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Solar Power From Home Curtains
kaliann writes "With the push for more sustainable energy, easy DIY kits for alternative energy sources are likely to become quite popular in the coming years. We may see some big improvements in our ability to 'green up' if these photovoltaic curtains become widely available."
The killer app for renewable energy will be to get the cost down.
Once it makes economic sense for me to go green, I will, but in the mean time much as I want to save the planet and everything I have bills to pay :-(
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SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
I have to admit, solar shutters make more sense.
This wouldn't be bad as a DIY project for a sun-facing wall that gets too much light, though. Or a porch, to power the porch lights (like a solar lantern, but bigger).
Obviously not the solution for everyone. I, for one, have a tree to the south, which would likely displease the new solar curtain overlords.
What would be a cool application for solar fabric is a canopy (say, for an outdoor market). That could provide shade while powering lights or electronics (like cash machines) in the stalls. Or self-lighting party tents.
One other thing -- how come I've never seen, anywhere, the idea of putting a hydroelectric turbine in a sewer line?
I once worked in a office full of civil engineers so perhaps I can answer that question, here goes...
There is one point that should be understand right off the bat and that is that any time a generator is introduced into a system where current, water, sewage, or energy flows freely a load is induced upon the system and the total energy outflow is reduced (i.e. the velocity of the outflow is slowed by the generator as the generator converts that energy into electricity or perhaps a water wheel is turned in which case some of the energy of the outflow is being converted directly into mechanical work). I realize that this is a very rough description of the physics, but would the thermodynamics geeks please cut me some slack? Thanks.
Now, the typical sewer lateral (the pipe from your home or building to the main in the street) has an average fall of 1/2 percent over the distance that it travels to the main or just enough to ensure that the raw sewage makes it all the way to the main without backing up in your lateral. It might be possible to introduce some sort of turbine in there but there several problems:
1) Raw sewage tends to be sludgy with lots of trash, hair, and other assorted junk that is just perfect for chocking or clogging your turbine (this might be less of a problem if you are only talking about the outflow from your home, but it is still an issue).
2) As previously mentioned there is barely enough fall to ensure that the sewage makes it all the way to the main without obstructions (and the turbine is an obstruction) so any back pressure will back up your sewage.
3) Digging a ditch for your lateral with greater average fall is possible but the main sewer line is only so much deeper than the street surface so practically speaking how much extra slope could you fit into the distance between your home and the street? Probably not enough to increase velocity substantially and thus not enough extra energy to convert to electricity with a turbine.
4) Greater slopes mean higher velocities and ultimately higher pressures and higher pressure pipes and turbines are always more expensive (just ask the guys who run oil and natural gas pipelines). In fact, they used to hydraulically mine gold in California using pressurized jets of water at lethal force from slopping troughs over long distances into ever narrower pipes fed from upstream rivers and streams.
To sum up: There is not enough useful energy to extract from your out flowing sewage over the distance from your home or building to the sewer line in the street to make the generator worth a crap (pun intended), it would probably just back up your sewage lateral and even if you had a very large property there probably isn't enough difference in slope between your toilet and the street to build up enough energy to make it worthwhile unless you have a very large property and your house is built on top of a hill our mountain. There is also the problem that toilet flushes are very sporadic in most residential situations so even more energy will be lost to spinning up the turbine on each flush as opposed to keeping a spinning turbine going. Basically, in most cases it just wouldn't be worth it.
As with seemingly everything, it's already been done.
Unisolar has been making these shingles for years. Maybe others are too now. I don't know much about them, just read about em online.
-Matt
one air conditioner
It's summer there isn't it? A website I just found recommends nearly 3 kilowatts of power to cool my bedroom, my computer's MAXIMUM power consumption is 0.55 Kilowatts. Turn of your Aircon, it will fix your bill problems better than using a crappy laptop.
This does highlight the fact that photo voltaic gizmos tend to get quite hot so using photo voltaic curtains seems to me to be a bad idea since air conditioners burn way more electricity than these curtains can feasibly provide any time soon. Actually, I just thought of an interesting use: wallpaper rather than curtains.
