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Alternative to solar cells
By Norm, Section Homebrewed Electricity Posted on Sun May 08, 2005 at 12:52:00 PM MST
Since the recent posting by iFred about solar cells...

Wouldn't it be nice for all of us to really put
our heads together and figure out ways to make
solar engines that could compete with solar cells.
I would think any solar device that would slowly lift a large weight then coupled with
something like :
http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2005/5/5/23720/74716
(#3)
of course any slow-moving hi-torque solar
device could be geared up...but with this way
all different ways could be used to hoist the
weight up wind power, solar power, hydro power,
diesel power,muscle power etc. any combination
simultaneously.
...of course you have to have a one way
clutch on the hoist rope or cable and the whole
thing isn't as convenient as solar cells....
but then neither is having someone raise the
prices on solar cells...
It sure would be nice to be able to say to
some of those greedy people....
'Oh You've raised the prices on your
solar cells....Well in that case you can keep
them .....Eat them if you want....we won't be
back! '
( :>) Norm.

Alternative to solar cells | 17 comments (17 topical)

Re: Alternative to solar cells (3.00 / 0) (#1)
by kenputer on Sun May 08, 2005 at 08:48:44 AM MST

What you really mean to tell them is to put them where the sun don't shine :-)

Re: Alternative to solar cells (3.00 / 0) (#4)
by Norm on Sun May 08, 2005 at 11:22:24 AM MST

Exactly!
( :>) Norm.
( :>) Norm
[ Parent ]

Re: Alternative to solar cells (3.00 / 0) (#2)
by nanotech on Sun May 08, 2005 at 09:02:59 AM MST

I forget what the technical name for it is, but what about using a parabolic mirror to focus the sun's energy onto one point, creating MASSIVE amounts of heat?

Then take that heat and use it in something like a Stirling steam engine.
__________________________________________
My ship finally came in, but it was the Kobayashi Maru!

Re: Alternative to solar cells (3.00 / 0) (#3)
by Norm on Sun May 08, 2005 at 11:20:51 AM MST

Yeah!...I've got something like that in mind
...got 3-6inch parobolic mirrors from D&K store
all focused on a bottle cap of water brings it
to a boil in a hurry! .....now for about 7 more
of them.
That's the neat thing about this...they are a
$1 apiece I just collect a couple everytime we
go out shopping.
I wonder what ever happened to those solar
farms they had just about like they have these
wind farms.
Here's how they worked:
A large deep hoop about 8 foot in diameter....
Mylar plastic stretched across...like a drum
a vaccum tube in the center of the solid bottom
sucks the plastic down and you have a parobolic
mirror ...about 10 acres of these can make a
lot of steam!
Even a couple mirrors like this would work
very nicely for us!
( :>) Norm!

( :>) Norm
[ Parent ]

Re: Alternative to solar cells (3.00 / 0) (#5)
by pyrocasto on Sun May 08, 2005 at 11:49:09 AM MST

I was thinking of messing with steam for water power, but I believe there are better ways now. I'm looking to buy from these guys.

http://www.varmaraf.is/engl/prod.htm
I'm emailing them now about thier prices, but they can produce a good size wattage compared to other devices.

woofferhound has a good list here:
http://www.fieldlines.com/comments/2005/4/28/212651/281/3#3

[ Parent ]

Re: Alternative to solar cells (3.00 / 0) (#6)
by nanotech on Sun May 08, 2005 at 03:39:26 PM MST

Hrm, got me thinking about Peltier devices now. Focus the sun's energy onto the hot side of a 105W Peltier, have the cool side heatsinked in the shade. New form of solar power maybe? Or do they not work this way?
__________________________________________
My ship finally came in, but it was the Kobayashi Maru!
[ Parent ]

Re: Alternative to solar cells (3.00 / 0) (#7)
by scottsAI on Sun May 08, 2005 at 05:02:40 PM MST

Peltier work in both directions. Not very efficient. Solar cells beat it out greatly.
I have not tested it, but reported to be <3%.
So, if you have a lot of mirrors, then it may not mater?
Peltier are expensive, a small 2x2” cell good only for a few watts cost 15$ or more.
Hot side limited to 150'c or so, hotter may melt it.
This I have done, wire fell off:-)
Mirrors require tracking... much more complex system.

