STEAM POWER 101

By Mike Brown and H. W. Gordon

Electric power generation with steam at the individual household level is making a
comeback. At the commercial power plant level, it never left. Even nuclear power plants
use steam as the motive power.
What is new is the fairly recent phenomenon of household-size steam power units for
standby power generation. Unfortunately, most people today have no idea how a steam
engine works or the things you have to keep in mind when setting up a home steam
power system.
Why steam?
Only water carries such a great amount of latent heat. No other liquid does. What is
latent heat? The amount of heat that is required to turn all of the water in a closed
container to vapor with out actually raising the temperature of the water. All that heat
energy to boil off the water waiting to do work. A steam engine converts this heat energy
to rotary work. Steam has an expansion rate of 1700 to 1. One square foot of water at
150 psi at 366F will expand to 1700 square feet of water vapor at 0 pressure.
To show the great work energy in steam we can look at the inverse, that of compressed
air. 150 psi of compressed air will only expand 150 to 1.
This gives an example of why many internal combustion engine conversions or rotary air
motors so-called turbines to steam really dont work. These conversions do not give
the steam any time or room to expand and therefore all the latent heat energy is just
exhausted out to the atmosphere and wasted. A true steam engine is designed for the
expansion of steam and use of the latent heat energy.
What are the components of a steam system?
The easiest way to deal with a technology unfamiliar to you is to introduce one concept at
a time. Lets introduce the basic concept and then go back and flesh out the details.
A home steam system consists of a boiler with a firebox to turn water to steam, a steam
engine to convert the steam energy to rotary motion to drive a generator, and a system to
condense the water once the steam has turned back into water. During the condensing of
the water utilizing the exhaust steam heat (providing hot water and/or heating the home
itself) increases the efficiency of the system. The design of a home steam system is
dictated by the circumstances of the home where it will be installed and the fuel
available.
Now here is what you have to keep in mind while designing your system.
The Firebox

The design of your firebox is based upon the type fuel you are going to use. Fuel can be
solid, liquid, or a gas (vapor). A woodstove built to burn logs to heat your house through
radiate heating is not going to work well to heat water to steam. A woodstove will loose
the heat to the surrounding environment and not pass it to the water in the boiler. A
proper boiler firebox is super insulated with refractory. Refractory will reflect the heat
back into the fire amplifying the heat in the fire increasing the fire temperature and heat
from the fuel.
The Boiler
Boilers come in sizes and shapes. However, there are only two basic types.
One constant is true of steam boilers of any type. Boilers are rated in pounds per hour of
steam generated. Yes, you can put a 2 feet of pipe (aprox 1/2 square foot of heating
surface) in our wood stove to generated steam, however you will only produce a sniff
of steam. To operate a 10 hp steam engine will require a boiler that can produce 850 lbs
of water 150 psi steam per hour. That is, it can turn 100 gallons of water @ 8.5 lbs per
gallon into steam in one hour. This requires that you have to 90 square feet of heating
surface.
The fire-tube boiler is what you see on the old farm tractors and locomotives. 90% of
what you see when you look at a steam locomotive is boiler. The actual steam engine is a
small cylinder mounted on the side of the boiler. A fire-tube boiler basically consists of a
tank full of water with hollow tubes running through it. The hollow tubes allow the fire to
heat surface, to turn the water to steam. That is where the name comes from firetube. A fire tube type boiler is more forgiving when the water level becomes low as it
has a large amount of water mass. The flipside of the great mass of water when under
high steam pressure is the explosive potential if a boiler should fail.
The second type of boiler construction is called a Water-tube. It has the water in the
tubes instead of fire. The fire in the furnace surrounds the water-tubes turning the water
in the tubes into steam. Hence the name, Water-tube
One advantage of a water-tube boiler is steam in a tube is easily contained than steam in a
box or a drum. Steam pressures in a tube can reach up to 5,000 psi before anything gives
way. If there should be a failure of a watertube the steam only escapes from that tube
and is usually contained within the boiler containment and out the smoke stack.
The second advantage is that water in a tube turns to steam much more rapidly than it
does in a drum. It may take 20-30 minutes to "get up steam" in a fire-tube boiler. A
water-tube boiler will give you steam in 1-3 minutes. There is less water for the same
amount of fire to heat.
The third advantage is that a water-tube boiler is cheaper and easier to build. The simplest
of the water-tube boilers is called a mono-tube boiler, which in essence is nothing more
than a coiled copper tube (like a moonshine coil) with water in it and a fire underneath it.

