Solar Advice

Super solar collectors?

2010-09-09T14:38:00.000-07:00

I would expect more from an engineering site...

I have talked to quite a few people about this already for a few years now. The inherent problems with this stems from the concentration of heat (energy). It does more than let the solar cell output (not make) electricity. It also heats the poor cell up.
Now take the sun, it has a lot of energy coming off of it. If you concentrate it by 4 you have an oven able to broil food. Multiply it by 1000? Silicon might sublimate, not to mention the steel supports holding the cell. Not very condusive to harnessing it into electricity.
If you could keep it in a solid electrically outputting cell, it's lifespan which is usually 20-30 years drops to around 10 days. If it took 6 hours to replace it would drop it's efficiency by 2.5%.
That's not the worst drain on efficiency though. Hot metal is a much worse conducter than cold metal. The near liquid state would make any electrical current a mere trickle.

http://www.engineering.com/Videos/VideoPlayer/tabid/4627/VideoId/2140/A-Solar-Cell-1000-Times-More-Powerful.aspx

Solar Days Getting Shorter

2010-06-23T13:20:00.000-07:00

As you may know the sun is starting to be out less. It's probably not very noticable yet but it soon will be. As we get into July and August it will be painfully apparent that there is less light to do stuff by that needs to get done.
Then starting in August the orbit of the planet will do something that none of us really like. High noon, the actuall middle of the day, will quickly become earlier and earlier effectively chopping out twenty-five minutes from the available daylight in the evening and putting it up front on top of having a shorter total span of daylight.
In effect this causes the sun to rise about the same time every morning for a couple months while the sun sets an hour earlier by the end of that same span. At least where I live in north central Texas and similar latitudes.
The overall effect to me is that I'll have a booger of a time getting everything watered in the evening while there is still light.

Solar Waning

2009-09-09T22:22:00.001-07:00

It's already started and is becoming more noticeable as the days draw on. The sun is less and less visible and will soon be a rare sight for the more northern residences.
Here in Texas it's not that bad just a few hours less a day in the middle of winter but the trees loose their leaves and let what little light there is through for all of the solar applications. The drop in temperature also makes the wires more conductive and helps make up for the lack of light.
Soon it will be time to move the mirrors from the roof to the back fence. BBQ in the snow anyone, that is if it ever snows here....

Nothing's free...

2009-07-14T21:29:00.000-07:00

Who says nothing's free?

Did you know that all the money you spend at a tanning salon can be saved just by taking in a few rays of the sun? That's right, the sun can actually give you a tan. I know what you're thinking, "That'll kill me in about two seconds with it's cancer death rays!" Rest assured, there are no cancer death rays eminating from the sun. What comes from the sun is merely the same rays that the tanning bed shines at you but at a much cheaper rate. The only draw back is that you can't use it at night. So I guess for all of you night tanners, suck it up and spend some time in the sun. A really easy way to do this is merely park a little farther from the mall and walk in the sun. A little goes a long way.

Mirror mirror on the roof...

2009-07-06T22:09:00.001-07:00

Ok, so mirrors won't tell me I'm the fairest of them all. That's probably because they aren't human because then, well they probably still wouldn't.
What they have done for me is keep my house like five degrees cooler. Plug that into your calculators and that's a whole bunch of savings on my cooling bill.
I currently have eight mirrors on the roof right at the top so the rain doesn't do a lot of collecting between them and the shingles. They're also raised up about half and inch with ... well I'm really not sure what it is but there's no way I can get it off so it's staying there.

I plan to add six to eight more on another part of the roof to maximize the cooling in the back of the house where it gets the hottest.

Solar Panels

2009-05-25T22:05:00.000-07:00

Talking to a friend about solar panels and their expense. I was informed about the tax breaks and credits from power companies. It only cost $13,000. I don't have that much either...

Solar Plot usage

2009-05-05T21:23:00.000-07:00

Your solar plot needs to be used and organized so that it does what you want it to do and minimizes waste. One big waste of your solar plot is heating your home in the summer.
Placing mirrors on your roof is probably not an accepted practice where you live but this would be a great way to redirect the light to more useful locations in the yard or just shooting it back into the air. Either way it keeps it from heating the atic and shooting up the electric bill.
Another way to do this is to plant a good shade tree to the south and keep it trimmed up off of the yard so the rest of the garden can still grow to it's full potential.

Solar Panels 3

2009-04-27T20:33:00.000-07:00

I went to Prairie Fest last weekend and talked with a group promoting solar power in north central texas. I asked them about the suped up panels where light was concentrated onto a small solar panel and asked, as I believed, if it would deteriorate the panel quickly.

