Small-scale solar steam power
From Lumeniki
These articles debut research into an experimental system for small-scale solar electricity generation. They contain Lumenos' interview with an engineer by the name of Andy; who believes the missing key to truly viable small-scale solar power, is a small steam motor. Andy has designed and patented a head that may be able to convert inexpensive air compressors into working steam motors. His system uses a number of other (inexpensive) innovations of others, such as a solar boiler consisting of a Fresnel reflector and a boiler tube, insulated with a vacuum tube. The plan is to use a cheap induction motor as a generator. He claims this system will be less expensive than photovoltaic solar power (for grid-tied electricity generation). Andy's site is http://slamvalvemotor.com/ .
Summary: I'm making a summary update of this information, here. Lumenos 04:59, October 24, 2009 (UTC)
For customers: I'm offering my first sales commissions (10%) to the first buyers of slam valve heads or a custom motor. I have additionally included some other offers for allowing me to do (video) inspections of slam valve motors. Lumenos 04:59, October 24, 2009 (UTC)
Contents |
[edit] Lumenos questions, Andy replies
Throughout these articles there may appear Lumenos' email questions with these arrows ">" (or a "Q:"), followed by Andy's replies (without arrows or with a "A:"). Sometimes longer email dialogs are posted. In this case it is easier to read the dialog if you click "edit" on the right side of the section.
Lumenos sometimes puts questions that were not actually read by Andy, before answers. This is probably what happened if you see two questions before an answer or two answers after a question. Not all of these unanswered questions have been sent to Andy at this time. Lumenos puts them here so he (or anyone else) can find them later.
[edit] Mailing list
If you would like to receive the latest updates on testing results of the various solar power components mentioned in these articles, contact Lumenos or Andy. Your email will not be used for any other purpose.
[edit] Summary
Andy writes, "I am hoping to create a market for small solar thermal power. You see big solar thermal has been around a long time, its cheap but comes in megawatt sizes. Small solar customers use photovoltaics which are expensive. So this is a new market for reflectors, boilers, engines, generators, etc. I just gave out all the instructions on how to put it all together, hopefully some business types or even a few individuals who want to get into the solar business might try the material I listed. The more the merrier."
Andy's system uses a number of innovations that may be new to small solar systems:
- Andy's solar boiler consists of:
- Fresnel reflector compounds sunlight onto the boiler tube. This reflector must move with the sun. A controller for Andy's is yet to be built however other commercially produced solar boilers exist and may be suitable for this task (so long as they don't burn the oil, at least).
- Flooded tube boiler: Andy says this design should not burn oil and therefore can be used to boil off any emulsion, allowing the oily water to be reused in a closed steam system.
- Slam valve motor: Andy claimed, "...This is the missing piece of the puzzle, the reason solar power never took off. Lack of an economical steam engine... there are no manufacturers of steam piston engines in the 1-20 horsepower market right now, right now being about 50 years now... Now we have a unit for $650 + $89 for the compressor and it will last a long time if you change the compressor every few years at a cost of an additional $89 + some effort." "Lumenos 06:57, October 24, 2009 (UTC) There are other steam motors such as the Mike Brown steam engine. The slam valve motor is in early stages of testing. Check here for updates."
- Grid-tied generator: The converted steam engine is to be attached to an induction motor which may plug into a standard wall outlet. This motor is to be used to start the system and when you push these induction motors faster than they go on their own, they are supposed to generate electricity right back into the power grid. This should slow or reverse the home electricity meter and lower one's electric bill.
- For pools:
- There is extra hot water generated by the system that can be used to heat a pool. Lumenos 06:57, October 24, 2009 (UTC)
- The pool pump can be run directly from the steam
Andy writes, "On the pool pump, the best you can get with an electric motor turning a pump is 50% efficiency on the motor. That however goes with 0% efficiency on the pump, it really has a best operating point maybe 30% efficient between pump and electric motor. If the steam engine turns the pump directly you can do away with the electric motor losses since you wont have one. It turns out this steam engine keeps constant efficiency over a range of load, which means you get constant efficiency if your filter is dirty or clean. So you save over a factor of 2 in energy by not running an electric motor, and another 80% efficiency which is the efficiency of the generator."
