Stirlingengineforum.com

I have built a Walking Beam Stirling engine and I have decided to test it as a heat pump. I have an electric motor that I am going to connect to the flywheel to run the engine.

If I have the electric motor turning the engine in the same direction as it would run normally, will this make the heat be pumped in the same direction (from the fire box to the water tank)? I am quite convinced that it will but I am not sure of why the heat will be moved from the expansion space to the compression space.

Why is it that if there is no temperature difference there will still be heat transferred from one side to the other.

Compression = heat
Expansion = removal of heat. (you can't make "cold", you can only remove heat)

That is if I am schooled right. I have not tried this with a model Stirling but in theory, you should have a Stirling cooler if you power it externally with a motor. I would imagine that the greater the compression, the more efficient or noticable the heat/cool effect will be. I just don't know if a tin can Stirling has enough compression to make much of temp differential.

Let us know if it works out that way.