Whispergen Core Engine
Published: 30 Sep 2025
This is a core engine/generator and individual components from a Whispergen CHP (combined heat and power unit). It comprises four cylinders disposed axially around the generator shaft and driving it via a 'wobble yoke'. An original invention by Donald Clucas, the wobble yoke is mechanically efficient, has a long life and enables 100% engine balance. The four finned cylinder heads are machined from solid billets of a creep resistant alloy able to operate at 700 Celsius. &n...
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WhisperGen Stirling Engine Commercialisation
Published: 30 Sep 2025
Despite 100s of millions of dollars spent on trying to commercialise modern Stirling engines in 1987 there were no commercially mass-produced engines for the consumer market. Yet the technology offered many advantages over the norm at the time.Don Clucas aimed to change that. Following inspiration from Peter Lynn, Don began working on the design of a commercially viable Stirling engine as the subject of his engineering PhD project. In 1987, he began in Peter Lynn’s Ashburton workshops and late...
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WhisperGen Stirling Engine Components
Published: 30 Sep 2025
Stirling engines operate on a closed cycle where the energy is supplied as a continuous flame that heats hot end heat exchangers (top finned components). The energy is transferred to the internal pressurised gas (working fluid) in the engine, raising the gas pressure. (Internal combustion engines intermittently draw air and fuel into the cylinder, burns it, and then exhausts the combustion products.) For the WhisperGenTM the piston motion moves the hot gas to the cold heat exchangers (finne...
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