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equalizer
Hi everybody. I'm happy to see this discussion continuing.
Dave: a self-fueling air engine IS a heat pump. A commercial heat pump expands compressed freon in a valve, wasting all the pressure, to produce cold which will then suck in free heat that can be used to heat a house since it adds to the compression heat from compressing the freon. The heat exchange goes through the walls of heat exchangers.
A self-filling air tank is air-to-air so no freon is involved. The production of cold is not necessary since you put the atmosphere directly into the tank (without the normal external work of a conventional compressor) and all its heat is then added to the energy already in the tank. Also the heat exchangers are thus done away with. And instead of wasting the pressure to make a cold sink to absorb heat, you can use the pressure to run an air engine. And since the air coming in ends up being compressed by mixing with what's already in the tank, the air engine can run the whole system--as long as the COP is over 1, preferable a lot more than 1 since there will be overload or off-design situations to make up for.
Randy: keep up the good work. I think you need precision to make that Tesla reciprocating motor work. It functions because there is a cushion of air all the way around it instead of piston rings, so anything off center or out of round will cause it to fail. It's a simple machine, why don't you save your money and while you're doing that, make the rounds of the machine shops in your area till you find one that wants to help you?
For example, I once spent 6 months designing a Tesla turbine, then I tried to build it myself. Everything was out of round and had to be done over by a machinist. Funny thing was, the machine shop owner was Yugoslavian and knew Tesla as a national hero, not as we do in the US, a half-forgotten eccentric mistreated by history. So the damage was lessened by discounted rates but it still cost me $3000 to get a turbine I could test. Another town, another design, I found a machine shop owned by a guy named Larry and he personally saw to it that my designs were built well, simply, and he enjoyed helping me. If you go to the wrong machine shop you won't get what you need. I like it when the owner comes out and takes an intersest and helps me figure out if something needs to be improved.
Well I do go on now don't I. Is there a pill I can take that will force me to summarize?
The word for the low pressure into high pressure valve is EQUALIZER. I think you should forget injectors, they use brute force to get a mixing going on. No a boiler injector doesn't work with air, it works because of condensation of the steam drive jet which creates an intense suction. Air injectors (called "thermal compressors" if raising air to a higher pressure as opposed to evacuating a space) don't have the drive that steam has.
Think instead in terms of compressing air with air, inside the tank. Think about the two check valves in a tank (equalizer) and think about Bill Truitt's statement that his secret leakproof valve "worked like a heart". Now keeping it as simple as possible (instead of as ingenious as possible), make those two check valves into a PRESSURE EXCHANGER. A simple device that uses a high pressure fluid to raise the pressure of a low pressure fluid with the result a medium pressure fluid.
A double check valve with added heat between the valves is ALL you need to pump water. What's wrong with air? It is compressible, it changes shape. We need to be craftier to get it to do what has been done with steam and water for hundreds of years (see Savery's engine, back of my new book).
Now imagining those two check valves inside an air tank, make the second check valve movable. The heart is just MOVABLE check valves. If the second check valve is really a rodless piston with a check valve in it, the sky opens up and ideas flow.
I know, you don't lack ideas. But compressing air with air, and doing it inside the tanks, seems to be the way to go.
Luther
Hi everybody. I'm happy to see this discussion continuing.
Dave: a self-fueling air engine IS a heat pump. A commercial heat pump expands compressed freon in a valve, wasting all the pressure, to produce cold which will then suck in free heat that can be used to heat a house since it adds to the compression heat from compressing the freon. The heat exchange goes through the walls of heat exchangers.
A self-filling air tank is air-to-air so no freon is involved. The production of cold is not necessary since you put the atmosphere directly into the tank (without the normal external work of a conventional compressor) and all its heat is then added to the energy already in the tank. Also the heat exchangers are thus done away with. And instead of wasting the pressure to make a cold sink to absorb heat, you can use the pressure to run an air engine. And since the air coming in ends up being compressed by mixing with what's already in the tank, the air engine can run the whole system--as long as the COP is over 1, preferable a lot more than 1 since there will be overload or off-design situations to make up for.
Randy: keep up the good work. I think you need precision to make that Tesla reciprocating motor work. It functions because there is a cushion of air all the way around it instead of piston rings, so anything off center or out of round will cause it to fail. It's a simple machine, why don't you save your money and while you're doing that, make the rounds of the machine shops in your area till you find one that wants to help you?
For example, I once spent 6 months designing a Tesla turbine, then I tried to build it myself. Everything was out of round and had to be done over by a machinist. Funny thing was, the machine shop owner was Yugoslavian and knew Tesla as a national hero, not as we do in the US, a half-forgotten eccentric mistreated by history. So the damage was lessened by discounted rates but it still cost me $3000 to get a turbine I could test. Another town, another design, I found a machine shop owned by a guy named Larry and he personally saw to it that my designs were built well, simply, and he enjoyed helping me. If you go to the wrong machine shop you won't get what you need. I like it when the owner comes out and takes an intersest and helps me figure out if something needs to be improved.
Well I do go on now don't I. Is there a pill I can take that will force me to summarize?
The word for the low pressure into high pressure valve is EQUALIZER. I think you should forget injectors, they use brute force to get a mixing going on. No a boiler injector doesn't work with air, it works because of condensation of the steam drive jet which creates an intense suction. Air injectors (called "thermal compressors" if raising air to a higher pressure as opposed to evacuating a space) don't have the drive that steam has.
Think instead in terms of compressing air with air, inside the tank. Think about the two check valves in a tank (equalizer) and think about Bill Truitt's statement that his secret leakproof valve "worked like a heart". Now keeping it as simple as possible (instead of as ingenious as possible), make those two check valves into a PRESSURE EXCHANGER. A simple device that uses a high pressure fluid to raise the pressure of a low pressure fluid with the result a medium pressure fluid.
A double check valve with added heat between the valves is ALL you need to pump water. What's wrong with air? It is compressible, it changes shape. We need to be craftier to get it to do what has been done with steam and water for hundreds of years (see Savery's engine, back of my new book).
Now imagining those two check valves inside an air tank, make the second check valve movable. The heart is just MOVABLE check valves. If the second check valve is really a rodless piston with a check valve in it, the sky opens up and ideas flow.
I know, you don't lack ideas. But compressing air with air, and doing it inside the tanks, seems to be the way to go.
Luther
I know how long you have been working on this and thinking about this.
It looks like all the hard work was worth it, after all.
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