I looked for a tracker, costly device, I heard a suggestion, your better off buying few more solar panels, about the same effect. Depends, but basically true.
It always comes down to the money.
We need even better ideas. There must be some way.
Have fun.

[ Parent ]

Re: Alternative to solar cells (3.00 / 0) (#9)
by Big All on Sun May 08, 2005 at 06:20:39 PM MST

Here's a few tracker links

http://phoenixnavigation.com/ptbc/articles/ptbc53.htm

http://www.motherearthnews.com/library/1977_November_December/Mother_s_Super_Simple_Solar_Tracker

also search this board for "Redrok"

[ Parent ]

Re: Alternative to solar cells (3.00 / 0) (#10)
by nanotech on Sun May 08, 2005 at 06:55:11 PM MST

Hrm, price must have gone up recerntly. I was looking into cooling my overclocked CPU with a Peltier. But the highest I could find was 105W, but that was still only $10 as a "Buy it Now" on e-bay.....

And then I found out that my AMD XP2500+ Barton (1.83GHz stock) put out more than 200W of heat when overclocked to 3.2 GHz. :(

So much for using a Peltier. Went water cooling. Worked quite well until it sprung a leak. Went back to air cooling and brought the speed back to XP3200 speeds (2.2GHz).
__________________________________________
My ship finally came in, but it was the Kobayashi Maru!
[ Parent ]

Re: Alternative to solar cells (3.00 / 0) (#16)
by scottsAI on Mon May 09, 2005 at 10:06:26 PM MST

I'm lookin at doing the same thing. 75$ for the 2500, vs 130$ for 3200.
I want to upgarde 4 of my computers. How fast did you have it? with H2O.
Have fun.

[ Parent ]

Re: Alternative to solar cells (3.00 / 0) (#11)
by pyrocasto on Sun May 08, 2005 at 11:24:45 PM MST

Scotts, you can check out my site below for a cheap tracker.

As for peltiers, they stink for generation, but if someone wants to experiment, you can get some on ebay for $25-30 @ 300-350 watts.

[ Parent ]

Re: Alternative to solar cells (3.00 / 0) (#15)
by elvin1949 on Mon May 09, 2005 at 08:15:36 PM MST

try looking at'
hotline solar collector
tmen
about 20 yr's ago
elvin

[ Parent ]

Re: Alternative to solar cells (3.00 / 0) (#17)
by scottsAI on Wed May 11, 2005 at 05:22:57 PM MST

What ever happened?
I did several searches... nothing outside of motherearth news #37
Have fun.

[ Parent ]

Re: Alternative to solar cells (3.00 / 0) (#8)
by wooferhound on Sun May 08, 2005 at 05:05:49 PM MST

I was more thinking about
a magnifier focusing the Sun onto a pelter device that is heatsinked to water or something simular.

W o o f -={(

[ Parent ]

Peltier devices ....wrong direction (3.00 / 0) (#12)
by Norm on Mon May 09, 2005 at 05:02:17 AM MST

No as far as I'm concerned Peltier devices are
just another kind of solar cell that will lead
you into the clutches of the greedy...besides it's
hi-tech...I'm oriented toward something that
anyone can make...home-brew stuff like this
http://www.rustyiron.com/engines/stable/ericsson.html
Do a Google search on hot air engines and you'll
see what I mean.
( :>) Norm.
( :>) Norm
[ Parent ]

Re: Alternative to solar cells (3.00 / 0) (#14)
by Kwazai on Mon May 09, 2005 at 06:02:59 AM MST

I live in city with covenants so something big enough to consider is kind of out of the question for me --but my .02$....

two ponds (high pond to act as battery) and hydro electric with the dish powered stirling (fluidyne?-like previous postings) to pump the water. as the fluidyne rocks into and out of the focal point of the dish the water pumps from low pond to high pond and then just generate what ya need as ya need it by flowing from high pond(elevated tank?) to low pond(cistern?). (something like 80,000 gal. (1 acre 8 to 10ft deep with 10-15ft drop to low pond))
L8r
Mike

[ Parent ]

Re: Alternative to solar cells (3.00 / 0) (#13)
by wpowokal on Mon May 09, 2005 at 05:54:34 AM MST

Perhaps this is the answer!
http://home.earthlink.net/~nypasta/cpthermoelectrictechnology101.htm

Personal force field is up.
"Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today." James Dean

Alternative to solar cells | 17 comments (17 topical)

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