On the last energy-related post, I ended with:
I have what I think is a good, simple, cheap design but I have to build and tweak it to make it work and have pictures/video.
I hoped to post a working example engine within days. Instead I have a non-working one after weeks. Anyway, here’s what’s supposed to happen.
There’s water in the lower part of the portion on the left as well, to the same initial height as shown in the clear tube. Apply heat as shown and the water in the clear tube should start oscillating.
This is basically a Stirling engine where the displacer piston is water and the displacer and power piston relationship is maintained by tuned parameters rather than an explicit mechanical linkage.
The idea is that the sun would heat the heater portion and water is pumped up to a reservoir. The water can then be let down through a generator for electricity at any time, not just when the sun is out.
Before I started down this path a few months ago, I googled around to see if anyone else had been trying it. I found one other guy who seemed to be a few steps ahead of me already.
Unfortunately, my engine isn’t working. I had originally build a completely jury-rigged one out of copper and clear tubing and it worked to some extent. Then I build a large PVC one based on correct mathematics (somewhat simplified) and had no success. I fixed some problems and got the above, which still doesn’t work.
It has a leak somewhere which can’t help much, but I’m pretty sure the leak is slow so I don’t think it can be the main problem. The water level in the output column rises and sometimes it suddenly lowers and then rises again, but it never really oscillates.
