making electricity from a rayburn
 

It sounds crazy and I know nothing about the technical side of things but
:)
I have a rayburn that makes more hot and I mean hot water than you can shake a stick at. Is there anyway that I can use this by heating it more to make steam or by using the natural circulation of hot water to turn a turbine to make electricity.

Or to make enough power to turn an old hand cranked cream seperator - one rotation a second is required.

Nerd please help me :)

Steam
 

Hi Ecoprincess,

Interesting concept yo have going on there. let me put on my thinking cap on this and I'll get back to you.

Fries.

wish my fire did that! Heated lots of water..

Envious
 

A rayburn sounds like the business just what I need at the moment. Does anyone know of one that is for going cheap or for free?

I went for new in the end because I have a lovely hardware shop owner that thinks I'm the bees knees I got serious discount. You can look at reconditioned ones I think they are called H&H something. google it.

Just one thing - get professionals in to do the chimney work if any is needed. In all this bad weather I was on the roof of the cottage putting lining and micafil? in to do the job, then concreting, building etc. It was so cold, heavy hard work, that I thought about getting married again LOL

The nice thing was I knocked off all the old render on the living room side where I have put a stanley Oisin and the wall is abeautiful stone still showing the height of the original small old cottage and then the new (200 Yrs) old addition in stone as well, and I found an small alcove and hooks for hanging stuff on.

So now in the warm after glow its all worth it, but do do get a professional in to do the chimney.

[quote=Ecoprincess]

Just one thing - get professionals in to do the chimney work if any is needed. In all this bad weather I was on the roof of the cottage putting lining and micafil? in to do the job, then concreting, building etc. It was so cold, heavy hard work, that I thought about getting married again LOL

I think you're superwoman or the 6 million dollar woman. How can you do that?
You should give survival courses on your farm or gardening for woman. I would sign up straight away!

[quote=nanonano]
Lack of money is a great incentive, please can I just have the 6 million dollars then I will hire someone. LOL

I used to teach gardening, but its a lot of time organising it all.

Try the organic centre in rossinver co leitrim - just google them, they have great courses, I used to teach beekeeping for them and keep bees there, and did some voluntary work for them - nice folk, great courses lovely lunches :)

Renovating a deralict farm to a near self sufficient smallholding is not about ecological improvements or pretty model farms like I used to dream of - it is a daily fight for survival and its only for the fearless, the insane or the incredably stupid; unfortunatly all the last three descriptions fit me. LOL

Lots of hot water
 

Hi,

What you are looking for is a domestic 'Combined Heat and Power' system. The idea is that the heat that is wasted can be used to power an engine known as a Stirling engine (invented about 200 years ago!). I have done some recent searches on the internet and found a New Zealand company who have been working for about 20 years on this technology. Details can be found on their website:
http://www.whispergen.com/main/acwhispergen/

Some UK website talk about installations in Europe with the idea that a domestic system could sell electricity back to the grid ... but neither the UK or Ireland is ready for this yet!

Let me know if you find anything for Ireland!

BTW, you can buy simple stirling engines - like one that powers a fan from the heat coming from a cup of tea or coffee ... see here:

http://scientificsonline.com/product.asp_Q_pn_E_3082519

what a coincidence
 

My B/friend is from NZ and I spend a good bit of time there

thanks for the very useful reply and I will let you know how I get on

well ecoprincess i would fit into all those catagories too lol.. am very interested in the self sufficient life style and how to achieve it... also interested in the courses in leitrim will google that one myself.... thanks for the tip....

EcoPrincess you're a real Diamond
 

Hi Ecoprincess,

I've always been interested in wind energy ( well for about 30 years anyway) and have built a number of small wind turbines over the past few years.

Your post about steam power got me thinking and doing a little searching and you'll never believe what the internet threw at me, ahhhhhh you've guessed it.

A simple steam engine powered by low pressure steam.....feast your eyes on this.

I think its exactly what you're looking for.



http://www.greensteamengine.com/



Regards,


Fries.

Now that does look interesting, still need a little more heat maybe pass hotwater back through the rayburn again in someway or a bit of additional heat from gas and this looks interesting.

Whispergen is just gas, kerosine or diesel so at the moment thats not as usueful but it does produce more electricity.