a problem if you are trying to supply
>directly but if you are simply using it to charge batteries then I don't
>think it's much of a problem.
Maybe not for your battery charging, don't know about the neighbors TV
or radio reception. 8Q
Curbie
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