Christmas Favourite


I have drafted a few posts over the Christmas period and they all seem to be the same kind of thing. World is facing doom. World needs to act now. Blah. Blah. Mayhap I will pop one of these up in the next few days but until then something a little more upbeat.

Did you get a favourite Christmas present? I did. I love it but then again I had no surprises as it is something I asked for and people duly (and very kindly) obliged and purchased said object for me. As it stands it is pretty useless and very much the kind of thing where the owner would also say “I like to drive model steam engines at the weekend”.

So the toy in question is… a Stirling Engine. Phew. I guess everyone knows what one of these things is and I have no need to explain it? Perhaps not? Full details can be found by Googling
In short it:

• Is a heat engine
• Can create power
• Has the potential to achieve the highest efficiency of any heat engine
• Has been used to power outdoor (Coleman) fridges and is used in submarines

To me it not only looks very pretty and kind of primitively industrial, it also sits on my laptop and using just the heat from the can start spinning away. And spinning away. And spinning away. And spinning away. And spinning away. And looking pretty. And spinning away. And spinning away.

Video Clip Interlude: This is taken from You Tube. I could have videoed mine but figured it would look the same anyway so hey. Anyway, it is not a patch on the real thing but gets the old grey cells firing away.



So now what? Having had a look at an Anaerobic digestor recently click here for a definition
I thought that the waste hot air being pumped into the atmosphere was just that, a waste. Why not strap a stirling engine into the path of the air and soak up some more energy to be converted into electricity. What with there being only about a dozen or so AD plants in the UK I figure there is a bit of opportunity to develop this technology given ambitions like the National Farmers Unions for having 1000 of them by 2020. This might seem like a big number but given the fact that Germany has over 3000 it is surely something we can go for. Even getting a 50% result would be a positive step. So what for the applications of the Stirling? Well a quick bit of research shows there are some bits of kit out there but nothing being used at present to generate some extra power. Anyone with any examples?

So from this kind of thinking I moved into the whole world of decentralised power. This has the power (no pun intended but obviously now sitting there) to change the way we use and generate electric. The World Alliance for Decentralized Energy (I am always a littler more inclined to trust a source that sounds like a spin off Star Wars unit) described the approach as:

"Electricity production at or near the point of use, irrespective of size, technology or fuel used - both off-grid and on-grid."

So what? Well. So perhaps we all produce our electric as we move around going about our daily lives. Perhaps we lose the worries of energy security and energy production down to the level of if you have no electric then it is because YOU forgot to sort it out. Not because SOCIETY failed to plan ahead.


So… Could the future be where we all walk around with little gadgets in our bags picking up on the motion we create whilst moving and turning this in to electric to be used there and then or stored for later use? Could we have a myriad of little machines strapped to anything with heat (or cold)? Can we go off grid and live truly localized lives? My feeling is that there is some mileage in this and that it creates to the perfect antidote to a globalised society?

Music Interlude: The link below is for snippet taken from Cosmo Galactic Prism Mixed By Prins Thomas. It is available for 7 days. I have a copy of the 10” and think it is a great anytime bit of happy music.

Sing (Unabombers Electric North Remix) - The Electric South Feat Bob Lind

Have fun