I've spent a few weeks looking into them. They were invented around the same time as the steam engine but because there were trees and coal everywhere to burn the industrial revolution went down the steam route. What's weird is how quiet, long lasting, and non polluting these engines are. All they do is harvest temperature variants. Any one that lives in a really cold place or a really warm place could probably find places to stick these things and passively harvest energy.
They don't produce a lot of torque but now that we have way better battery tech I can't see why these can't become more feasible.
One obvious use is paired up with parabolic or convex concentrators. As far back as 1980 we had [powerful working models](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=1984+stirling+engine) of these and in some parts of the US and Europe there are some commercial operations with these in use.
>I am curious to hear if you experiment with this further
I haven't yet but I'm moving forward slowly towards it. I'm not good with machining myself but I've spent the last 3 years moving myself out of the city and to a largely rural area with high quality high trust whites. Many of my new frens are basted and love DIY and welding/machining/3d printing. I'm really excited to keep learning and get a few of my neighbors involved. I'll make a post and ping you if I do make anything.
Seems like the engine itself isn't the costly part on the solar version. It's mainly the tracking stuff and the large collector array but you can do the same thing now for way cheaper.
They don't produce a lot of torque but now that we have way better battery tech I can't see why these can't become more feasible.
One obvious use is paired up with parabolic or convex concentrators. As far back as 1980 we had [powerful working models](https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=1984+stirling+engine) of these and in some parts of the US and Europe there are some commercial operations with these in use.
Why the fuck don't we see these everywhere??
must not be cost effective or something
I mean it's possible it is still cost effective and unpopular but if it was so useful even the big corporations would use them, wouldn't they?
I am curious to hear if you experiment with this further
I haven't yet but I'm moving forward slowly towards it. I'm not good with machining myself but I've spent the last 3 years moving myself out of the city and to a largely rural area with high quality high trust whites. Many of my new frens are basted and love DIY and welding/machining/3d printing. I'm really excited to keep learning and get a few of my neighbors involved. I'll make a post and ping you if I do make anything.
Seems like the engine itself isn't the costly part on the solar version. It's mainly the tracking stuff and the large collector array but you can do the same thing now for way cheaper.