Posted by no spam on March 27, 2007, 1:46 pm
Long story looking for a short answer.
Many years ago I read a book that had a design for an interesting solar pump
and I was wondering one has plans for one or can help me make up my own.
And as always I'm looking to go as cheap as possible.
The pump used a closed double acting cylinder. When one end was heated the
gas inside expanded which pushed the rod. This rod action did a couple of
things:
1) It moved the mirror(s) so that the sun was moved to the opposite end of
the cylinder to restart the cycle.
2) It moved a second rod in a second cylinder which pumped water.
[IIRC, the original used the weight the mirror assembly to help pump the
water]
I know this is probably an inefficient way to do it as well as being a very
low pressure, very low volume and possibly noisy pump but I only need 15 to
20 gal per day for my animals. If I could get more volume out of it I could
use it as a start for a 'geothermal' AC for my house.
I'm having some problems figuring out how to build it. The first problem is
the 'heat' cylinder. Any ideas how to build one or where I might be able to
find something used I could 'adjust' to work? I don't think a standard
pneumatic cylinder would work because of the temperatures it would be
exposed to.
The next problem is what gas to use. I think the original used freon or
propane. Would the new stuff (132a??) work?
Then there's the fact that the mirror will have to track the sun so that the
focal point will remain on the cylinder. I was thinking a trough type
parabolic mirror that would slide on a track. This would pretty much
eliminate the need for the mirror to have to be reaimed throughout the day.
The problem I see with this is because the mirror would slowly slide down
the cylinder causing the temp on both sides of the cylinder to equalize and
stop the engine. That means I would have to have some kind of 'tipping
point' so that once the cylinder reaches a point the mirror moves all at
once.
Thanks for any help.
Posted by harry k on March 27, 2007, 10:00 pm
> Long story looking for a short answer.
> Many years ago I read a book that had a design for an interesting solar pump
> and I was wondering one has plans for one or can help me make up my own.
> And as always I'm looking to go as cheap as possible.
> The pump used a closed double acting cylinder. When one end was heated the
> gas inside expanded which pushed the rod. This rod action did a couple of
> things:
> 1) It moved the mirror(s) so that the sun was moved to the opposite end of
> the cylinder to restart the cycle.
> 2) It moved a second rod in a second cylinder which pumped water.
> [IIRC, the original used the weight the mirror assembly to help pump the
> water]
> I know this is probably an inefficient way to do it as well as being a very
> low pressure, very low volume and possibly noisy pump but I only need 15 to
> 20 gal per day for my animals. If I could get more volume out of it I could
> use it as a start for a 'geothermal' AC for my house.
> I'm having some problems figuring out how to build it. The first problem is
> the 'heat' cylinder. Any ideas how to build one or where I might be able to
> find something used I could 'adjust' to work? I don't think a standard
> pneumatic cylinder would work because of the temperatures it would be
> exposed to.
> The next problem is what gas to use. I think the original used freon or
> propane. Would the new stuff (132a??) work?
> Then there's the fact that the mirror will have to track the sun so that the
> focal point will remain on the cylinder. I was thinking a trough type
> parabolic mirror that would slide on a track. This would pretty much
> eliminate the need for the mirror to have to be reaimed throughout the day.
> The problem I see with this is because the mirror would slowly slide down
> the cylinder causing the temp on both sides of the cylinder to equalize and
> stop the engine. That means I would have to have some kind of 'tipping
> point' so that once the cylinder reaches a point the mirror moves all at
> once.
> Thanks for any help.
That is a Sterling Cycle Engine. Lots of articles, how-tos, etc on
the 'net.
M.E.N. back in the good days had an article (I think it was a series)
on an automatic sun tracking dish that used nothing but sunpower.
Harry K
Posted by Anthony Matonak on March 27, 2007, 11:53 pm
no spam wrote:
...
> Many years ago I read a book that had a design for an interesting solar pump
> and I was wondering one has plans for one or can help me make up my own.
