PPrepper knowledge! Alternative power and solutions

[posifour11 723]

11 minutes ago, Wheel Horse 3D said:

Its about the lard! It has to gather that flavor from each batch and be reused!

I still render my own lard. I'm in a new place, but the last hog processor didn't do lard, so I did it myself. 

 

Edited because I hate autocorrect.

Edited May 12, 2021 by posifour11

[Wheel Horse 3D 3,795]

On 5/11/2021 at 8:28 PM, posifour11 said:

You're a super ninja!

I am SUCH a badass that I can count to 9999 on my fingers and toes! I can get up to 99 just on my hands!

[DennisThornton 4,769]

You guys stocking up any gasoline?

I bought two new 55 gallon steel drums a couple months ago but I hate to fill them now for fear of being chastised for hoarding...

[posifour11 723]

2 hours ago, DennisThornton said:

You guys stocking up any gasoline?

I bought two new 55 gallon steel drums a couple months ago but I hate to fill them now for fear of being chastised for hoarding...

No. I don't have a bunch of storage at the moment. But, this is yet another lesson on how fragile the system really is. 

[DennisThornton 4,769]

Any Sterling Engine knowledge here?  A friend got really interested but then stopped after trying to build one.

[Wheel Horse 3D 3,795]

Folks even here (away from the east coast affected pipeline) are already causing shortages by their undisciplined panic.

[Wheel Horse 3D 3,795]

1 minute ago, DennisThornton said:

Any Sterling Engine knowledge here?  A friend got really interested but then stopped after trying to build one.

Id think to get one going of a good size would be a challenge. Almost be easier to do a simple low pressure steam piston.

[DennisThornton 4,769]

4 minutes ago, Wheel Horse 3D said:

Id think to get one going of a good size would be a challenge. Almost be easier to do a simple low pressure steam piston.

Probably correct but steam under pressure can sometime blow up and that sometimes scares people, me somewhat included.

So best wood fired engine?  Back to wood gas?  Oh man!  Combine 2 of my favorite topics and you would have a wood-fired dozer!

[Wheel Horse 3D 3,795]

Just now, DennisThornton said:

Probably correct but steam under pressure can sometime blow up and that sometimes scares people, me somewhat included.

So best wood fired engine?  Back to wood gas?  Oh man!  Combine 2 of my favorite topics and you would have a wood-fired dozer!

Yeah simplest conversion, would be wood gas! Just gotta get the air/gas mix right and ya can run all the small engines off of it. Probably need an older car or vehicle with a carb and minimal computerized stuff.

[DennisThornton 4,769]

2 minutes ago, Wheel Horse 3D said:

Yeah simplest conversion, would be wood gas! Just gotta get the air/gas mix right and ya can run all the small engines off of it. Probably need an older car or vehicle with a carb and minimal computerized stuff.

I'd be happy with a wood fired Kohler!

[Wheel Horse 3D 3,795]

For that ya just need a fire pot, and a sealable pot inside of it. Burn wood in the fire pot, put smallish chunks of wood in the sealed pot and fire it up! Idea is to keep most of the oxygen away from your stuff in the sealed pot and let it "pyrolize" and all the stuff out to your engine. I'd install a valve or two at the engine end of the output pipe to adjust air and gas mix. Once ya got the mix down you may be able to create a choke/throttle setup.

 

Cool thing....once your wood in the sealed pot is al gassed off...ya got charcoal!

Edited May 13, 2021 by Wheel Horse 3D

[Wheel Horse 3D 3,795]

Turn around and use that in the forge, as chemistry ingredients, filters whatever, orrrr use the charcoal to fire up the next run of woodgas!

[DennisThornton 4,769]

4 minutes ago, Wheel Horse 3D said:

For that ya just need a fire pot, and a sealable pot inside of it. Burn wood in the fire pot, put smallish chunks of wood in the sealed pot and fire it up! Idea is to keep most of the oxygen away from your stuff in the sealed pot and let it "pyrolize" and all the stuff out to your engine. I'd install a valve or two at the engine end of the output pipe to adjust air and gas mix. Once ya got the mix down you may be able to create a choke/throttle setup.

