Now that its hurricane season, I was thinking about generation of electricity in emergency conditions. Then I thought about people who want to live off the grid. Solar panels can provide electricity during the day, given lots of space for the panels and decent weather. But they bring up the question of storage. Generators have been designed with high levels of efficiency, usually by being designed for a narrow range of fuel sources. (My car wants premium fuel, which is even narrower than most cars. ) So I looked at an old standby, too see whats been happening recently. And the short answer appears to be nothing. The sterling engine can use a wide variety of fuels - everything from wood chips to gasoline to light - to generate power. So I would have thought someone would have made a small generator that competes with those generators that you can buy at Lowes. But I cant find anything commercially available; just experimenters kits. Yes, it probably would be more expensive than a single fuel generator. But there is probably a market for those who dont want to be tied down to a single fuel.
Posted on: Sat, 07 Jun 2014 15:15:36 +0000