Topic: Deleted (Read 1048 times)

Honestly I was just fascinated to find an engine that works off heat and being a miner this of course intrigued me as we have more then we can ever handle.

Hey!!
Just found out I was right about the method, just wrong about the fluid!!!
http://www.damngeeky.com/2015/05/02/31123/passive-computer-cooling-system-that-will-save-billions-in-electricity-bills.html

Yes, it is a quite fascinating machine. I learned about it 17 years ago. I had to run the calculations back then but I can't remember them.
But don't quit. At least build one so you can evaluate its torque.
I'd prefer another approach, myself.
I have an idea based on passive dynamics.
We all know that heated fluids rise and cooled ones drop.
I'd make some experiments but cooper pipe is too expensive for experiments around here and there isn't much variety (only 1cm in diameter) so it is a no go to small scale/cheap experimenting.
But if you are able to, you should experiment this engine!!

Borisz put's it quite right and he remembers me that I've forgot a very very important aspect:
If you take the heat from the miners to the air, you will be heating the air.
Heat always travels naturally from hot surfaces to cold ones (never the other way around. People here in my country have the terrible saying that leaving the fridge door open, lets the cold get out. Terrible ignorance and terrible mistake. The cold never gets anywhere, it's the heat that gets in!!!).
But, you can create cold from heat, although...
If you use a Refrigeration cycle using the flywheel to power a compressor, you might get something, although the energy required would progressively be wasted and would induce lot's of friction on the engines piston, reducing even more the efficiency.
But that got me thinking... How about a reverse Rankine cycle?
But even so, that would be too much hassle and highly costly.
Even freezers are only efficient because they work in a closed box from where they slowly pump the heat out.
In a large scale mining, IF (and only IF) I had access to way cheap hardware, I'd prefer to create some custom cooling solution evolving some kind of heat pipe and a roof made of massive heatsinks exposed to the air, topped with a layer of dirt and grass that I'd be watering to keep it fresh so it would absorb heat, snow, dust, etc.
Or the walls would work like giant radiators.
Or have a river nearby and pump water too cool down everything.
I get your point, the sterling is cute, but since you can't move the heat too far away from the device, it would becoming less and less efficient.
But hey, don't give up!!!
I just would have to take a lot of reading (which I have no head to, right now) and do some calculations based on the air permeability, what temperature saturates the air, etc, etc.
Not easy!!!

As said previously by Jay_Pal, you need a large temperature difference to provide something useful.

However, the idea is good and stirling engines are used e.g. in some solar technologies as well.
Also, if you are interested in the topic, there are Thermoelectric generators that have no moving parts. However the problem remains, you need a large temperature difference.

Consider this
You need 2 reservoirs, hot and cold to make such a device work. Both have to be kept "as is", meaning the hot has to remain hot and the cold cold, otherwise the process stops, naturally. Assume the hot source is your miner (which will "naturally" remain hot if running), connected with some sort of heat sink directly or indirectly (via water reservoir) to a stirling engine or TEG (thermoelectric generator). You need a colder source. This can be another water reservoir or air as well. However, this has to be kept cold, meaning you need fresh cool water or you need energy to cool down water in a closed loop. So basically you need energy to create a cold medium and likely the energy you generate from the engine is smaller than what you need to provide for cooling. Of course, if you use air at room temperature and sufficient ventilation, its fine. However as said the temperature difference is smaller, hence the output is also smaller. Basically, you might as well cool the miner directly, which is less complicated.

The deciding factor at the end is the economics, not much the technical feasibility. If you do the calculations and you would generate more energy than consumed by cooling/auxiliary devices and the energy generated by the stirling engine also compensates for it cost, then it may be worth it. You need to make a case study on this and take a specific site and setup.

Perhaps something like this...
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/02/29/msi_stirling_cooling/

And perhaps also some long reading (I'd do it myself but I'm too tired from my day job :p ):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applications_of_the_Stirling_engine#Heating_and_cooling

Well... sterling engines are too noisy...
Also, they need a large temperature differential to work properly.
In the video, assuming the water temperature is 80ºC and the room is about 20ºC, you have a 60ºC differential.
The miners I have laying around here, don't pass the 45ºC on hot days (air at 30ºC), leaving a 15ºC differential that I doubt it would make the engine work.
But hey, I've never built one although there are a lot of tutorials on how to build your own and they seem quite simple indeed.
You could experiment the differentials and check out as I might be wrong.
Personally, the noise is my no go. I'd prefer a Peltier plate but they're too pricey (at least for me).

I'm not sure as far as a massive farm.  Adding a bunch of hot water sounds like a horrible idea, with lots that go on.

But smaller scale would be interesting to see a C1 run a fan.  The heat would be there from the coolant.  I don't know how big of a fan it could push but would be neat to see.

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