 

Cool thing....once your wood in the sealed pot is al gassed off...ya got charcoal!

I understand how it is supposed to work and I've read about wood-gas fired 8N Fords during WWII so they must have been somewhat practical but they didn't seem to outlive the war shortages for some reason.  That's what I'm concerned about.  Did they just barely work back then?  Is there any commercial usage today?  Or practical kit available?  Seems with recent concerns someone would be running a special YouTube ad for them!

[Wheel Horse 3D 3,795]

Running the firepot, is a bit of a hassle, and ya gotta collect and process wood. The auto makers and gas folks design cars and engines that prefer liquid petrol, etc. etc.Now will HP output be the same??? I doubt it, but point is youre not walkin and you have an engine doin work for ya.(pumping water, making electricity..whatever)

 

Couple notes, sometimes a thumper keg along the output is good to remove some imuprities and particulates, and Id run wood other than pines or green stuff(you can process the pine in a similar fashion for tar and turpentine.)

Edited May 13, 2021 by Wheel Horse 3D

[DennisThornton 4,769]

1 minute ago, Wheel Horse 3D said:

Running the firepot, is a bit of a hassle, and ya gotta collect and process wood. The auto makers and gas folks design cars and engines that prefer liquid petrol, etc. etc.

 

Couple notes, sometimes a thumper keg along the output is good to remove some imuprities and particulates, and Id run wood other than pines or green stuff(you can process the pine in a similar fashion for tar and turpentine.)

I've read about some sort of "cleaner" post wood-gas generator "pot" but it all seemed like more than I wanted to deal with and I suppose that is the current state of things for most of the world.  When liquid fuel is available burn it! 

 

But what when it's not...  And I suppose that is this threads theme?

[Wheel Horse 3D 3,795]

I would think a simple water trap for the gas to pass theough would be enough...maybe treat the engine with some homeade alchohol once n a while

[Wheel Horse 3D 3,795]

Thermal dynamics...affect both water and air systems. Hot rises, cold falls in any system left to its own devices.

 

For instance a black pipe filled with water or air stood vertically and in the sun, will ALWAYS have the hottest part(water or AIR) at the top. If you attach a loop from the top of the pipe to the bottom, a flow will exist from the top...through the loop, to the bottom.

The key is maximizing the difference of temperature at either end of the pipe. Sooo, what if you buried the lower 3rd of the pipe. Here where I am, ground temperature runs about 50 degrees(the same as our yearly average temperature). So then, while the above ground temperature is above 50 a flow will continuously go UP the pipe, around our loop, and back to the bottom. Now Since we've cooled the bottom of our pipe What if we heated the top? A simple glass faced enclosure around the top of the pipe, and facing the sun essentially creates a solar oven raising the temp in the pipe to...? Even on a cold day in direct sun maybe 60 70 degrees or more? So this further increases our temperature differential. so now we have this marvelous flow..now what? Well, what if that warm water from the top of the pipe was circulating under your floor, or even just under your bed? Water also acts a a heat sink, so once its warm, it takes it a while to release heat. So during the cold winter day Warm water has been circulating under your floor at a certain time at night once the sun goes down you turn a valve that traps all that warm water under you floor for the night. Not only has it been heating your floor all day and the floor components, but now it continues to release heat for quite some time. In the morning you open your valve and the process repeats.

 

So lets further look at this as a circle moving clockwise, hottest part at the top coldest part at the bottom. The example we just used our floor is somewhere around the 3 o'clock area. Now what if we wanted to COOL our floor instead? Well we simply flip some valves and make our floor in the 9 o'clock area. So then Our floor gets the cool from the ground BEFORE it gets heated by the sun rather than after. Water is usually used in a closed loop or in a loop that is normally closed(unless you want some warm water!) Now imagine Splitting our circle into 2 halves(opening the loop). If you use the same principles and imagine how you want the flow to go you can heat or cool the air in your house. Pull cool air up from the cool ground through your house and out solar pipe at the top.(9 o'clock position) Or pipe the warm air from the top of a solar pipe, through the house, and out to the cool ground.(3 o'clock).

