Solar Energy

[den]

Fesnel lens, triple-junction PV cells, and a heat sink. Sun Ball Solar Tracker.

Comments

[zhenzhi.livejournal.com]

excellent! thanks for the link. :-)

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Don't you watch The New Inventors?

[zhenzhi.livejournal.com]

if i can.... most often though i am busy getting the kids settled at that time. :-)
i'm researching all i can about alternate power sources for when we build our house here.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

this one looks like a go-er. I think it gets more power per $ than anything else I've seen.

[zhenzhi.livejournal.com]

it looks good too! :-) putting solar/other power into our home is more of an environmental choice for us. to do photovoltaics, we're looking at the same cost set up as installing mains power (site is roughly 3/4km from existing mains.
and then we have to figure something for the days the sun doesn't shine (we get a lot of thick cloud cover and rains here).... put the kids on a pedal powered bicycle generator??!! lol!

[jim-lane.livejournal.com]

When the rugrats complain about all the pedal time they're putting in, tell them that they're simply paying you back for all the food they eat--- *evil grin*

[zhenzhi.livejournal.com]

with all that cloudy/rainy day pedalling, they are bound to eat more!!! LOL!
:-)

[annvole.livejournal.com]

Of course, you can have lots of battery power too (as long as there is enough capacity on the panals and batteries). Batteries are about 40% efficient so you are losing lots (60%) of energy there (heating the battery and giving off hydrogen and oxygen gas) and those inverters are inefficient too so... I am going to try out using pressurized air in a large underground air tank to store energy (very efficient, no acids, no chemicals, no explosive gasses, long lifespan of equipment) and you can get most tools in pneumatic form and I even have refrigeration ideas. I figure an AC alternator turned by a pneumatic motor with a speed control can make your AC at household voltage very efficiently (there is also a design that uses air to vibrate a coil or permanent magnet and make AC without turning parts to wear out... I will try that too)

[(Anonymous)]

wow, that sounds great! :-)

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Hook the tele up to the pedal gennies.

[http://users.livejournal.com/crossfire_/]

That is SO cool.

Note that in the FAQ they say:

We also mount the solar cells on a massive heat spreader which transfers the heat into the SunBall™ Solar Appliance's aluminium hemisphere shell which serves as a heat radiator. This heat radiator is 180% larger than the solar collection area, is always in the shade and cooled by passing winds much more easily than flat panels.

Which leads me to wonder if this couldn't be combined with a water heat-exchange system to help heat water for the building...

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

they asked that on "The New Inventors" last night. The inventor said the high accumulated water temperatures makes the panels run hotter than the heat sink, and reduces the efficiency. there is also the problem of the 2 axis articulated water pipes.

[http://users.livejournal.com/crossfire_/]

Bummer, and both excellent points. It's just whenever I see someone trying to dissapate heat I try and think of a way to use it, is all. (Like, I really want to hook my fridge to my oven somehow.)

Still, these look like VERY cool appliances. I wouldn't mind having a couple myself.

[klishnor.livejournal.com]

Interesting concept, might even be as good as claimed, although it wouldn't be a lot of use here (North West England). But I find it rather disconcerting that it reminds me of a prop from a rather poor film, Warriors of Atlantis or something similar, certainly it had Atlantis in the title.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

The fesnel lenses concentrate available light, so it might run better than the normal flat panels.

[http://users.livejournal.com/crossfire_/]

Fresnel, not fesnel...named after Augustin Fresnel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustin-Jean_Fresnel), the French physicist who first designed them.