Kew Bridge Steam Museum

Visitors to this exciting rally will see over 80 working stirling and hot air engines and get the chance to meet the experts and find out more about these fascinating machines. The show will focus on working models and engines that are designed to stretch the application of this technology, which some engineers believe has a real place in helping to combat climate change. A Stirling engine is an engine that converts heat energy into mechanical work without the need for a fuel such as coal, gas, petrol or diesel and can literally use the power of the sun.

The rally will bring together probably the most diverse collection of Stirling and Hot Air engines ever assembled under one roof, with many participants demonstrating new models and engines that they have built since the last event. This year the Stirling Society will also be awarding the Peter Stanwell trophy for innovation in the field of Stirling engines. There will be model and full size engines, some solar powered, on show in the museum’s galleries, and the engine competition will feature Stirling–engined, model buggys. The Stirling technology has been applied to Combined Heat & Power installations and to generators, which makes its potentially ideal for developing countries. In the 1950s and 60s, Phillips even built a Stirling engine bus and their Stirling powered radio sets played an important role during the disastrous flooding that hit the Netherlands in the early 1950s.  The Stirling Rally is a great way for people to discover more about the science behind the principle.

Hot Air engines were commonplace around 1880 to 1920, but fell from fashion as the electric motor took over for water pumping and driving machinery. The Stirling engine is a closed cycle external combustion engine. The Stirling engine principle was invented in 1816 by the Rev. Dr Robert Stirling a Scottish clergyman and patented in 1817. It incorporates several key features which can make it a very efficient heat engine - but only at a high engine cost. The true Stirling engine incorporates a heat store known as the regenerator, which stores heat energy during one part of the cycle and then releases it later. This all helps to save the amount of heat which is needed to run the engine, thus making it overall more fuel efficient. An engine without a regenerator is generally known as a Hot Air Engine.