Rhombic vs Half Rhombic Stirling Engine to build the best CHP to support our solar power supply

In this video I show you the development of my Stirling engines and a comparison of the original rhombic drive and the half rhombic linkeage.
I want to discover which configuration is the best to support the energy production for our solar power supply.
As always I am very happy for comments and suggestions.
Thanks for your Interest

[@chrislee7817]

Very impressive, people don't realise the amount of effort required to achieve these things. We'll done.

[@myengines2443]

Many thanks for your encouraging comment!

[@experimentator1061]

@@myengines2443 Have you tried experimenting with catalytic combustion of gas in a mesh of copper wire?

[@MJohnRupert]

Happy to see after a long time.

[@myengines2443]

Thanks, nice to hear from you too.

[@myengines2443]

Thanks, nice to hear from you too.

[@1islam1]

@@myengines2443 🔴 What Is Islam? 🔴 Islam is not just another religion. 🔵 It is the same message preached by Moses, Jesus and Abraham. 🔴 Islam literally means ‘submission to God’ and it teaches us to have a direct relationship with God. 🔵 It reminds us that since God created us, no one should be worshipped except God alone. 🔴 It also teaches that God is nothing like a human being or like anything that we can imagine. 🌍 The concept of God is summarized in the Quran as: 📖 { “Say, He is God, the One. God, the Absolute. He does not give birth, nor was He born, and there is nothing like Him.”} (Quran 112:1-4) 📚 🔴 Becoming a Muslim is not turning your back to Jesus. 🔵 Rather it’s going back to the original teachings of Jesus and obeying him.

[@IronGoober]

We've been waiting for a few years in the hope you resurrect this rhombic engine! Thank you for taking the time to report your progress

[@myengines2443]

Thanks, nice to hear from you again.

[@ATomRileyA]

Great project, i lost your channel and was happy when youtube recommended to me again :) Always had a interest in Stirling engines after seeing one of those little PHILIPS MP1002 Stirling generators many years ago that i wished i had bought :)

[@myengines2443]

Thanksfor the nice comment , I wish I could see one of these beautiful engines also.

[@ntesla66]

Love your channel, love your videos. Looking forward to your updates!

[@myengines2443]

Many thanks for your kind words

[@joshuaananga4476]

I really love the great effort Energy for the future

[@Viper54K]

Great to see an update from you! Im always excited to watch your videos. As a question, how come you do not lubricate the gears? It might help with the noise a little and could make the gears last longer. Keep up the great work!

[@myengines2443]

Hi Viper, I do lubricate the gears with a little bit (in earlier times a little bit more) adhesive grease. But too much can contaminate the heat exchangers and increase the risk of diesel effects which cause a lethal explosion.

[@Viper54K]

@@myengines2443 I see, thank you for the explanation. Looking forward to your next update, as always!

[@barumman]

Beautiful work,

[@myengines2443]

Thank you for the nice comment, you are an inspiring role model for me

[@user-de4jz4if2w]

Fantastic work!!! I like the way you're doing this, its a great inspiration for my own experiments!

[@myengines2443]

Thanks!

[@teslababbage]

What a wonderful engine! I can't wait for the next video.

[@myengines2443]

As I have to wait for some parts to go on I will just start the next video describing the details of the engine. Thanks for the nice comment.

[@Negyo]

Wow! Nice to see you again!

[@myengines2443]

Thanks, I had a lot of other projects in the last years and nice to hear from you too.

[@Synaps4]

Thanks for your fascinating work on the sterling engines here. I can see myself wanting to buy one of your designs some day. What made you choose a particular cylinder size over another? Given that you are interested in home power production the engine does not need to be very portable, so larger scales might be a way to get good power without high pressures and high RPMs and the associated manufacturing challenges. I'm interested in home electrical generation using a sterling engine powered by 100c water and cooled by room temp water.

[@HoffmanTactical]

Always fascinating.

[@myengines2443]

thanks

[@marlonvite4152]

Thanks for sharing your video. The world is already better with people like you and I and many intelligent people commenting here ; )

[@stephenwerneburg1235]

Awesome work

[@myengines2443]

Thanks!

