Get Steamed With Steam Powered Electric Generators
Although steam power has been around for generations, what's new is the phenomenon of steam powered electric generators that are small enough for the private residence to use as an alternative energy source. So let's look at just how steam could be powering your own home.
Steam powered electric generators consist of a boiler and furnace that turns the water to steam, the engine which turns this steam energy into rotary motion and drives the generator, and the system that circulates the water after the steam has returned to its liquid state. You can increase the efficiency of the system by utilizing the exhaust steam heat during the re-circulation of the water.
We tend to think of all steam powered generators as the same entity, but in reality, there are different kinds, burning different kinds of fuel. There is, for example, the wood burning generator, once through steam generators as well as pure steam generators.
To power your home with your steam generator, you'll need the following:
* A furnace. The exact design will depend on the kind of fuel you use. This fuel could be liquid, solid or gas.
* A boiler. These will come in several different shapes and sizes, but there are only two main types: the firetube boiler (such as what is used on old locomotives, with a tank of water and hollow tubes passing through it); and
the watertube boiler, in wihch water is put into the tubes instead of into a water tank, so that the furnace's fire turns the water in the tubes into seam.
* An engine. You'll often hear this referred to as an external combustion engine, meaning the energy is produced on the engine's outside. Therefore, the steam has power even before being introduced into the engine.
* A steam chest. This is the part of the engine where the steam first enters, and contains the valve system.
The cylinder, piston, connecting rod and crankshaft are not what you are used to in an automobile engine. The connecting rod doesn’t move in a circular motion: it moves straight up and down (or back and forth). The straight movement is changed to rotary motion at the crosshead.
A slider moves back and forth in the crosshead. A second connecting rod connects the first connecting rod to the crankshaft. Crankshaft rotation drives whatever you want it to drive—electric generator, water pump, grain grinder, or other device. An eccentric mounted on the crankshaft operates the D-valve. The eccentric and the D-valve are connected by a valve rod. As the eccentric rotates the valve rod is moved back and forth, so does the D-valve.
The larger the steam generator, the more sophisticated and complext it must be. to illustrate how big they can be, maybe you'll recall the huge connecting rods as they went up and down in the movie "Titanic," during the engine room scenes. This shows how big a steam generator can get. However, they also get as small as a couple feet tall, in the case of those you use as emergency stand-by power at your residence. These smaller, portable versions tend to be much simpler to operate, and of course, much more affordable. In fact, they're affordable enough that almost any household can buy one to have on hand in the case of a natural or man-made disaster.
Steam Powered Electric Generators are a clean, efficient way to power your home when you need something other than standard electricity. Put the power that has been used for a couple of centuries to work for you.
