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Experiment with solar power.

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Experiment with solar power.

Postby 1066 » Tue Sep 24, 2013 10:59 pm

Thought you guys might be interested in my little experiment with making a solar tracker - This is just built of wood to test the concept, it is very simple and can easily be scaled up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w2GX1OXu4w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T-uCl0jrG4
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Re: Experiment with solar power.

Postby Shootist » Mon May 12, 2014 1:27 pm

Interesting, but the word 'why' keeps coming to mind. It's ok for setting fire to small things that are out of the way, but what else? Perhaps a Green Party approved cremation device for deceased hamsters?
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Re: Experiment with solar power.

Postby flintlok » Mon May 12, 2014 6:54 pm

Shootist wrote:Interesting, but the word 'why' keeps coming to mind. It's ok for setting fire to small things that are out of the way, but what else? Perhaps a Green Party approved cremation device for deceased hamsters?


No, imagine a small kettle of water of other low heat volatizing liquid producing steam that could be used to power various devices. Could be a serious toy that could produce free work with bit of up scaling.

http://greensteamengine.com/
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Re: Experiment with solar power.

Postby 1066 » Wed May 14, 2014 7:48 pm

flintlok wrote:
Shootist wrote:Interesting, but the word 'why' keeps coming to mind. It's ok for setting fire to small things that are out of the way, but what else? Perhaps a Green Party approved cremation device for deceased hamsters?


No, imagine a small kettle of water of other low heat volatizing liquid producing steam that could be used to power various devices. Could be a serious toy that could produce free work with bit of up scaling.

http://greensteamengine.com/


That's the idea. The parabolic mirror was just made up to test the system really and to demonstrate how quickly and exactly it would align. Instead of a mirror you could easily mount a standard solar panel, photovoltaic or water heater on the tracker. Having the panel track the sun, even a simple single axis tracker will increase the efficiency of the panel by 36%.

With a parabolic mirror you can create flash steam in seconds or drive a sterling engine directly to generate electricity.

Another idea I have been thinking about is using it to purify water - ditch water in/drinking water out. I have a continuous flow system sorted out but snowed under with other commitments so this project is on the back burner at the moment.
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Re: Experiment with solar power.

Postby flintlok » Wed May 14, 2014 8:52 pm

1066 wrote: Another idea I have been thinking about is using it to purify water - ditch water in/drinking water out. I have a continuous flow system sorted out but snowed under with other commitments so this project is on the back burner at the moment.


I'd be careful with ditch water as a source for drinking water. You would need to know some of the origins of the ditch water as certain organic compounds will easily carry over with steam from a simple distillation process.
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Re: Experiment with solar power.

Postby Triffid » Wed May 28, 2014 11:40 am

1066 wrote:That's the idea. The parabolic mirror was just made up to test the system really and to demonstrate how quickly and exactly it would align. Instead of a mirror you could easily mount a standard solar panel, photovoltaic or water heater on the tracker. Having the panel track the sun, even a simple single axis tracker will increase the efficiency of the panel by 36%.

With a parabolic mirror you can create flash steam in seconds or drive a sterling engine directly to generate electricity.

Another idea I have been thinking about is using it to purify water - ditch water in/drinking water out. I have a continuous flow system sorted out but snowed under with other commitments so this project is on the back burner at the moment.


36% is a big gain in efficiency for the solar panels. As there are plenty of mid-size soalr installations round here (SE England), particularly farm-sized or B&Q roof size, you'd think that such an alignment system would be more popular. I guess it makes the system more vulnerable to wind damage.
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Re: Experiment with solar power.

Postby 9mm » Wed May 28, 2014 3:53 pm

I like it, I would mount a web cam on a small one and have the camera look away from the sun - perfect shadowless image and an ever changing view :)

Years ago I made a twin-pir rig that was designed to track a person round a room. Similar idea, but I suspect this design is more elegant.
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