Does anyone else think it strange that we use power-consuming devices to illuminate the interior of our houses and other buildings when we built them with a large covering over the top that blocks out the daylight by design? Seems it might, just possibly, be a bit more practical to design them so we don't block out the light in the first place. We westerners consider ourselves "high tech". Ha! An advanced technology would use daylight directly during the day and store the excess for use at night.
Ouch! The truth hurts!
2) I've replaced all the bulbs at both my parents' houses with compact florescents.
3) I've put smart strip outlets on my entertainment center in the living room, and the tv/dvd/roku box in the bedroom so everything is only on when the TV is on.
4) I've replaced desktops in the house with laptops (big energy saver there)
5) My favorite: I converted an old diesel generator to run on biodiesel/waste vegetable oil/etc. It's set to run in the morning about 30 minutes before I get up. It's coolant runs through a heat exchanger to preheat my water to about 100-120 degrees for the shower (in the event it's not running, a tankless hot water heater does the work). The power is fed back into my utility.
Some of us are trying the best we can =)
This assumes that your house is oriented properly and that your windows are large.
In northern climes, windows exposed to the north and to the prevailing winds tend to be small. Windows to the south tend to be big. You want that southern light and heat in winter. Home Design Basics
Curtains are an element in interior design. They have colors, they have folds, they have textures. That does not make for an efficient collector. Your wife may have other plans for that window.
There'd be something ironic about plugging an EV into the road for power... -Randy
how many people do you know upgrade RAM?
everybody in my family is capable of it, and will do it if there's a need
Out of that many how many do them themselves?
all of them
How many people upgrade a CPU?
It's rarely necessary, there's always a perfectly good mobo or two in the recycling bin, but my ten-year-old put a CPU in when he built his desktop. He needed a PCI mobo for his fancy video card and got a faster CPU from an all-in-one mobo with crappy built-in vid
How many people salvage CD-ROM drives from old computers?
I used to, but now I salvage DVD/CD combo drives instead. I gave all the CDs away.
How many save old cases and build computers in them?
I still have a computer in my very first PC case, which is from an IBM model B (that's the last PC before the XT). The server's in an old DPS6 chassis the NSA threw out.
Very few I would think. Same thing with these, they are a way to save money, but for most people they will just complain about high oil prices, try to get a raise, petition for an increase in minimum wage, repeat. These will be about as popular as running BSD on your toaster. You can do it, it might be cool, but most people don't see the need.
Most people are eloi. My children and I will eat them when there's no other food left.
Join us! You clearly have enough contempt for the eloi to make a good morlock. We are legion; we make our own electricity and we will continue to live in comfort even after the eloi burn down all the cities...
There's also the problem of the fact if you have modern, quality windows (think Schuco triple paned / krypton filled type), the solar radiation getting through the window is so dramatically reduced as to make the solar panels useless. I know this because I use to charge some small electronics via a solar panel in the window. After installing new windows, the panel no longer gets enough solar energy to drive a current and thus no charging. I have to open the window or put the panel outside.
Another clue was the fact that some of my plants died for lack of sun, even though they got what appeared to be the same amount of light as they did previously.
Well, actually, downspouts are what the folks I know are looking at first. In fact, just last night I shared a few drinks with one of the folks in the local downspout disconnection program and we talked about this a bit. Keep in mind, though, that I live in one of the rainiest places in North America and even here, even focusing on industrial buildings with flat roofs, everybody I know who is working on it is having trouble making it pay.
It's all about the information. And what we do with it.
The more I think about the current situation we are in with power, I am coming to realize that we are here because the power companies/governments want us to be dependent. If we all had solar/wind power our house and fueling the electrolysis fuel cell to create hydrogen for our car, we wouldn't need them. We wouldn't be "contributing to the economy." So rather let's destroy the economy to maintain the status quo. /soapbox
If the material is strong enough, it could be used in a Yurt, where the fabric is the wall.
That could be fantastic if you think about an easy to build shelter that powers its own electronics inside.