[@justalabratmr.6858]

Very nice 😊

[@myengines2443]

Thanks, nice to hear from you again.

[@Viper54K]

As a question, how come you do not attempt to scale up the rhombic stirling? If the low wattage means more usage, perhaps doubling the size could produce closer to 600 Watts? I dont know if it scales linearly, but that would be one way to reduce the amount of hours of operation required. Another question: Im actually very interested in how you would think to increase service intervals on the stirling engine. Could you lubricate better? Or use better/lower friction materials? Where would you seek to improve? Or is the design itself too flawed?

[@myengines2443]

I actually just bought a 130mm (weights 18 kg) diameter block of 1.4571 stainless steel for a bigger version of the rhombic. When I dont't find a better concept I will build. But it is very much work and will take month of hard work which will push my machines the its limits. The theoretical performance will be much larger as it raises with the swept volume when I can design the heat exchangers accordingly. So the bigger bore will lead to 4 to 8 times the power if done right. Unfourtunately the pistons have to run dry and I am always searching for better material pairings but still have quit good ones I think (cast iron/ss and Igus W300 tribological plastic)

[@Viper54K]

@@myengines2443 I see! I found that your size of engine was already impressively efficient. I have observed other designes that were easily 50% larger that only attained 300 watts. In your case, you already have an impressive engine at its current scale. How come the piston must run dry (asking for my own education)? It makes perfect sense that you would have low service life as a result. Could you try to attempt dry-lubricant coatings (graphite / molybdenum)? Thank you for your answers. I am learning a great deal.

[@burnologist229]

@@myengines2443 If you want to lubricate your pistons, try porous metal 3d printing in aluminum in steel, then drown them in oil, then you got urself a self-lubricating piston. OR cross hatch your cylinders and get some graphene powder not graphite powder and mix it with some mineral oil, the mineral oil is optional, but it will help seal the gaps between the cylinder and the pistons. The graphene powder usually very fine will act as an excellent dry lubricant. Since the graphene particles are so small they will imbed themselves into the cylinder walls and act as a barrier between metal-on-metal contact.

[@ricksummerfield784]

Thermoacustic is great for speed, but you will never get any power out, the temperature difference is too minimal Also, your builds are awesome, wonderful machining and construction, absolutely beautiful

[@svetlicam]

One small suggestion. Your moving rhomboid rods should be constantly in rhomboid formation, to not align in square shape in that way rotation would be much smoother and less noisy i believe.

[@myengines2443]

Yes, you are right but the way they move provides the best volume variations for the Stirling engine cycle. If it is more efficient to move the way you describe is surely worth an investigation. Thanks for your hint I will examine this.

[@chatpall]

wish you best luck!

[@myengines2443]

Thanks

[@Lechoslowianin]

Nice

[@myengines2443]

Thanks, keep up your good work, its very interesting.

[@cederom]

AMAZING!!! =)

[@cubicbigdog4838]

Hello, I am looking to experiment with building an engine like this, but I am having trouble finding resources about how to build the half rhombic linkage mechanism. Would you be willing to share the files for the half rhombic drive again? The comment with a file link from 3 years ago now errors out. Hope your future prototypes become even more powerful!

[@myengines2443]

Nice that you want to build a Stirling also. I hope I find the files and search for some free webspace. Give me a few days and I will post the link here.

[@myengines2443]

Hi, I uploaded some Files of the half rhombic drive to a free webspace. When I find more files I will add them. Here is the link: www.mediafire.com/folder/i564pwe49lhod/Half_Rhombic_Drive I hope you can use them.

[@coondelboory9936]

Great!

[@myengines2443]

Thanks

[@danrayson]

I'm excited to see what you'll be doing for the solar energy input to a Stirling engine. Will you be having a heat battery? I'm planning the same kind of project on a simpler scale :)

[@myengines2443]

No, I want to power the Stirling engine with self generated biogas (see an older Video for this) and then charge the lithium battery of our solar system when the sun is not shining in the winter.

