Steam turbine for autonomous power supply at home

The article Stirling engine for autonomous power supply at home the possibility of using a Stirling heat engine (if it will be powered by a heating boiler) to generate electricity was discussed. Rather, such installations were at one time in England (they set the pumps in motion). This well forgotten can be remembered and used for remote areas and for those who heat their homes with boilers. Such an attitude would be helpful.

Another option for using energy from a boiler is to rotate an electric generator using a steam turbine. This technology is currently used at CHP plants.

The scheme of the CHP plant. If it is necessary to heat something (city, city district), then instead of a condenser and a cooling tower, hot water is supplied to consumers. The efficiency of the CHP is 35-43%.

But at the CHPP these are huge units with a capacity of hundreds of MW. Giant coal-fired boilers. For a private house, a much smaller installation is needed and working according to the following scheme: the boiler boils water in a closed container, steam comes out under pressure (it is additionally heated in the furnace) and rotates the turbine with generator. The cooled waste steam passes through the heat exchanger and transfers its residual heat to the home heating system. The condensate is pumped back into the tank through a check valve.

Of course, you need pressure sensors and a regulation system, a pressure relief valve in case of emergency. Steam boilers on steam locomotives at one time could explode if they were incorrectly adjusted. The boiler must be as safe as possible.

I did not find any models of ready-made installations with steam turbines for the private sector. There are many micro-turbines available to demonstrate how power generation works:

Demonstration of the operation of such a steam turbine with a generator here: https://youtu.be/lUdLyCWhxco

The power produced by the generator is small. I think this is a poorly used generator model. It is necessary to design a steam boiler at times of large size, so that the volume of steam that it produces is sufficient to rotate a generator with a capacity of tens of kW. And the thermal energy is enough to heat the house. There will be full autonomy in winter - only firewood or coal is needed.

Such a scheme will be in demand only during the heating season. In summer, you will have to get electricity from power lines or solar panels. And the water is heated from a solar collector and stored in a storage device.

I found micro steam turbines on aliexpress:

Link hereand here. The first model has a rotor with a diameter of 41 mm and a turbine weight of 225 g. The second model is several times smaller (weight 100 g). Rotor speed - up to 20-50 thous. rpm

The work of the microturbine can be assessed on the video:

Air from the compressor was connected to the turbine and it confidently rotates a small generator (electric motor) that can charge the phone or create a backlight. Its power is sufficient to generate a couple of tens of watts of electricity.

For a house, a turbine 3-5 times is needed to rotate the generator. And more powerful, but at the same time small steam turbines exist:

Video of the operation of this unit for several kW of electrical power:

If you install a water condenser, a heat exchanger to transfer the residual heat to the heating system, as well as the same pump with a valve that will add water after condensation to the tank - then autonomy provided. Steam can also be heated, though. It's even easier that way. Here are simple engineering solutions.

The unit must be placed in a separate room without contact with the house. It makes a hum and it may not be comfortable. I think that the heating boiler should be universal, we turn off the steam boiler with the transition only to heating the heating medium of the heating system.

I decided to look at alibaba.com, maybe there are suggestions from Chinese manufacturers. Found this sentence:

Installations for 200 kW. Cost - from 766 thousand. rub. According to the information in the description, this manufacturer can produce steam turbines with a capacity of 1 kW to 1 MW.

Those. the development of steam turbines with a small output comparable to the needs of a private house is quite realistic. They would be purchased not only by the owners of private houses, but also by recreation centers in hard-to-reach places, travel agencies. To tell the truth, even Old Believers in the Siberian outbacks will buy.

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