[Wheel Horse 3D 3,795]

Further improve you thermodynamic system by increasing the surface area of your solar and ground portions. "S" your pipe or duct to maximize surface area exposed to the sun or ground. For the solar portion "S" should be running horizontal rather than vertical runs. If the long runs are vertical heat gets trapped at the top of your runs at the u turn and limit your flow or throughput. Horizontal runs the each run (going from the bottom up) gets progressively warmer till it comes out the top.

 

For water systems, you could have a warm/hot water holding tank right after the top of the solar array with a return to the cold water side(needs a check valve to ensure water can only flow OUT of your holding tank toward the cold return). Any hot water taps should not be right at the bottom of the tank, only the cold return should be at the bottom.This type of system should work fine with regular water pressure too., but you have to have a way for the cold water to recirculate to the cold side via a check valve

Edited May 14, 2021 by Wheel Horse 3D

[DennisThornton 4,769]

Steam power tips:

https://www.farmcollector.com/steam-traction/build-a-steam-engine-from-a-lawn-mower/

https://www.instructables.com/convert-a-lawn-mower-engine-to-steam-or-air/

https://www.tngun.com/diy-2-cycle-to-steam-engine-convertion-project/

[bc.gold 3,403]

On 5/13/2021 at 3:47 PM, DennisThornton said:

Probably correct but steam under pressure can sometime blow up and that sometimes scares people, me somewhat included.

So best wood fired engine?  Back to wood gas?  Oh man!  Combine 2 of my favorite topics and you would have a wood-fired dozer!

 

Here's a link to my wood gas files http://ovh.to/TpABqf

[bc.gold 3,403]

On 5/14/2021 at 8:54 AM, Wheel Horse 3D said:

Further improve you thermodynamic system by increasing the surface area of your solar and ground portions. "S" your pipe or duct to maximize surface area exposed to the sun or ground. For the solar portion "S" should be running horizontal rather than vertical runs. If the long runs are vertical heat gets trapped at the top of your runs at the u turn and limit your flow or throughput. Horizontal runs the each run (going from the bottom up) gets progressively warmer till it comes out the top.

 

For water systems, you could have a warm/hot water holding tank right after the top of the solar array with a return to the cold water side(needs a check valve to ensure water can only flow OUT of your holding tank toward the cold return). Any hot water taps should not be right at the bottom of the tank, only the cold return should be at the bottom.This type of system should work fine with regular water pressure too., but you have to have a way for the cold water to recirculate to the cold side via a check valve

 

Soapstone fireplace, full article

 

[Wheel Horse 3D 3,795]

56 minutes ago, bc.gold said:

 

Soapstone fireplace, full article

 

Love to have a soapstone pizza oven!

And soapstone is indeed one of the BEST thermal masses to utilize for wherever you need or want a heatsink!

[bc.gold 3,403]

1 hour ago, Wheel Horse 3D said:

Love to have a soapstone pizza oven!

And soapstone is indeed one of the BEST thermal masses to utilize for wherever you need or want a heatsink!

 

I had a large soap stone flat rock that I would lay on top of our wood stove then wrap it in a towel when i retired to my bed for the evening. The stone would still be luke warm in the morning.

[Wheel Horse 3D 3,795]

Non ethanol gas here...$3.64/gal yikes!

Went ahead and got 5 of that, and topped off at the same station, their regular gas has less ethanol than the others round here.

[bc.gold 3,403]

26 minutes ago, Wheel Horse 3D said:

Non ethanol gas here...$3.64/gal yikes!

Went ahead and got 5 of that, and topped off at the same station, their regular gas has less ethanol than the others round here.

 

Manitoba $127.9 liter Canadian, four liters $5.11 Canadian / $4.22 US

Vancouver BC, $1.59.9 a liter, 4 liter $6.36 can / $5.25 US for an amount of fuel slightly more than a US gallon.

 

This would be ethanol gasoline.

 

4000 Milliliters (mL) = 135.25609 Ounces (fl oz)

Edited May 16, 2021 by bc.gold