[@danrayson]

​@@myengines2443 Thanks for answering :) Thought it might have been that but heard solar too so wasn't sure. BioGas + EV + LiBattery, got it.

[@trygvetveit4747]

May i as at witch Delta temperatures you ar running at? Regards from an old scool Norwegian Engineer

[@myengines2443]

At max power Tc=50 C and Th=600 C so delta T is about 550 C. In the Video I am just running in the engine with much lower Tc of maybe 400-500 C I did not measure it. Greetings

[@olavkokovkin7009]

I hope to replicate this in a few years. I don't have a workshop yet, but this is the project i want to do. I have the same goal, but I'm hoping to heat it with wood. You're using propane? I'm afraid wood will be difficult and not as efficient, but at least i can get it from my own land. I'm following you with interest

[@myengines2443]

Yes at this test phase I am using propane but later I will use self-made biogas as you can see in an older Video. We have also much wood and this will even work in any case, if you turn it into wood gas.

[@artdeco7729]

Going to use a rocket stove type design for wood heat?

[@olavkokovkin7009]

@@artdeco7729 maybe, haven't decided yet. The plan was to integrate a Stirling engine to a central-heating furnace. But maybe a standalone generator would be simpler

[@jen4730]

i Love your work. do you sell the parts in a kit? it would be a nice addition to my wood stove.

[@myengines2443]

Thanks, the engine is still in development and it will still take some time to bring it to final status.

[@user-fv1uf9bf4r]

@@myengines2443 Bro, the most important work has already been done, the concept is working, don't delay it. So many good things remained only in the hands of the master... just because he couldn't achieve capitalist success. It seems to me that this is not how it should be arranged.

[@patrikmolnar2954]

Will you manufacture more or only this one? Will you sell it as well? (Im interested in your Stirling engine)

[@myengines2443]

Firstly I build it for our own energy production but if I can develop it to a powerful and reliable engine maybe I will sell them. But this is still a long way as the price would be far to high at the moment.

[@makerbeelab5546]

on your 300w engine, what COP do you generally have? Could measure the gas use?

[@myengines2443]

I think COP is the factor electricity to generated heat of a heat pump? If u mean the efficiency of chemical energy of the Fuel to generated electrical energy this is something I will do in this comparison test. Where you cant expect too much for such a small generator.

[@makerbeelab5546]

@@myengines2443 electrical power to fuel consumption would be great, as it would do the coefficient of performance of the whole system. Butane is roughly 50Mj/kg which is /3.6Mj per kWh is 13kWh of heat per kg. So if it is 300W power and consumes say 200g of fuel per hour = 300/2600 = 11.5% COP of the system as a whole.

[@kaposfured]

hello, nice stirling engine develop. you sell this engine?

[@myengines2443]

Maybe when I developed it to my satisfaction in a small series or as an unique piece when I settle to an other configuration. But both possibilities will still take a long time of development I think... In each case the price won't be a bargain.

[@chesar4973]

😊😊

[@myengines2443]

Thanks

[@reypolice5231]

Have you thought about changing it with CO2?

[@myengines2443]

I made some experiments with helium but I have to try there a bit more

[@blg53]

CO2 will have worse perfomance than air as it has larger and so less mobile average molecule. The best performance will be with gases with small molecule, eg Hydrogen or Helium.

[@sierraecho884]

Get rid of them rhombic drive entirely and try out a ringbom configuration. The free piston design is most likely the best and most efficient design with least moving parts.

[@myengines2443]

You are right, the Ringbom engine is a very interesting configuration and I studied it a lot. But optimization seems to be very difficult along with other problems. Maybe one day I will experiment wit it, thanks for your hint.

[@sierraecho884]

@@myengines2443 Yes, it is even more difficult to get right.

[@TheOnelove7777]

Or we can make a video together. I'll definitely Good for business Maybe we can do both

[@TheOnelove7777]

Would you sell me one

[@myengines2443]

The engine is still in development and far away from being ready for serial production. And in sigle piece production it is far to expensive... Greetings