When electricity prices peak during the winter, buying firewood becomes cheaper than electric heating. This got me thinking, would it be viable to use the heat generated by burning wood to generate electricity as well?A steam engine doesn't have a great efficiency in turning heat into motion, but if heating is the primary reason of burning wood, the amount of heat "lost" to the building around the engine isn't really lost at all. And with heating taken care of, a 2 horsepower engine producing 1 kilowatt of power would be enough to run the rest of the household appliances as a bonus.I looked into steam turbines as well, but apparently the steam would have to be extremely hot to avoid reducing their lifespan. Steam engines on the other hand are way less picky about the heat and moisture, and have greater tolerance for manufacturing imperfections. The main issue I can think of is how to get the pistons tight enough that no steam gets out, because any moisture escaping the closed loop of boiler-engine-condenser could cause moisture damage to the building. So, what do you think?
>>2769103Yeah, same with the polar outposts and their diesel generators heating them
>>2769103Damn are you planning on buying an old mothballed steam engine? Even when these were used, they still leaked a bit of steam. You would probably need some fresh air ventilation to keep the humidity down but that might be a feature instead of a bug. Free humidifier right? But back to your question, I don't think you're ever going to get a perfect seal on a steam piston. There will always be some blowby. Can you just do what ICE engines do and pipe the leakage outside?
>>2769103One youtube machinist has a steam powered line shaft machine shop with the boiler and engine in the middle. Dave richards i think his name is, his is very well sealed cause any moisture problems would destroy his machines
>>2769103For a combined heat & power system (CHP) a wood gasifier might be the most safe and effective solution. Here's a video of a simple diy solution, but for home use it would benefit from a better way to add fuel and clean ash: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bvl5XxVVjDMApparently there are also wood pyrolysis generators that are all-around better, but I haven't found any information about their construction whatsoever.
>>2769103Someone figured this out around a decade ago. Here.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqWOCHI9wuo
>>2769441This.With a larger gassifier, you could run a small water-cooled engine. Drive a larger generator plus divert the radiator loop (on demand) to heat water.
We had a wood gas generator general a while ago, a combined cycle device with high temperature gasification and secondary steam raising circuit. I'll see if I can find the figures that were posted.>>2772099Wood gas generators were in widespeard use during WWII in EUrope.
>>2772467Oil shortages, this is a great read with how they dealt with fuel shortages during times of war. >https://www.driveonwood.com/static/media/uploads/pdf/gengas.pdf
https://warosu.org/diy/?task=search2&ghost=false&search_text=&search_subject=wood+gasifier&search_username=&search_tripcode=&search_email=&search_filename=&search_datefrom=&search_dateto=&search_media_hash=&search_op=all&search_del=dontcare&search_int=dontcare&search_ord=new&search_capcode=all&search_res=post
>>2772099>decadeThing is wood has fuckall energy density. Like EV bad. So you will get fuckall power out of it when you compound all the conversion loses. I wouldn't do it unless I was in a bind and there was no other fuel to till a field with.
>>2772971Better to use it instead of letting it rot.
>>2769441You'll also definitely want some CO monitors everywhere near your build unless you want to die from a leak
>>2773689Oh look its the sky is falling, asbestos, mold bad bitch….go away cunt you’re bringing me down
>>2773696Every year dozens of people diein our small country from carbon monoxide poisoning in their own homes, not even DIYing stuff, just missing the basics. I'm not saying don't do it, just be smart about it and don't kill yourself saving ten bucks.
>>2772971>Like EV bad.No, it's not remotely that bad, not unless it's very wet.
>>2773699>don't kill yourself saving ten bucksOnly ten? Sounds like a bargain.
>>2769441>>2772349>>2772467>>2772971Wood gas with a generator has terible efficency steam turbines are way more efficent
>>2769441Why is it so hard to find information about this stuff?Let alone anybody making them for sale.You'd think it would be big bucks marketing to the prepper types. My best guess is EPA regulations make it illegal to sell these devices.But that still wouldn't make the plans for them disappear.
>>2774238Well in Quebec they outlawed wood stoves, but might have rolled it back when the people who kept the wood stoves were the ones who kept the whole town from freezing during an electrical outage one winter.
some ozzies posted their adventures driving a woodgas powered car across Ozstopping and degunking a line was part of the game, but as a diy it worked and was a cool blogthingythey towed a trailer that carried the gasifyer and the wood they collected.might still be online
>>2774238>Why is it so hard to find information about this stuff?Go to your local library and find 120+ year old books, back when this trash was relevant.
could you get a rocket stove's exhaust spinning a turbocharger geared to an alternator?
