Any specs on a steam dynamo?
Voltage / Current / RPM / Steam consumption / Life span
Exploded views or photos would also help
I was wondering about stationary home usage to charge (a large) bank of batteries

Thanks,

dr dodge

Our company, Wasatch Railroad Contractors, would be more than happy to supply you with the materials that would answer your question. If you feel so inclined go to our webpage;

www.wasatch-rr-contractors.com

Go to the "ask a technical question" page. Dave Griner, our CMO will be happy to respond.

Yours truly;
Jared Bissen
Wasatch Railroad Contractors

Or Backshop Enterprises - Bernie Watts has petty much everything from drawings to patterns and dies to build a new one.

Probably more cost effective to use a gear or belt coupled off the shelf generator from your stationary engine.

I remember seing pictures of an automotive alternator belt driven from the turbine shaft of a steam dynamo on a Cuban steamer.

dave

How about a wind driven charger? A Savonius or Darrieus style would work and if needed you can build one using a altenator. Plans are on the Internet by the handful. If you have plenty of sun but no wind think about a solar charger. There are panels being constructed that will actually follow the path of the sun during the day.
During WWII wood burning engines were used due to the lack of gasoline. You could take a small 1 or 2 cyl motor and link it to the charging system for you battery bank.

The dynamo for our C&O Kanawha #2789 was recently returned to the museum after many years of being "restored". It currently is in pieces at the museum and if you are in the area, we would be glad to make arrangements to show it to you and allow it to be photographed.

Les Beckman (Hoosier Valley Railroad Museum/North Judson, Indiana)

I am not sure a locomotive dynamo would be an efficient source of current. They would need a lot of steam for the power produced. I think they are designed for light weight and reliability, and steam consumption was not a big issue since they only power a few bulbs.

Assuming you had a reliable steam source, a reciprocating marine genset would do you well.

FYI, for a really small current load, a high speed reciprocating genset about the size of a toaster was made in England during The War to power field radios, and many are available in the collector market.

There are a slug of these Lister clones being manufactured in India. The thing is though that the Indian clones are actually very good engines. They have been using them in Agriculture for a long time. Some companies buy these as new engines then disassemble them in USA plants and set them up tolerance wise and make them even better. You can buy one of these for what you may pay for 4 month electric service. Then set it up with a generator and your in biz. Ohh and they are set up to run on bio-diesel

Here is one on ebay. Item number 120171261933


and this link which is actually a better article

http://www.otherpower.com/fuking.html

efficiency is not really as important as the ability to burn anything wastewise to get the steam. This will be supplimented by solar, wind, and (potentially) 2 other sources of "free energy" what is the efficiency ratio of a turbine style vs piston? A locomotive steam dynamo gives me a very good point to "reverse engineer". I have heard on the internet claims of 90%+ from "tesla turbines" (and we all know that there is no misinformation on the internet) Funny thing is most "tesla turbines" advertised really are not.

IMHO, as one who has my business foot in the electric power generating industry, and my hobby foot in historical steam power, let's look at the advantages and disadvantages of Reciprocating steam vs. Turbine:

Reciprocating
Plusses
Better efficiency up to about 4,000 Hp. ( 5, 200 KW )
Antique units can be had fairly inexpensively
Rotational speeds are low, imbalance problems can usually be handled
by construction of a large foundation.

Minuses
Steam must be lubricated with compounded oil. This must be filtered out
in the condensate cycle or it will cause serious boiler disruptions.
Crankcase lubricant is easily contaminated by stray water
Highly labor intensive, most smaller units are not automatic closed cycle lubricating.
Initial cost is high for the power developed

Turbine
Plusses
Simplicity of installation
Condensing of exhaust and return of condensate to the boiler is easy
Lubrication is simple
Due to high rotational speed, the power generated is high in a fairly compact unit

Minuses
Poor thermal efficiency in smaller units
Superheating of steam is beneficial, but requires superior materials of construction and increased initial costs
High rotational speed requires maintenance of precision balance
Boiler water chemistry must be maintained to high standards to prevent mineral deposition on blading
Mineral deposition on blading detracts from thermal efficiency
Sudden release of blading deposits may lead to sudden and destructive
imbalance of the turbine

All units may be used for cogeneration or combined cycle
Round the clock operation requires sufficient staffing
Cycling operation is inefficient in terms of fuel to output efficiency and thermal cycling damage to equipment

In short, if you just want to charge some batteries, try a solar panel
or plug into the grid.

the generation of the electricity is a secondary goal
the "pros & cons" reinforce my committment to the turbine
thanks

dr

It seems like you intend to manufacture the turbine yourself or adapt a dynamo which is good because you will be hard pressed to find any commerically available turbines under about 25 MW...

Although most steam locomotive dynamos with their simple blading do OK with saturated steam, turbines in commercial powerplants use superheated steam that exhausts to a condenser at a quality around 90% (meaning 10% liquid water, 90% water vapor). This is because the liquid water droplets tend to errode the blades.

I can report some numbers for the Pyle National K240 turbine that the WW&F Railway Museum uses on their steam locomotive. The output voltage is nominally 32 volts DC. I say "nominally", as it can be adjusted plus or minus a few volts by adjusting the governor. The output is 350 watts, sufficient for a 250 watt headlight (front or rear switchable by a transfer switch), 25 watts for a steam pressure gauge light, and 15 watts for a water gauge glass light. The rotation rate is 3600 rpm max. The major maintenance item is brush replacement (contact Bernie Watts). I would estimate that full power requires over 100 psi of steam pressure. The engine crews complain that running the turbine takes a substantial portion (1/4?) of the available steam, but this is a very small (12 ton) engine so the turbine would be a large percentage of the steam consumption.