Gravity-Powered Solar Tracker
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Gravity-Powered Solar Tracker
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Re: Gravity-Powered Solar Tracker
#2A human has to refill the bottles.
Re: Gravity-Powered Solar Tracker
#3A human has to refill the bottles.
Another mechanical approach that is relatively cheap and doesn't require refilling bottles is to use a closed system of a hydraulic cylinder and two exposed freon tanks, one facing east and one facing west: http://www.motherearthnews.com/diy/solar-tracker-zmaz77ndzgo...
These mechanical approaches are generally awesome because they hold up well in bad weather.
If you wanted to go all out I don't see why you couldn't combine the gravity system and the freon system and track on 2 axes! (Anybody got a clever idea how to make one system or the other neatly handle the axis corresponding to the height of the sun?)
Re: Gravity-Powered Solar Tracker
#4A human has to refill the bottles.
i think analogous from your observation could be: fill water bottles once in the morning or additionally use mind, motor skills, and body, lose the free use of a hand, resources to wave a fan in front of your face all day;
Re: Gravity-Powered Solar Tracker
#5A human has to refill the bottles.
"Gravity powered," not "fully automated."
I think this is pretty clever.
Re: Gravity-Powered Solar Tracker
#6This is called a clepsydra (water clock) tracker.
A group at New Mexico Tech added water pumps to the technology to take out the need for manual refilling.
What people tend to forget about trackers are they cost money and have to be massive to hold their angles in the wind.
They are also less space-efficient users of land than fixed mounts, which is why standard PV's never tend to use them. It also costs less per watt to buy a second panel and fixed mount than spend the extra on any kind of tracking mount.
Re: Gravity-Powered Solar Tracker
#7This is called a clepsydra (water clock) tracker. A group at New Mexico Tech added water pumps to the technology to take out the need for manual refilling. What people tend to forget about trackers are they cost money and have to be massive to hold their angles in the wind. They are also less space-efficient users of land than fixed mounts, which is why standard PV's never tend to use them. It also costs less per wat…
Another issue with trackers in the wind is the failure condition can be catastrophic; an actuating arm smashed through the middle of its little array is not a pretty sight after a wind storm. Presumably this can be engineered around, though. I think the absence of this category of flaw is a distinct advantage to the gravity-powered design of the OP.
Re: Gravity-Powered Solar Tracker
#8Anything that moves will one day break. I hesitate to move away from the reliability of a static panel. Adjusting the drip rate in this scheme would also be constant battle of weather, temperature and season. You'd never get it perfect.
Compared to a simple solar setup it may be more efficient, but compared to more complex, yet still static, combinations of a panels and a reflectors I don't think the improvements are worth the extra complexity of moving parts. I'm thinking of rigs like this: http://www.builditsolar.com/Experimental/Reflectors/Reflecto...
Re: Gravity-Powered Solar Tracker
#9Anything that moves will one day break. I hesitate to move away from the reliability of a static panel. Adjusting the drip rate in this scheme would also be constant battle of weather, temperature and season. You'd never get it perfect. Compared to a simple solar setup it may be more efficient, but compared to more complex, yet still static, combinations of a panels and a reflectors I don't think the improvements are…
Cool link! But would you add a motor and microprocessor to assist with the monthly angle adjustment, please? :p
Seriously, this is a new idea to me. It looks like the chief weakness is it doesn't really help in the winter, which is exactly when you need the most efficiency.
Re: Gravity-Powered Solar Tracker
#10Anything that moves will one day break. I hesitate to move away from the reliability of a static panel. Adjusting the drip rate in this scheme would also be constant battle of weather, temperature and season. You'd never get it perfect. Compared to a simple solar setup it may be more efficient, but compared to more complex, yet still static, combinations of a panels and a reflectors I don't think the improvements are…
I've had a rooftop solar system on my home for about ten years ago. I would have never considered an active tracking system, as the wind would have wrecked it long ago. The only maintenance I have to do is, at most, to hose the panels off about once a year.
If you're trying to build out solar in a location where space is at a premium, you're doing it wrong.