Here you can see photos of some of the parts. Here is a diagram of the steam system plan. Solar boiler tube is on the left.
On Jun 25, 2009, Andy says he will produce a YouTube video demonstration some time.
[edit] Testing status
"Lumenos 03:35, July 24, 2009 (UTC) Andy is first trying to get his solar boiler to work. See Flooded_tube_boiler#Testing_status."
[edit] Safety
Andy has the page on safety up on his website now. More info can be found in steam power generation system.
[edit] Electric bill reduction strategies
Andy writes, "[The electric company in California] are required to buy your excess [electricity] but they will pay the lowest tier which is way too cheap. Your best bang for the buck is to first offload any electric motors you normally use a lot (pool pump, refrigeration pump), then knock your bill down to about $40/month. At that point the slope (delta money divided by delta power) becomes very low so there is not much benefit to making excess and having them send you a very small check. Unless you are using lots of heat that is, but there are cheaper ways to get it."
[edit] Steam power generation system
See steam power generation system
[edit] Grid-tied generator (using an induction motor)
See induction motor generator.
[edit] Direct mechanical power
[edit] Pool pump
<Andy writes> "On the pool pump, the best you can get with an electric motor turning a pump is 50% efficiency on the motor. That however goes with 0% efficiency on the pump, it really has a best operating point maybe 30% efficient between pump and electric motor. If the steam engine turns the pump directly you can do away with the electric motor losses since you wont have one. It turns out this steam engine keeps constant efficiency over a range of load, which means you get constant efficiency if your filter is dirty or clean. So you save over a factor of 2 in energy by not running an electric motor, and another 80% efficiency which is the efficiency of the generator."
Unanswered question: "Lumenos 00:38, July 3, 2009 (UTC) Could you run this pump without the solar generator?"
[edit] Industrial refrigerator
>Do you think it would be worth it to try to run any motors such as a >refrigeration pump (for a standard fridge/freezer) or swamp cooler, >directly off the induction motor/generator?
Your swamp cooler is too small to be worth while. Your refrigerator is not compatible. The refrigerator uses a sealed compressor unit with induction motor inside. It has all welded connections and does not leak, the only connections are wires. Larger refrigeration units use a belt drive configuration. These leak slowly as the rotating shaft of the compressor does not seal perfectly. Still it gives better performance so you see these in larger industrial refrigeration systems like your grocery store refrigerators.
[edit] Slamvalvemotor.com trade offerings
Slamvalvemotor.com is offering the following for trade (you might want to see how testing is going and check special offers only available from LumenikiLu1Ref):
- Slam valve heads
- Custom slam valve motors:
- Vehicle conversion: "For the owner of a standard transmission pickup truck[, van, or station wagon,] of a popular engine style who lives in the greater Los Angeles area, pay zero NRE for 3000 RPM motor with similar horsepower but twice the torque of the current engine. Requires photos of the truck before and after conversion to be placed on this web page as promotional info."
- There are various other suggested engine conversions on the custom slam valve motors page. "Good candidates are car engines, belt drive air compressors and refrigeration compressors."
- Shares of patents are offered to "US person[s]", not corporations. (Lumenos quips, "Us mericans is not exactly sure but we thinks the plural of "person" is "persons" and not "people", so we are qualifi'n here.)
- The international patent for the slam valve motor.
- Regarding the following inventions , "pay all legal expenses for filing one patent and receive 500 shares of that patent."
- "[A] battery system to allow steam powered vehicles to run on electricity."
- "[I]mproved regenerative braking technology for vehicles."
- "A third improves vehicle efficiency."
[edit] Lumenos' half-baked ideas
Currently, there are not many answers here. This is more of an outline for a research plan.
This section is for researching value comparisons between:
- Buying electricity from a large electric company and buying gas (for hot water heating) from a large gas company.
- Photovoltaic power
- Solar steam energy (steam electricity generation + direct mechanical energy)
Comparing photovoltaic to steam power, there are two categories of interest:
Lumenos has an outline for a guide on the best way to get electricity.
For the humorous approach (especially if Andy is being overly confident) see solar power and heat (Lumenos).
