# Solar furnace/Steam Generation/Tesla Turbine...



## Helix (May 13, 2002)

Hello all!
I've recently been entertaining the idea of trying to reduce our dependency on grid power. Although I'd like to eliminate it completely, I'd have to say realistically we can't/won't replace our standard appliances. So, the goal is to do utilize as many different types of technology as possible to produce as much savings as possible.

One thought I've been having recently is to use a Solar Furnace to produce steam to drive a Tesla turbine connected to a generator to produce juice on sunny days. A bonus is that there are ways to store the heat generated by this device to continue producing steam for a short time after the sun has went down.

Does anyone have any experience using any of this technology, or seen any good articles, designs, calculations or plans for a setup like this?

Thanks!


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## mightybooboo (Feb 10, 2004)

Would be cheaper and proven to work by replacing inefficient appliances like freezer and refer.Would cost 2000 dollars,doubt you can build something short of a water wheel with a GOOD water source that will power conventional refer / freezer for 2 grand.


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

Ditto . . .booboo's statement.

Thats a pretty strong statement: "we can't/won't replace...."
*I'll keep on using my gusslers but get a free ride from Tesla*

Ain't gonna happen.

Prove me wrong . . .but keep track of the price tag as you do so.


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## mightybooboo (Feb 10, 2004)

Look in youtube,more stirlings than you can shake a stick at.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBZDJn6B0cs&NR=1[/ame]

I wonder if they will get this to work?Claims 100 square miles to replace all electrical fossil fuel use in the Country.Beats wars for oil now doesnt it?
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi0Y0Kr-_KI[/ame]


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## mightybooboo (Feb 10, 2004)

http://www.stirlingenergy.com/


The video...
http://www.stirlingenergy.com/video/StirlingStreamMed.mov


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## mightybooboo (Feb 10, 2004)

Why I dont fear peak oil in the least.We have alternatives and this is just another example. Heres our electric and I dont doubt we can make liquid fuels just as well.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYKOjnCwmG8&NR=1[/ame]


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## Blu3duk (Jun 2, 2002)

Fresnel lens on a solar tracker focused on a water pipe.... simple but effective steam generator. such a lens will also melt metals if focused properly and Ive given thought to trying one to melt my gold and silver, and I understand it might get high enough to melt platinum and palladium as well the trick ther being the crucible has to withstand the heat without melting or burning......

Parabolic dish [cut from an old television reflective coating added] focused on a pipe or 55 gallon steel drum, burned a hole in the drum before the water boiled..... some intense heat was produced from a small area. If you need a really large parabolic dish, think of the old satellite dishes that used to be in folks back yards.... the ones that are not made into a gazebo cover or scraped out for aluminum content can be lined with a reflective coating and produce a nice focused heat beam for "cooking"

As far as economical, the more a person scrounges for parts and pieces the less it might cost, but projects take longer, and the cost rises from starting and stopping til you find the missing link..... I like the idea of a combination of things as well, but grid power here so far is still cheaper than trying to piddle with different ideas.... we only pay 8 cents/ kw so whatever i would build would have to be really super efficient o make it pay, and such is the reason that solar is to far fetched right now not to tie to the grid until the price comes down again.

William


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

booboo I'm on turtle fast dialup, so nothing on utube works for me.
The sterling link worked.
So all well and good those units in a more sunny clime.
But what about the rest of the day..?
For maybe 5 hours of a >sunny< day you get a spike of big power. Ok my furnace and fridge and freezer need power thoughout the whole 24 hour day.

Just had a major winter storm blow thru here and guess what - my wind turbines kept this place warm for the whole 24 hour day . . and of course in the blizzard conditions those sterling things are useless.

Bottom line: those sterling things might have a small nitch in the energy market but they would have failed badly here in the midwest keeping several million people warm during that storm.
Still gotta have that Big Coal guzzler going for *The Base Load*

The sterling is a fun to play with on a sunny day thing.

rant off


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## mightybooboo (Feb 10, 2004)

But the major energy load is during the day time.Vids show em tracking the sun from sunup to sunset.

Have to have a mix for sure.One of those very links shows the windplants pumping out the energy.

Dont forget weve had a solar plant here in Calif. that ran overnight on stored heat,it is all so frickin' doable without an oil economy.

I saw a TOWN somewhere that runs at night on a giant battery!AMAZING!

Sun,wind,water,electricity is everywhere we look.  

Dont get me started on liquid fuels,we have many many options there too,and when we need it, surprise,we will 'suddenly' have the tech.

We are past being cavemen and we arent going to regress to them either,short of cataclysm.

As I say,no fear here. We have plenty plenty options,but the attitude of FEAR propaganda has everyone running around afraid of their own shadows.Goebbels would be proud of the fear based propaganda that has taken over the masses.










Excuse me while I go look under my bed for a terrorist!  

BooBoo<-----'Has no fear' :gromit:


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## mightybooboo (Feb 10, 2004)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Have no fear,someone will now pipe up "IT CANT BE DONE,Too expensive!"

So be it,I KNOW thats coming.

100 dollar oil,but alternate energies will be too expensive!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!


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## OntarioMan (Feb 11, 2007)

In general, you have three basic types of folks using alternative forms of creating electricity - those that have no choice (too remote for grid), those who simply enjoy the technology/challenge and those trying to make a "save the planet" statement. Unless you have some very unique natural "environment" - i.e. waterfall, extreme wind, etc. - creating your own electricity will currently cost you money.

Not only is creating electricity expensive when compared to the grid - it is inconvenient as well. Inconvenient in that it requires more knowledge and time to operate and inconvenient in the the amount of electricity which you can create is usually very small.