They confirmed it as the heat would make the panel work worse. As you might know superconducters are kept COLD. Electricity works better this way.

Solar Plot Reclamation

2009-04-04T12:47:00.001-07:00

I have finally cut down the Mimosa Tree and realaimed a portion of my solar plot. It was in the backyard and so doesn't affect the temperature of the house which faces south.

There is still a bit of shade around but I can now put at least three 4x4 gardening boxes in the area where the tree was shading. I already have a small mound where there is garlic and squash in front of the shed just this side of the remaining trunk. That is where another tree used to be and is a great place to grow things since the roots and ramains have rotted for some time and I have built a fire there a couple of times until the fire department said I couldn't. Who knew.

Reflected light

2009-03-15T12:24:00.000-07:00

It's amazing how much heat comes off of a mirror. I have been home several times when the light was warming the house from the mirror I set up. Once I actually thought of turning on the air to cool the room down but remembered that it would only last another ten or twenty minutes more and I would just have to turn the heat back on in a little while.
I'm probably going to do the opposite this summer by placing mirrors on the outside of the house at least in the back. I don't think the neighbors would understand mirrors in the front and they would be more easily stolen if I did. The mirrors are heavy but not immovable.

Direct solar power

2009-01-21T20:25:00.001-08:00

I have placed a large mirror in my backyard to harness the power of the sun. It's a north facing backyard so it's perfect for reflecting the suns rays directly into my rear windows. I'm growing a ginger plant that loves it. Every day, for an hour or so, it's bathed in direct full sun. Many of the leaves have bent down to take full advantage of this brief moment in the day. Soon it should be shooting off new sprouts, and in the middle of winter!

next month I'll be placing two more mirrors back there to lengthen the time I have sun on the back of the house.

Sundial

2008-12-20T20:50:00.001-08:00

One of the most overlooked uses of the sun is in keeping time. This is one case where the effeciency is 100%. Ancient people sure didn't overlook it. Not only can you tell time, but you can also tell the time of the year depending on the dial you use. I personally only have one dial, a portable one from Pennsic War. Unfortunately it only works in Pennsylvania and similar latitudes, but it looks great and it's portable.

Mirrors

2008-12-14T22:22:00.001-08:00

I have several large 4'x4' mirrors that I'm going to place against my back fence to see if it can help heat the house in the next few days. The only trick will be to keep it from entirely blocking the light from hitting my plants which need at least some light.
My goal is to get the dining room at least 5 degrees warmer than the front of the house. This is usually the coldest room since it faces north.

Solar Panels 2

2008-12-11T22:06:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I was a little off...

Title:
25% efficient concentrated solar power panels

Concentrated solar power (CSP) panels use two different mirrors to focus about 500 times the energy from the sun before the light is directed onto small high efficient solar cell. This small cell got cheaper than big one…. -:), that’s the idea behind. To use pricey materiel sparignly and gain in overall cost. The vast majority of the system “over 95%” is maid either from aluminum or glass. It uses traditionally lowcost and materials.

Not by much.

So now the rate of decline is 500^2? 25,000 times the usage due to resistance and electron loss and it's only twice as efficient? (the parent article stated that the efficiency went from 12 to 25%)

The article it came from is no better. They spout the word efficient like there is some actual explanation behind it. That's just what I would like to see instead of the same picture over and over again.

A major problem I see with the system is that it uses mirrors left out in the weather. I don't know about everyone, but at my house I get a lot of rain, pollen, bugs, and all other sorts of things that like to mess up nice shiny things. cleaning them would be a real hassle. Otherwise the more buildup you have the less power is generated.

Solar panels

2008-12-06T17:00:00.001-08:00

Recently I read about a solar panel that was supposed to be running at 27% efficiency. They suposedly did this by concentrating more light onto the panel with mirrors.
I've done this myslef but am pretty sure that this would decrese the lifespan of the panel itself.
In other words, if it incressed from 9% to 27% then it would be a 3 times output thus fighting against more resistance which is the chemical change between the two doped silicon plates. Overall this would decrease the lifespan 3^2 which is 9 times shorter. The 30 year panel is now a three and a third year panel and needs constant replacement.

Solar plot

2008-12-05T19:33:00.000-08:00

A solar plot is the amount of land you have where you can harness the sun. You should be aware of your neighbors and their rights to the sun that they recieve. If you have a fence erected on a northern bondry of your property then there is that much more