Before I begin my initial thread... Two things.
1. Michealangelica - THANK YOU!!! The collation of information here in the TP section is outstanding! I am very grateful for what you are doing here.
I hope my contributions in turn may add to the picture, help others, and of course, myself.
2. Steam is barely touched in this idea (as it scalds
) but steam knowledge could be very valuable with all these TP fires making charcoal to utilise it. Any steam engineers around here? Your time to shine has come again!
OK, here's a sketchy outline.
The Terra Beta...
A stove the size of an outdoor brick home BBQ. Externally it resembles and functions like a large brick BBQ with hotplate, and brick chimney. Aesthetics are important to introduce technology, people are prissy. You could add a pizza oven too.
The working parts. This is where I need to get a lot of bricks and play around with them to get it all to fit, and function. I'm working with a sketchup model but my comp lags badly once I get past 100 components (bricks).
Terra Beta includes...
Firepit, fuel entry, and ash retrieval.
Long airways in to warm the air before it reaches the fire.
Charcoal retort and outgassing for secondary burn. Can pre-heat gas too, if it helps?
BBQ hotplate is the top of the retort.
Boiler. With pressure valve, once correct pressure is met would want to harness this power to run a pump. Here's where I know the dots can be connected but am yet to do so, need input.....
More 'parts' follow.
Basically, my thoughts behind this/my approach is ....
It's for everyone, but aimed at western countries - we're the ones making the mess, clean up our own backyards there's plenty of tropical research going on.
Gas technology - a lot of farmers will put it in the too hard basket. And homeowners... I want people to be able to DIY even if they need one or two special parts delivered. So I'm sticking to fire and using the gas to boil water, it seems easier... (I know I know, steam is gas...)
Power storage - if you're going green, a bank of batteries in every home isn't going to impress many. Use a water tower. It works for hydro-power (which is what we will end up with) and it will work for us.
So, the rest of the parts.
The easiest assembly of bits that utilise steam - then pump water.
A water tower.
A generator.
A holding tank on ground level (or below).
Imagine, if you will....
Fill retort and start fire. After a while gas begins to burn and hotplate is ready to cook on. You enjoy bbq while steam drives pump and pump pumps water from a reservoir up into your water tower. One 'BBQ' hopefully, can lift enough water for 2 or more days home supply.
Water tower water runs down constantly, harnessing a small generator that powers your home.
That's the basics. Could also leave the hotplate out and harness more heat, it depends what the sums are
ie: How much water does it take to power an (average) house in this manner?
How much wood fuel to send this volume of water up to the tower? This I figure is all to do with how to easily run a pump off steam. Steam is very powerful, and should do the job handily...??
Sure I've had plenty more thoughts on this, but that's the basic idea.
