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Solar panels disguised as terracotta tiles in Pompeii

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Re: Solar panels disguised as terracotta tiles in Pompeii

#121

Post by Cthulhu_ »

mattlondon wrote: post #86

This would be great if they can do more styles and not just terracotta. E.g. I own an "old" UK home that has a "normal" tiled roof, but as it is in a conservation area so any attempt at solar will be met with literal outrage. These would be great even if they are only 10% efficient - something is better than nothing and I have this big old roof sitting there and the whole thing could be one huge solar panel. Where ca…

While low efficiency will definitely be great for renewable power generation, it'll be a tradeoff - cost / benefit, mainly. How expensive is a solar roof vs regular tiles, how often does it have to be replaced / maintained, and what is the cost of production and end-of-life?

Re: Solar panels disguised as terracotta tiles in Pompeii

#122

Post by hgomersall »

pjc50 wrote: post #115
graphe wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What does energy neutral mean? What does properly designed mean? And at what cost to comfort or the property? You could turn off all your electricity and heat yourself with kerosene and have used no electricity for the year.

Usually means "passivehaus", and "energy neutral" would mean "generates an equal quantity of electricity to that consumed, when summed over the year". > heat yourself with kerosene That's not energy neutral, is it now, unless you have a kerosene well on the property.

Precisely - for a smallish 120sqm house the passivhaus heat demand is 1800kWh. 3000kWh is not unreasonable for additional electricity consumption. With a heat pump that heat demand should pessimistically translate into <1000kWh electricity, giving us a total energy usage of ~4000kWh. That's about what a medium size (~20sqm) south-facing roof-mounted PV installation would achieve in the south of the UK.

Re: Solar panels disguised as terracotta tiles in Pompeii

#123

Post by gpderetta »

midoridensha wrote: post #118
yywwbbn wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We’re still will to dedicate large amounts of resources for building museums, concert halls and other public buildings that fundamentally don’t really have a more practical purpose than medieval churches.

What? This is really dumb. Museums are extremely practical, just like schools: they educate people. Concert halls are for entertainment; they're just as useful as restaurants (after all, you could just eat microwave meals at home). Most public buildings have some kind of valid use that doesn't involve superstitious beliefs. Even medieval churches probably had some non-supernatural uses, I'm guessing, like being used…

Pyramids were likely symbols of power and unity[1], for the pharaoh of course, but also for the whole Egyptian civilization. This is a very practical purpose.

[1] In fact the burial aspect might even have been a secondary one.

Re: Solar panels disguised as terracotta tiles in Pompeii

#124

Post by gpderetta »

mattlondon wrote: post #86

This would be great if they can do more styles and not just terracotta. E.g. I own an "old" UK home that has a "normal" tiled roof, but as it is in a conservation area so any attempt at solar will be met with literal outrage. These would be great even if they are only 10% efficient - something is better than nothing and I have this big old roof sitting there and the whole thing could be one huge solar panel. Where ca…

I was thinking the same thing! I've also an old UK home were putting panels would be awkward if not impossible.

edit: it is not surprising that they focus on terracotta tiles as those are really common in Italian homes.

Re: Solar panels disguised as terracotta tiles in Pompeii

#125

Post by gpderetta »

jaclaz wrote: post #114
drusenko wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you ever end up finding any other company making any tiles that resembled slate, out of curiosity?

There is a reference here (for UK): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34286801

Ah, so close... the roofs in my area are all reddish-brown and a different color will clash with the local conservation area constraints. But maybe by the time I have to replace my roof (which is soon) they might have the right color.

Hum, thinking of it, there are solar panel exceptions to the constraints, as long as they are flat on the roof...

Re: Solar panels disguised as terracotta tiles in Pompeii

#126

Post by emiliobumachar »

positr0n wrote: post #69
kristopolous wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's fine, they look great. Realizing we've got stuff looking like that that generates freakin' electricity is amazing.

Given the poorer efficiency, wouldn't it be better use of limited money and resources to put regular tiles on houses and normal solar panels somewhere else? (Honest question. I've always wondered why residential rooftop solar, especially since it's usually government subsidized, makes sense anywhere in the world.)

Adding to the great points already here, decentralized production makes the system more robust to accidents, terrorism, and war. Not immune by any stretch, but more robust.

Re: Solar panels disguised as terracotta tiles in Pompeii

#127

Post by stavros »

cmarschner wrote: post #82
positr0n wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given the poorer efficiency, wouldn't it be better use of limited money and resources to put regular tiles on houses and normal solar panels somewhere else? (Honest question. I've always wondered why residential rooftop solar, especially since it's usually government subsidized, makes sense anywhere in the world.)

It makes sense to put nicer looking tiles on rooftops if you value the looks of them. You would then find normal looking tiles a tax. That‘s why it could make sense to put solar panels on roofs that don‘t impose this tax on you even if their efficiency is lower.

This answer is to "given that you want solar panels, why put tiles". I think the question is "given that you want tiles, why put solar panels".

Re: Solar panels disguised as terracotta tiles in Pompeii

#128

Post by stavros »

cmarschner wrote: post #87
midoridensha wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>but maybe power plants of the future will look like the pyramids and energy receivers like obelisks. Unless people in the future become religious nuts even worse than today's, I don't see why they'd waste so much space and resources on power-generating burial mounds. The pyramids may be impressive for a primitive civilization to build, but they were functionally completely useless and just a collosal waste of manpow…

People built 1000s of churches and cathedrals which, at face value, was a collossal waste of manpower, materials, and space. And yet we admire them and keep them around for 100s or 1000s of years, because of their greatness. The same for the pyramids. Of course, the effort served a function as well: to establish and maintain a power structure, to give people whose lives hung on strings far more often than ours do a s…

> keep them around for 100s or 1000s of years

Offtopic, but I love that I read this as "we keep them around for one hundreds to one thousands of years".

Re: Solar panels disguised as terracotta tiles in Pompeii

#129

Post by implements »

mcronce wrote: post #62
galangalalgol wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does that mean that in high intensity regions you'd need active cooling or is that not a problem?

This doesn't answer your question, but I really wish someone would offer off-the-shelf panels with tubing on the back to hook up water lines. It would be dope to cool my panels and preheat my hot water at the same time.

"Rad" more than "dope" :)

I've seen a DIY system where the panels are boxed in, and the hot air created behind the panels used for blown air / heat recovery heating.

Re: Solar panels disguised as terracotta tiles in Pompeii

#130

Post by ilyt »

positr0n wrote: post #69
kristopolous wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's fine, they look great. Realizing we've got stuff looking like that that generates freakin' electricity is amazing.

Given the poorer efficiency, wouldn't it be better use of limited money and resources to put regular tiles on houses and normal solar panels somewhere else? (Honest question. I've always wondered why residential rooftop solar, especially since it's usually government subsidized, makes sense anywhere in the world.)

I mean if you own multiple properties, sure...

But if it is your house and you don't want to compromise on look, it's a way.

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