Cleaning
Raffa
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Insulation (Roman Shade) Carla Mason USA
Hot water (Winter and Summer) from compost
Jean Pain
Vertical growing vegetable
Willem Van Cotthem
Others Super Solar Concentrators! Alexandr Sogokon - Russia -
Ebrahim Hashemi - Iran
Français - last updated October 26Th 2018
Parabolic trough system to preheat tap water with a salt battery (be careful wear sunglasses)
Video (1 minute): Solar Resistance - Very good way to collect and store solar energy
1 - This system is based on a central ball bearing disk
which can support heavy load.
2 - The bill of materials is: 3/8'' diameter copper pipes (welded), 160' long (3 rolls) and a bending machine to roll them like coils - hollow aluminium bars, central beam, aluminium plates, glass cylinder , barbecue black paint (650 C resistant), nuts and bolts.
3 - The 2 axis solar tracker is from Heliotrack and control the 4 horizontal motors (12 volts) and 2 vertical motors (12 volts). At the end of the day automatically the solar concentrator comes back to the east. The 2 axis tracker has 16 parameters and one of them is 'dark return'.
4 - The parabolic trough turns around the collector. The collector does not move (fixed focus), this is why the system runs on 12 volts motors.
The Quartz (UV grade fused silica glass) lets transfer white light energy Through the glass !
Solar energy storage in cooking salt using a 12 volts kit Resol to circulate cold oil
Vidéos: Vertical heat exchanger
- Solar energy storage in salt
1- The purpose of a solar concentrator is to achieve high temperatures like a stove. Steam induces high pressure and explosion,
so a solar concentrator should be used
to heat corn oil (smoke point 232C and freezing point around -20C).
2- Make a vertical heat exchanger with aluminium cooking baskets. In my test, in a polystyren container surrounded with salt, canola oil temperature drops from 220 C to 40 C in 5 minutes!. So 180 C of heat is transferred to the salt.
3- Get a 12 volts kit Resol to circulate cold oil from the bottom of the storage unit to the heat exchanger located at the back of the focal point (see picture 5 above).
It is working with delta temperature: at the bottom of the polystyren container oil is at 40 degrees C, at the back of the focal point of the solar concentrator 42 C. The 12 volts pump starts automatically via the Resol Kit when for example the delta is set to 2 C.
4- In the pictures above, the storage system is made of an insulated container filled up with regular kitchen salt. Heat from the corn or canola oil is transferred through a vertical heat exchanger made of cooking kitchen aluminium baskets to the salt around. If we repeat this operation we store heat into the salt. A black tube preheats the tap water for direct domestic use. It is a cooking salt rechargeable battery!.
5- Around the storage container a vaccuum should be done (best insulation), for example a water jet vaccuum pump could be used. In my test, I used a polystyren container. A freezer or cooler can also be used.
Rough Logs experimentations
- November 18Th 2018 - sunny
temp inside tube 9:0 AM: -6,0C / outside temp: -12,0C - 3 cm of snow cover to nothing
Conclusion: delta +6C - horizontal + vertical rotation OK! - add more snow
- November 17Th 2018 - cloudy average 0C
temp inside tube 8:0 AM: +3,3C / outside temp: -1,1C - 5 cm of snow cover
Conclusion: delta +4C - the horizontal rotation system should be burried under ground (50cm) and air injected in glass collector from this cavity - also may be add a little electrical heating system controlled by thermostat.
- November 15Th 2018 - cloudy average -8C
Test heating system in the tube to prevent water inside collector form freezing (air is injected with a computer fan) - temp inside tube 8:0 AM: -8C / outside temp: -15C
Conclusion: delta +7-8C from a compost pile of leaves - wait for the snow cover for better insulation
- October 26Th 2018 - addition of a basic heating system (air injected at 5C from the ground) to prevent water from freezing.
Measure 7:30 morning - outside -5C - wind:0 km/h sunny - air inside tube +2,5C - no measure of water temp.
Conclusion: +2,5C in the tube => good results with +5C heated air injected - may be no glycol needed because vaccuum should improve those results.
- October 19Th 2018 - no utilisation of water for all day -
Measure 5:30 afternoon - outside 16C - wind:30km/h sunny - air inside tube 25C - no measure of water temp inside the coil - tap water temp 14C.
- October 18Th 2018 - automatic tracking OK! - no utilisation of water for all day.
measurement taken at 5:30 o'clock - outside temp 2C wind: 30km/h sunny. Air inside tube 8,8C - no measure of water temp.
Conclusion: build a longer coil + vaccuum to store more energy outside for use when needed. 2 axis tracking is done deal!.
- October 17Th 2018 - automatic tracking rotation vertical + horizontal OK! - no use of water for all day.
measurement taken at 5:30 o'clock - outside temp 6C wind: 30km/h sunny + very litte cloud afternoon - cloudy morning
air inside tube 14C - no measure of temp water freeze warning.
Conclusion: Energy is well stored in the coil (+8C compared to outside temp), need to build a longer coil + vaccuum to store more energy
outside for use when we need it.
- September 28Th 2018 - automatic rotation with tracker rotation vertical + horizontal OK! IPT: power divided by two (because half of inox plate in the shade)- no utilisation of water for all day - measures taken at 5 o'clock
4l at 43C - 4l at 38C - 4l at 31C - 4l at 28C - 4l at 28C - 4l at 26C / increase 19C to 24C permanently sunny with some litte clouds all day outside temp 17-21C wind-gust: 10km/h / test recharge 15 minutes recharge at 28C - flow is 1 liter per minute
Conclusion: we have got more hot water for longer if water stays roughly 30 minutes in the coil to heat up when it is sunny beacause heat is probably stored in the copper.
- September 27Th 2018 - automatic rotation with tracker rotation vertical + horizontal OK! IPT: power divided by two (because half of inox plate in the shade)- no utilisation of water for all day - 5 o'clock
5 liters from 19C to 25C - flow is 1 liter per minute - sunny with some clouds all day outside temp 17C wind: 0km/h
Conclusion: water in coils needs to be used or else it looses quickly heat - Solution: vaccuum in the tube or storage when not used.
- September 26Th 2018 - automatic rotation vertical + horizontal OK! with new aluminium plate 1,4m + new lazy suzan IPT: power divided by two (because half of inox plate in the shade)
10C increase every 10 minutes ex: 20C 4 liters after 10minutes 30C 4 liters. Temperature 15C - 4'oclock in the afternoon - partially cloudy
outside temp 13C wind: 0km/h. Conclusion: coils can recharge quickly.
- March 2017 - Storm - wind up to 90km/h - inclination +15 Degrees from horizontal -
Conclusion: It was very impressive - It resisted because the mass of the cylinder (copper collector) is shifted from the center of gravity a bit.
So like a windsurfer it counterbalances the wind gusts with the weight!
and comes back quickly to equilibrium position, therefore the kinetic energy from the wind is blocked and
it is transferred in torsion into the 2 columns!! It is amazing!!
