Changing a lawnmower motor to run on steam?


lawnmower
Oscar asked:


Sounds weird to me, but I received an e-mail from a friend who is converting a lawnmower motor to run on steam to turn a car alternator for power on his cabin. I am curious if anyone else has heard of this or knows anything about it. If so, do you have any stories to share and any reputable websites that explain the particulars of how to accomplish this without it rusting up?

Thanks in advance.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 31st, 2010 at 12:00 am and is filed under Alternative Fuel Vehicles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

3 Responses to “Changing a lawnmower motor to run on steam?”

  1. beinghere2002 Says:
    May 31st, 2010 at 1:57 am

    I don’t know how practical that is, unless they mean a electric lawn mower recharged from a steam power generator, Either way I would think there are more efficiet ways ..ie. a manul push mower.

    heres a site anyways beinghere2002

  2. scientistharsh Says:
    May 31st, 2010 at 3:23 pm

    This is really weird thing. If motor is converted to the steam driven engine then the efficiency will drop down to about 10%. i.e. 90% of the energy will be lost in the form of heat and steam.
    Again, steam engines are really bulky and to give such an huge energy output, the lawn mover will be so heavy that it won’t move or will crush the earth and the plants below it. scientistharsh

  3. Breath on the Wind Says:
    June 1st, 2010 at 10:33 pm

    There are people who have a great affection for steam engines. A big advantage is that they are not internal combustion engines (ICE) and so any fuel can be used with potentially a less polluting burn.1 At the cabin he might use wood, old newspapers, or even concentrated solar energy to make steam. Steam engines are generally less efficient than internal combustion engines and use a lot of water without a condenser (looks like a radiator on a car.) There are many websites on the conversion. Below are a few:

    Here is a stripped down explanation. You can see how simple it really is. Steam is only used to produce pressure for the engine. Here compressed air is substituted as working model. Breath on the Wind

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