This all started when I bemoaned the fact that too many people in the world lacked adequate food, water, and shelter when we already have the technology to solve these problems.

The trigger, as you might expect, was the accelerating cost of purchased energy in the USA – and the realization that even economically advantaged populations could experience a real and substantial reduction in standard of living if new ways were not found to meet needs.

I stumbled upon the UN Human Development Report 2006 Beyond scarcity: Power, poverty and the global water crisis, and learned that a billion and a half people worldwide are adversely affected by water crises. The report is long, but worth reading.

More recently I read John Perkins' Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (ISBN 0-452-28708-1) and became still more convinced that solutions to these problems need to be found outside the current industrial context.

I realized that I had the solution to part of one of the problems: I knew how to construct solar heating panels capable of keeping a structure warm through the winter without needing electricity or fuel (or energy derived from fuel), and that the cost of implementing that solution was small compared to the costs and consequences of other solutions.

I knew I didn’t have a perfect solution, but I felt close enough to be confident of being able refine my approach so as to come close to "practically perfect". I’m satisfied that I’ve succeeded – although I’m confident that further refinements are both possible and probable.

Having made significant progress on one major part of the shelter problem, I asked myself where I should direct my efforts next. By happy coincidence, a friend rekindled an old interest in Stirling cycle engines and got me all excited about fluidynes. A fluidyne is a Stirling cycle engine whose only moving parts are a gas and a fluid (air and water work well). Since I was already working with solar heat – and fluidynes run on heat – it seemed like a logical direction to explore.

Given a single page plan for a working design, fluidyne engines can be easily constructed using commonly available materials by non-technical people without expensive tooling, and should have extremely long lifetimes with little to no maintenance. The challenge is to arrive at the working design which, in spite of the construction simplicity, is not at all simple to produce.

Well, now that we know these things have some really desirable characteristics, how do we put 'em to work? Fluidyne engines convert heat energy into mechanical energy and deliver that mechanical energy to a rising and falling fluid piston. In simplest terms, they alternately suck and blow – with as much power as we design and build into them, so long as there’s an adequate supply of heat.

If we add a pair of check valves to limit flow to one direction only, it will function as a self-priming pump to move a gas or fluid. If we use it to pump water, then it can serve as an irrigation pump, a village drinking water supply pump, or a flood control and recovery pump. If we use it to pump cold air or water, it can serve as the heart of a refrigeration or air-conditioning system.

Which leads directly into another aspect of Stirling cycle engines: if a Stirling cycle engine is driven with mechanical energy rather than heat, it has the interesting characteristic of operating as a heat pump – it will move heat from one part of the engine (which then becomes cold) to another part of the engine (which then becomes hot). To drive a fluidyne with mechanical energy to make a heat pump, we need to alternately suck and blow on what would normally be the output piston.

By a not-so-incredible coincidence, the most natural way to do that is to use fluidynes in pairs by connecting their output pistons and by driving the first engine with (solar) heat to produce mechanical energy that then drives the second engine, turning the second engine into a heat pump with, as described above, a hot part and a cold part. From the hot part, we can either discard or re-cycle the heat – and we can use the cold part as the core of a refrigerator or air-conditioner. If we're willing to take it one step farther, we can use a third fluidyne (as a pump) to circulate either cold air or a chilled fluid.

An efficient passive solar heating panel can contribute significantly to standard of living by improving quality of shelter while eliminating fuel consumption and pollution. A solar-powered pump can provide water for improved agricultural productivity and to lighten the burden of those who currently hand- (or head-) carry water from source to home. Solar refrigeration can provide safe storage for food and medicine where there is no infrastructure to support any other means of refrigeration. Solar-powered air-conditioning can cool homes, classrooms, and clinics where it would otherwise be unaffordable; and it can save energy, eliminate pollution, and reduce costs in already-developed areas.

The passive solar heating panels were developed and offered for sale to sustain the fluidyne engine development. Over the winter of 2009-2010 a design change was made to incorporate a stainless steel "skin" over the outer surfaces of the panel, which should increase panel longevity to a century, and an improvement was made to the glazing method.

The fluidyne engine development has been expanded with the addition of volunteer teams in Pakistan, France, Argentina, Sudan, and the USA. Since the development is unfunded and materials sometimes difficult to obtain, progress has been slow – but as more people have become involved advances have come a bit more rapidly.

The goal is to produce a fluidyne pump design for free distribution. There is a need for people who’re willing to study and learn and roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty helping to achieve that goal. If those things don't bother you, you’re invited to e-mail me (button below) for more information.

If you don't feel able to do those things, but would still like to help, I suggest a contribution to one of the existing teams. As you follow the link, prepare to be impressed by their lab facilities and by what they’ve accomplished. I hope you can be as proud of them, and of their efforts to make the world a better place, as I am.