There are a couple of disadvantages to water-tube boilers.

A water-tube boiler will not allow for the fluctuations in pressure that a fire-tube boiler
will. A water tube boiler requires close supervision. A mono-tube requires a fairly
constant load and although easiest to build is hardest to control as all the water entering
must come out as steam.
The Engine
A steam engine is known as an external combustion engine. That is, the power or energy
is produced outside of the engine. That is, the steam has power before it is introduced into
the engine.
An automobile engine, in contrast, produces power or energy inside the engine by
inhaling a fuel-air mixture and then igniting it with a spark. A steam engine is also quite
often lubricated externally. A device called a hydrostatic oiler is placed between the
boiler and the steam engine. Steam picks up the oil and carries it into the engine.
The Steam Chest
The first part of the engine the steam enters is called the "steam chest." The steam chest
contains the valve system. On smaller steam engines (10 horsepower and under) the usual
valve system consists of a block of metal that slides over ports (or holes) cut into a
portion of the interior of the steam chest. No springs are necessary as the pressure pushes
the valve against the valve seat. This valve is called a "D-valve." The D-valve uncovers a
hole or passageway to allow steam to push against the piston head. At the other end of the
D-valves travel, the valve uncovers another passageway that allows steam to push
against the bottom of the piston. The exhaust passageway is in the middle. Such an
engine is known as a "double-acting" steam engine. The piston is alternately pushed by
steam in both directions.
Engines of this type turn fairly slowly. 600 rpm is not an unusual or "slow" turning speed.
Dont let the speed mislead you. 600 rpm in a steam engine isnt comparable to 600 rpm
in a gasoline engine. 600 rpm in a gas engine is an "idle speed" that produces very little
torque (or twisting force). A steam engine can produce maximum torque at almost 0 rpm.
If you have ever seen an old 10 to 16 horsepower steam tractor at a "tractor pull" pulling
against our modern 400+ horsepower gas engines, you will understand. The steam tractor
always wins.
The cylinder, piston, connecting rod and crankshaft are not the same as a automobile
engine. The connecting rod doesnt move in a circular motion: it moves straight up and
down (or back and forth). The straight movement is changed to rotary motion at the
crosshead.
A slider moves back and forth in the crosshead. A second connecting rod connects the
first connecting rod to the crankshaft. Crankshaft rotation drives whatever you want it to
driveelectric generator, water pump, grain grinder, or other device. An eccentric

mounted on the crankshaft operates the D-valve. The eccentric and the D-valve are
connected by a valve rod. As the eccentric rotates the valve rod is moved back and forth,
so does the D-valve.

Sidebar
Steam Engine Torque
The torque, or twisting force an engine is capable of producing is more of a measure of
actual engine power than horsepower. A gasoline engine will produce torque in the range
of 250-400 lbs. when the engine itself is over 300 cu. in. and over 200 horsepower. Steam
and gas horsepower are not the same. A rule of the thumb is 1 steam engine horsepower
is equal to 3 gas engine horse power.
Most automobile engines will not reach maximum torque until they reach 2200 rpm. A
steam engine can reach maximum torque when the piston is hardly moving. It works like
this:
A gas engine is powered by ignition of compressed fuel and air. The pressure in a gas
engine that creates torque increases as the engine turns faster. and compresses
proportionally more fuel and air. At lower rpms the poppet valve system used in gas
engines limits the amount of vacuum that can be created as the intake. Exhaust valves are
quite often open at the same time (valve overlap) to ventilate the cylinder of burnt gases.
At higher rpms you still have valve overlap. It just isnt as noticeable as the fuel-air
mixture doesnt have as much time to enter the intake and leak out the exhaust valve
before both valves close and ignition takes place.
A steam engine can allow steam into the cylinder and press against the piston depending
strictly on the expansion of the steam coming from the boiler. As the pressure builds, the
piston moves. If the piston is pushing against a load, the load moves as the pressure
increases.
The greatest advantage that an internal combustion engine has over a steam engine is the
connivance of automation and size. You can start it up and walk away from it has it is
controlled by the governor and a refined fuel system. A simple steam system engine
needs100%. supervision. Can you imagine the contraption it would take to mount a
boiler and steam system on a lawn mower?