>>2774177So why did they used wood gas generators for cars during WWII but not steam powered cars? I cannot see your claims are true at all.
>>2769103>buying
>>2777371there was a post apocalyptic sort of game show many years back, it was like survivor but in a few abandoned city blocks. I mean it was about as staged as the old junkyard wars shows, however it is where I learned that gassified wood can power a car when there are no other options. still hella inefficient and labor intensive.
If you have low cost/free water, you could use an array of TEC.Just run a heat exchanger from the stove exhaust pipe to the TEC array (one side hot water, one side cool water).They're extremely inefficient (around 3% real-world performance) so you'll need a few, but they're solid state and you only need to move water and don't have to deal with high pressure gasses and moving parts (except for consumer grade water pumps).Bonus points, you can just plug it into an existing PV/battery setup.
>>2774177>steam turbines are way more efficentBut IC engines are available everywhere. Steam turbines have to be custom designed and built.
>>2777771I looked into peltier elements as a simple way to generate power without any moving parts, but it would cost over ten million dollars to buy enough of them to generate one kilowatt of energy.
>>2769103Get chinese diesel heaters. Even if you have to run 2 or 3 at a time, they sip fuel on low setting and put out lots of dry heat. I run 2 of them and fill (2) 55 gal drums of diesel when winter starts and typically have around 20 gallons left by Spring. The heaters are about 100 bucks and can be run off 12v power. They even come with remotes. Have heard of guys running them on bear fat and other oils.
What do you think of the idea of the recent developments in low pressure steam using the battery of flat plates tesla turbine method?
>>2777771>>2780099they are pricey, but I recall seeing bigger units that could do 100w for 1k, something like thatstill not 1kw, but could pair well with solaras easy as slapping it on the side if your woodstove
>>2774177efficiency aside, gasifiers suck. temperamental with fuel consistency, size, shape. for me, its a triple expansion reciprocating steam engine
BIODIESEL
>>2774238They suck so no one cares. You want them not to suck so fucking build one to scratch that itch since the idea that something has in fact been tried and found to suck then generally discarded is unbearable.>>2777750Steam would have required building steam engines, boilers etc which are complex. That wasn't a solution. Steam of the era was very high maintenance. Small turbines were not an option. There was a war on.Everything worth doing has been done even if 4chans noobs think they found a nugget. This is difficult for the unstudied to digest.
>>2782569Post commercial small scale steam turbine generator then
>>2782940Check mate atheist.
>>2783017>toyZero small scale steam turbine generators, lots of working wood gasifiers. Ur a fagat.
>>2774238they keep trying to ban burning wood (or peat) at all in my country
>>2783270>commercially available>steam engine>generatorIt ticks all the boxes. Fuck you for not getting this fun joke.
>>2783294>makes claim>fails to substantiate claim>criesGasification is a proven viable small scale solution, external combustion generators aren't. Ur a fagat.
>>2783304>>2783270>being this autismo sad to see
>>2783280rip EU anon
>>2783312going full autismo is how you get shit done
>>2783353>going full autismo is how you get shit doneNo, copying success and not hallucinating you're special gets shit done, but this thread was never serious.
>>2783794Gasification is the success, dumbfuck. No one uses steam at this scale, it's infinity easier to diy a gasifier (https://www.driveonwood.com/) and strap it to a gas generator than build a fucking steam engine or find and restore a 120 year old steam engine and couple it to a fucking dynamo
>>2782569>Steam would have required building steam engines, boilers etc which are complex.Hilarious. Read up on the Industrial Revolution: they used steam engines long before they made internal combustion engines.
>>2785447Indeed. Gasification was used because ICE are close to an order of magnitude more efficient than single-expansion steam engines so it made infinity more sense to convert available fuel to something usable in an ICE than use incredibly inefficient piston steam engines, which are only about 5% efficient. >>2782569 is an absolute fucking retard for suggesting using them, a fucking TEG (thermoelectric generator) can do 5% efficiency without moving parts, I cannot over emphasize the complete and total retardation of that steam faggot
>>2782569>Everything worth doing has been doneIf I had a penny for every time this was said in human history.
>>2769103why buy wood? just burn free shit. like neighbor's houses or trees in local park
>>2783017how much watt has one of these ?
>>2769103>When electricity prices peak during the winterIs this some hellhole-specific thing? I live in a house now but two years ago and before that I lived in various apartment buildings and they used electric baseboard heaters which were on a separate meter. They were charged a discounted rate versus normal residential electrical usages. Baseboards were charged 6.5 cents per kWh while everything else was 9.5-10 cents per kWh. We don't have time of day pricing or anything. I hear places like California are insane these days though and also want 50 million people to all drive electric cars on top of it lol.
