Solar Power Energy

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To Begin With, Consider Shipping Costs

While you are comparing solar collectors or other gadgets, know that some of the components can be heavy. Heavy means expensive to be shipped.

If you are not planning to do the labor yourself, you may do well to have a local builder put a collector together for you, made from as many local materials as can be well gotten. Then your shipping will be lowered.

 

WATCH THIS VIDEO ABOUT EARTHSHIP TOTAL-CONCEPT

 

Trickle-Down, Versus Pipe-And-Plate Solar Efficiency

Trickle-down is simpler. No pipes. The price, installed is half to a third of pipe-and-plate collectors.

Here are some ideas from William H. Shurcliff, 1979. First I'll tell about the pipe-and-plate collectors, next about the trickle-down solar collectors.

In some cases the pipe version might be more suitable. One example would be in a spot where the air is truly cold, yet the temerature, of the water in the tank, must be kept high.

Some designers have found ways to avoid the following hardships or risks. Therefore, individual products must be compared, and the cost of shipping, assembling, and installation, versus the efficiency measured in terms of money saved, or other gains, such as clean environment.

Nevertheless, the more complex system, using pipes, means more risk of problems.

Pipes must be of copper, if they are not to corrode in 10-15 years. Copper can be expensive, the cost has been rising.

To avoid stress from possible overpressure, the copper must be thick, hence more expensive. Gizmos may be needed to keep the pressure down. Gizmos cost.

Wherever pipes are joined, there is a place where pressure could cause scathe. Many such joints are needed in the piped version. If a leak would come, the pipes are truly hard to be reached, by the man who would fix the leaks.

If fins, called "absorbers", would be added for more efficiency, then the joints and metals of the fin might expand at a different rate from the pipe itself, which would jeopard the integrity of the works.

Dirt might clog a pipe. The clogging might be unnoticed for a long time. Less heat would be then gotten. It would be hard to unclog the pipe.

Pipes could freeze and become split. Drain-down would forestall it. Air or nitrogen must be put into the pipe, and the drain-down could be foiled by airlock in the pipe, or if any dirt is in the pipe. Air might hasten any rusting in the pipe.

If anything stopped the drain-down, then the liquid might freeze, and cause damage to the pipes. Anti-freeze could prevent this, but, of course it is poisonous, and must be dealt with carefully. It must be kept out of the main water system.

Anti-freeze leaks easily. If the temperature gets too high in the pipes, it becomes denatured. Therefore it must be checked from time to time. Also it is costly. Any leak, and it would have to be replaced. If, somehow, it ever got diluted, then the pipes might freeze and burst.

I am going to skip over a few of the points. Next Mr. Shurcliff states that the panels are heavier than are the trickle-down panels. Hoists might be needed in lieu of hand-carrying.

Silicone oil could be used instead of anti-freeze, but there are specific problems in using it. It is expensive.

Without anti-freeze, or silicone oil, the pipes could get too hot, and burst.

Installation of the pipe-version requires careful pipefitting. That increases the cost of installation.

Now I'll tell you about the trickle-down system. With only a single pane of glass, heat is lost into the air.

Folks were afraid that evaporation of the water would lower the temperature inside the collector. However, with continuous sunshine, the air in the collector stays saturated with vapor, so there is no loss of heat in the way that they feared, after the startup of the day's operation.

When the day is a sunny one, the water is goosed into action by a pump. It trickles down a corrugated sheet of aluminum, which is painted black, to absorb the heat from the sun. The water gets warm or hot, and falls into the building, where it is managed to hold the heat for the purpose you want it for.

What is good about the system, it has not so many pipes, only one at the top. Almost no expensive copper is used.

There is no danger from seals, overpressure, airlock, chemicals such as anti-freeze, or from blockage.

It needn't be drained down. Just shut off the pump.

It is truly much easier to inspect for dirt, or to fix anything inside the collector, than would be the case with pipes.

It is much lighter to lift up and install, without special gear.

It doesn't take a specialist to build one. Harry do-it-yourself homeowner can do it with amateur skills.

You don't need a heat-exchanger.

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Review: Apricus Solar Collector

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