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17 votes
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Why isn't heatpump technology used for solar collector panels and boiler tanks?

Heat pumps work well to extract heat from one zone and discharge it into a zone at a higher temperature. The output of solar water-heating panels is generally much higher than the boiler tank ...
Transistor's user avatar
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5 votes

Why isn't heatpump technology used for solar collector panels and boiler tanks?

The transmission of heat by phase change (liquid to gas and gas to liquid) IS used in some solar collectors. These are the evacuated tube type and are the "Rolls Royce" equivalent when ...
Solar Mike's user avatar
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4 votes

Why isn't heatpump technology used for solar collector panels and boiler tanks?

You can't tie these two systems together because the demands on them are pretty much independent of one another. They each need to operate according to their own run schedule. The HVAC system runs ...
Phil Sweet's user avatar
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4 votes

How large would a solar panel array need to be in order to supply all the world's energy?

The U.S. National Renewable Energy Lab did a study of solar installations in the U.S. in 2013 and determined that for large-scale solar PV systems, 7.9 acres (31,970 $m^2$) of land are required on ...
LShaver's user avatar
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4 votes
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What does TIR stand for in Window Pane Fenestration?

TIR: Thermal infrared (longwave) transmittance of the glazing layer. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has a windows program called THERM 6.3 / WINDOW 6.3 NFRC Simulation. In pp 55 of this manual, ...
kamran's user avatar
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4 votes
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Motor to rotate gear and hold place when powered down

Worm gears. The worm (screw) would lay horizontally and drive the spur gears in your photo. Worm gears inherently cannot be back driven so consume no power while holding position. However, they are ...
DKNguyen's user avatar
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3 votes

Motor to rotate gear and hold place when powered down

Although the size of panel is relatively small, before deciding on the motor (or on the dimensioning of the gears) my advice is to perform a wind load analysis. Those loads tend to become quite high ...
NMech's user avatar
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3 votes

Combining solar water heating with pellet stove water heater

So you need a tank with a solar coil at the bottom and a mid coil for the pellet stove to add heat. Decent tank manufacturers can do this, but you have to tell the tank manufacturer about the recovery ...
Solar Mike's user avatar
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2 votes
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Best metal for solar energy collection in an evacuated tube solar water heater

Copper sheet with an absorbing and poor emitting coating is available which is easy to solder copper pipe to the untreated reverse side. Guess why many flat plate collectors are made like this… As for ...
Solar Mike's user avatar
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2 votes

What happens if you wire two solar panels in series and parallel at the same time?

It is physically impossible to wire anything in series and parallel at the same time. It is possible to arrange a set of connectors which will allow one to choose whether the components are in series ...
niels nielsen's user avatar
2 votes
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Can we create electricity through an hourglass?

The initial potential energy is given by $$E = mgh$$ where $m$ = mass of the sand, $g$ is the acceleration due to gravity and $h$ is the height above the turbine. All the potential energy between the ...
Transistor's user avatar
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1 vote
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Pump capacity calculation

To determine if the provided solar pump system is capable of meeting your requirements, we need to consider a few factors, including the total dynamic head (TDH) and the pump's performance curve. The ...
Aaron Holwick's user avatar
1 vote

Pump capacity calculation

Having done a google search for a product with a similar spec as what you have stated here, You can see underneath head size it says 113m. From what you described you need a total head size of 290ft ...
Sami Safarini's user avatar
1 vote
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What is the efficiency of Solar energy run turbines? Are they better or worse than Solar PV cells?

Less than 31.25% when going to electricity per wikipedia. (If you just needed heat for heating a room, it's a different story- 80% is not unheard of, but you'd be doing well to get half that into ...
Abel's user avatar
  • 1,342
1 vote

Can I be mostly dependent on solar and batteries?