...
I can't help you with that design but a quick websearch came up with all
kinds of things.
http://www.rotarystirlingengines.com/sexbaloon.htm
http://www.linux-host.org/energy/sstirling.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirling_engine
Anthony
Posted by Morris Dovey on March 28, 2007, 12:33 am
no spam wrote:
| I'm having some problems figuring out how to build it. The first
| problem is the 'heat' cylinder. Any ideas how to build one or
| where I might be able to find something used I could 'adjust' to
| work? I don't think a standard pneumatic cylinder would work
| because of the temperatures it would be exposed to.
|
| The next problem is what gas to use. I think the original used
| freon or propane. Would the new stuff (132a??) work?
|
| Then there's the fact that the mirror will have to track the sun so
| that the focal point will remain on the cylinder. I was thinking a
| trough type parabolic mirror that would slide on a track. This
| would pretty much eliminate the need for the mirror to have to be
| reaimed throughout the day. The problem I see with this is because
| the mirror would slowly slide down the cylinder causing the temp on
| both sides of the cylinder to equalize and stop the engine. That
| means I would have to have some kind of 'tipping point' so that
| once the cylinder reaches a point the mirror moves all at once.
I have a web page showing a bit of a current project to develop a
liquid-piston Stirling (fluidyne) powered pump at the link below. The
current plan is to build the engine and pump using off-the-shelf 4"
CPVC. The only moving parts will be air, water, and check valve
mechanisms.
The web page shows construction and testing of a parabolic trough, but
the high temperatures (724F) tend to melt the engine plumbing. It
appears that a same-area flat plate collector may solve that problem
as well as allowing the pump to run (more slowly) on hazy or light
overcast conditions.
I'm not sure if this is close to what you want, but it may provide a
few ideas that you can use.
I just recently added a short video of one of our early test fluidynes
running (with an electrical heat source) to show how simple these
critters can be.
BTW, the fluidyne runs silently - and the only noises from the pump
will be the soft "click" of the check valves and the gurgle of
water...
--
Morris Dovey
DeSoto Solar
DeSoto, Iowa USA
http://www.iedu.com/DeSoto/StirlingProject.html
XML site map
> Many years ago I read a book that had a design for an interesting solar pump
> and I was wondering one has plans for one or can help me make up my own.
> And as always I'm looking to go as cheap as possible.
> The pump used a closed double acting cylinder. When one end was heated the
> gas inside expanded which pushed the rod. This rod action did a couple of
> things:
> 1) It moved the mirror(s) so that the sun was moved to the opposite end of
> the cylinder to restart the cycle.
> 2) It moved a second rod in a second cylinder which pumped water.
> [IIRC, the original used the weight the mirror assembly to help pump the
> water]
> I know this is probably an inefficient way to do it as well as being a very
> low pressure, very low volume and possibly noisy pump but I only need 15 to
> 20 gal per day for my animals. If I could get more volume out of it I could
> use it as a start for a 'geothermal' AC for my house.
> I'm having some problems figuring out how to build it. The first problem is
> the 'heat' cylinder. Any ideas how to build one or where I might be able to
> find something used I could 'adjust' to work? I don't think a standard
> pneumatic cylinder would work because of the temperatures it would be
> exposed to.
> The next problem is what gas to use. I think the original used freon or
> propane. Would the new stuff (132a??) work?
> Then there's the fact that the mirror will have to track the sun so that the
> focal point will remain on the cylinder. I was thinking a trough type
> parabolic mirror that would slide on a track. This would pretty much
> eliminate the need for the mirror to have to be reaimed throughout the day.
> The problem I see with this is because the mirror would slowly slide down
> the cylinder causing the temp on both sides of the cylinder to equalize and
> stop the engine. That means I would have to have some kind of 'tipping
> point' so that once the cylinder reaches a point the mirror moves all at
> once.
> Thanks for any help.