In my opinion, energy is energy - no real difference between grid electricity, oil, wood, etc. If you're going to bother to try to reduce your "energy use" (and save money), you might as well be smart about it and put your money wherever it will have the greatest impact.



Blu3duk said:


> As far as economical, the more a person scrounges for parts and pieces the less it might cost, but projects take longer, and the cost rises from starting and stopping til you find the missing link..... I like the idea of a combination of things as well, but grid power here so far is still cheaper than trying to piddle with different ideas.... we only pay 8 cents/ kw so whatever i would build would have to be really super efficient o make it pay, and such is the reason that solar is to far fetched right now not to tie to the grid until the price comes down again.
> 
> William


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## Helix (May 13, 2002)

Blu3duk said:


> Fresnel lens on a solar tracker focused on a water pipe....


I've looked at fresnel lenses too. You can get two different types from junked big screen TV's. One is too "fuzzy", the other produces a serious beam of heat, like a magnifying glass. That would be the one to have, although like you said, it seems to get pretty danged hot. You'd have to increase the focal length to keep from melting stuff.

I have access to junk satellite dishes (small and large), so building a mirrored dish seemed the best thought, but the "steam container" was the sticking point. I was giving consideration to modifying a pressure cooker somehow by replacing the regular blow-off with one that I could set for a more accurate (and safe) pressure. Run this steam into a Tesla turbine built from old computer hard drives connected to a slightly modified car alternator and I'm making juice. Route the "used" steam back into the cooker and it should be a somewhat closed loop. Couple this with some wind and I should be able to make juice on just about any type of day.

For everyone that wants to tell me how this isn't going to work, please form a line to your left...


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## Helix (May 13, 2002)

OntarioMan said:


> In general, you have three basic types of folks using alternative forms of creating electricity...


I would have to say that I'm a combination of #2 and #3.

I believe in "lean green". That is, we do the best we can with what we've got to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels and try to help the environment out at the same time. On the other hand, I just want to see if it'll work, and exactly how much juice I can produce in the smallest space possible. If I can offset our power usage by 2% by scrounging up parts, so be it.

Just like everybody else, I would like to see complete independence from any sort of grid power, but I'm going to approach it little by little. People who demand total commitment right this very second are dreaming.


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## Helix (May 13, 2002)

mightybooboo said:


> Why I dont fear peak oil...


It would be nice if hydrogen were the future. It's abundant and clean. I read some stuff on these solar furnaces that says they can achieve a temperature that's high enough to separate the hydrogen from the oxygen in water. This would be pretty sweet. Creating an energy that doesn't take more energy (grid energy, that is) to make.

I think one of the problems is keeping the H and the O separated after they've been yanked apart. They want to immediately zip back together. I didn't read enough about that to see if that problem has been solved.

So, if you could generate a high enough temperature in a small enough space (say, a small satellite dish or fresnel lens in the trunk of your car) you could refuel your car while it's sitting in a parking lot.

I know, as long as there's sun and what do you do on a cloudy day and blah, blah, blah. I don't have all the answers, but when I do you'll see me on the cover of the Rolling Stone ...


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

There was in the early\ mid 90's a company *Midway Labs*(I think) in the Chicago area who had "concentrators"-freshnel len's on PV cells. I took some long looks at these, and yap yap with the guys, at the MREA energy fairs in Amherst WI. Haven't heard of that Company in years . . .wonder what happened.
Gut tells me that the freshnel lens put so much heat on the cells that the *life* was hughly shortened.

Flustrating to me is why its takeing so long for folks to realize that the time for alternative energy was a big yesterday and not tommorrow.

So yes . . .put that lens in front of something (carefull don't burn yourself) and be amazed at its power..........................


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## mightybooboo (Feb 10, 2004)

The only fresnal lens/panels I heard about had exactly that problem,they degraded very quickly.

Helix,nobody is putting you down.Just saying there are feasible applications right now for reducing power use that will work.

Dont be quick to discount them.

It isnt about just making power,its also even more so about using the power you make as efficiently as possible.

I personally wish you nothing but the best in your experiments.

Nobody yet has done renewable electric on the cheap on the home sized scale.Its been running water/wind/solar cost wise for quite some time now.


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## mightybooboo (Feb 10, 2004)

Blu3duk said:


> Fresnel lens on a solar tracker focused on a water pipe.... simple but effective steam generator.
> 
> William


I think Ive mentioned here before back when my cousins were hippies and lived in a commune.They told this story....

They had a clever guy who ran a propane fridge on the front porch using prisms and magnifying glasses(?) something like that,to concentrate sunlight on the heater section.It was able to track the sunlight and kept it focused.Curved prism was part of it.

Worked like a charm,and this was in the SoCal lower desert.

AMAZING!

Sure would like to see someone pull that off again.


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## Blu3duk (Jun 2, 2002)

mightybooboo said:


> ......
> They had a clever guy who ran a propane fridge on the front porch using prisms and magnifying glasses(?) something like that,to concentrate sunlight on the heater section.It was able to track the sunlight and kept it focused.Curved prism was part of it.......
> Sure would like to see someone pull that off again.


Ya know as I get older I find those folks who I had talked to about certin things and filed away in the back of my mind for later, have started passing away left and right..... this being 45 is starting to suck bigtime..... so along with alternative energy i think i need to start working on a piece of equipment to slow time down or reverse the aging process..... lol.

So many things to do and so little time we have to get them done in. And the scrap pieces we could have used are being shipped out of the country for little or nothing caue the "price of scrap" has jumped up to make people sel it all off.... where are the fuure generations gonna get their parts and pieces to experiment with once all the old metal parts are gone?

William


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