My son has a tiny house, no grid connection. 2 panels, 2 gel batteries, 24V system, 500W inverter to run solar water heating, 2kW inverter for occasional use. Care required in winter as sun is lower ...
Solar Mike's user avatar
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1 vote

Can I be mostly dependent on solar and batteries?

Neither plan is necessary. In my locale many people are full solar as they have no access to mains lines. It's more about the size of your battery bank than the number of panels. One chap has just two ...
Kilisi's user avatar
  • 121
1 vote

Can we create electricity through an hourglass?

Of course this will work, you are putting energy into the hourglass to move the sand up. This is essentially how hydropower works, we let the sun do the work of evaporating water and raining it ...
Tiger Guy's user avatar
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1 vote

Would this large scale "bubble pump" actually work?

Your pump idea needs to have a pulsing action. Heat the water up, generate a steam bubble, push water through the outlet valve. Then turn the heater off, allow the steam to cool and condense, suck ...
PatMc's user avatar
  • 109
1 vote

Why isn't heatpump technology used for solar collector panels and boiler tanks?

Heat pumps don't magically generate extra heat from a source, they just move it around, specifically we use them to move heat energy in the direction opposite to where it would normally move (from ...
Robin Bennett's user avatar
1 vote

Why isn't heatpump technology used for solar collector panels and boiler tanks?

I was looking for an air conditioning system that would not waste excessive heat during the summer, or at least use it for preheating tap water. A "[Heat Pump Water Heater][1]" works ...
user13097's user avatar
  • 111
1 vote

Why isn't heatpump technology used for solar collector panels and boiler tanks?

I'm not quite sure what you meant by your question - about boilers using gas vs water. Are we talking about refrigerants being liquid or gas at a particular point in the cycle? circulating hot water ...
M Szil's user avatar
  • 21
1 vote

36V solar panel with a 12V battery, results in 12 watts a day?

It will charge at 5 amps until the battery reaches float voltage, then the charge controller will turn off. After it turns off, it won't charge any more. If it stays on all day, charging at 5A for 10 ...
david's user avatar
  • 814
1 vote

36V solar panel with a 12V battery, results in 12 watts a day?

I may be wrong but from memory back in the day solar controllers had quite tight max panel voltage limitations, these days now that MPPT for 12/24v are ubiquitous not so much. For instance this is ...
Greg Locock's user avatar
1 vote

36V solar panel with a 12V battery, results in 12 watts a day?

A proper Solar controller will keep the PV voltage high where Maximum Power can be delivered with a matched impedance, while the DCDC converter reduces the voltage to manage the charge voltage with ...
Tony Stewart EE75's user avatar
1 vote

36V solar panel with a 12V battery, results in 12 watts a day?

5A rated means someone did some rating math at 5A. Check the charge controller specs. It may shut off if the panel voltage is too high ie would result in too much current to battery. Check panel Open ...
Abel's user avatar
  • 1,342
1 vote

A shape that focuses light from the widest range of incidence angles into a smaller area

The general term for these are Compound Parabolic Concentrators. These were invented by Roland Winston, the person who literally wrote the book on non-imaging optics. I once attended a lecture by him ...
Eric S's user avatar
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1 vote
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Combining solar water heating with pellet stove water heater

There are a lot of things that can go wrong here, and for a small system, the expense is probably not worth the risk. The primary coolant loops for the hydronic pellet stove and the solar collector ...
Phil Sweet's user avatar
  • 4,900
1 vote

Combining solar water heating with pellet stove water heater

I suggest this setup: Pellet stove directly heats buffer tank, radiators are directly supplied from buffer tank solar panel indirectly heats buffer tank (heating coils low in the tank) - you'll ...
mart's user avatar
  • 4,781
1 vote

Joining the negative PV wires of 3 solar arrays for 3 MPPT controllers in an inverter?

Without seeing the inverter, if the maker provides 3 separate pv- then I would keep them separate. If they could be joined together, then the maker would have done so.
Solar Mike's user avatar
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