On Wed, 17 Mar 2004, Kim Brennan wrote: > http://ghlin2.greenhills.net/~apatter/doble.html > > The 1920's Doble steamers got 10-14 mpg on fuel oil 10-14 mpg isn't all that great, though. A Ford Model T would get 20 mpg. > Here's a url for conversion of a VW engine to a steam engine > http://www.firedragon.com/~kap/Barrett/VWConversion.html Cool link, thanks. THat site claims 18 mpg for their engine, which still isn't very good even assuming the horsepower output is similar to the original VW engine. Beetles can approach 30 mpg, I've heard. > Almost all electric plants today are steam engines, the water is boiled > by coal, natural gas or uranium. Yup, but that's out of necessity. Losses to the environment aside, the laws of thermodynamics strictly limit the efficiency you can get out of a system like that, because there are practical limits to how hot you can get the "hot side" and how cold you can get the "cold side."
David Brodbeck, N8SRE '82 Volkswagen Diesel Westfalia '86 Volvo 240DL wagon |
Please note - During the past 17 years of operation, several gigabytes of
Vanagon mail messages have been archived. Searching the entire collection
will take up to five minutes to complete. Please be patient!
Return to the archives @ gerry.vanagon.com
The vanagon mailing list archives are copyright (c) 1994-2011, and may not be reproduced without the express written permission of the list administrators. Posting messages to this mailing list grants a license to the mailing list administrators to reproduce the message in a compilation, either printed or electronic. All compilations will be not-for-profit, with any excess proceeds going to the Vanagon mailing list.
Any profits from list compilations go exclusively towards the management and operation of the Vanagon mailing list and vanagon mailing list web site.