Solar One; of Engineering.com, Maiden Voyage
By Richard Williams, 5/27/09
Today I got to play with Solar One; of Engineering.com and I did have some fun. Addmitedly I was so very excited to do a little testing with this array; like a kid in a toy store. I did not even bother to keep to the scientific engineering parameters that all of you must follow in your work. I was just too darn excited to get going with something and I could not wait. But I also learned a few things too from this test.
First of all, I decided to do this improptu test on the driveway because the side yard where I will set things up on a more semi-permanent basis must be leveled out and I also have to do some site and sun angle studies first. So I put about a half of a quart of water into an old empty can of imported olive oil (GENCO for sure) and focused the mirrors on the lower bottom area. No thermometer do I have that would tell me how hot it was getting but I will say this. The spot where the reflected mirros focused on was hot. I of course know this because I burned my finger on it. All in the name of science mind you. J
I had no idea it was going to attract a lot of attention. The backside of this was pointing to the street so it wasn’t something that would be readily recognizable. First some landscapers in the area had to take a look and they couldn’t believe this. None of them had ever seen it or heard of a heliostat. Then the mail lady who is so nice and delivers all my magazines in my mailbox wanted to see this trick being done. I guess to those that have never seen a heliostat work would be amazed. I know I was and still am.
Then I realized something so very unprofessional of me. This single 36 mirror array that has taken me so many hours to make over a period of three weeks or so has really dirty mirrors. I discovered something else. It is better I know to keep the whole array at a perpendicular angle to the sun with a small angle from that so there is no shadow from the target it is focusing on. Here in these shots the array is not at perpendicular angles to the sun. An angle of perhaps 70 degrees above it from the horizontal plane is my “guestimation” and that is a significant deviation from what would be ideal. But remember I was an excited little kid here.
Since I had to wait anyway for the Clark County Department of Development Services to come by and inspect the plumbing job that was recently done, it attracted the attention of the plumbing inspector himself. A shot down below here is of Mr. Rudy Sider. Yes, a very thorough inspection was completed and it passed.
So this very first test taught me a lot of things and it was being viewed by lots of people too. I observed no steam coming out of the can top and I know that is very unscientific of me but it is the best I could do. Without clean mirrors and a proper alignment to the optimal perpendicular angle to the sun (slightly off so no shadows would occur on any mirrors) I might have been able to produce some steam. I’m also at an elevation of 2150 feet above sea level according to Google Earth, in case anyone is thinking about that. These next four pictures I took show the hard to see parabolic shape that the mirrors are taking upon themselves with my adjustments of them to focus on the target which is the GENCO can.
Up until now I wasn’t very happy. Things just weren’t working like I wanted them to. The mirrors were hard to keep focused on the bottom potion of the can. Then another light went off inside my head. Good thing no one was around then, I might have blinded someone when that light came on. I proppped up the target to get it a little closer to the center of the array.
Now I got a much better focal point onto the target. Almost one reflection superimposed upon the other. Why didn’t I think of it before this two hour test was almost over? There is a much better focus but it still is not ideally optimized. It is my thought that once this project is completely done the focal point and focus on the target will be solidified with each individual mirror cemented in place by epoxying it. Then the whole array can follow the sun and will remain in focus. If I am wrong about that please someone tell me before I have to sell my car to keep going. J Only kidding. Every few minutes a slight adjustment must be made to keep the target immersed in the reflections. I had an idea about this. I want to keep things as simple as possible so everyone can benefit from the free heat generated by something like this. Yes there are electronic tracking systems using phneumatic cylinders or electric actuator motors. But in keeping with my parameters of being simple, I decided to seek the advice of a great friend of mine and one terrific craftsman of very fine woodend pendulum clocks. Retired Navy Commander, Mr. Charles Maxwell, was contacted and asked for his advice and help in making this project tract the sun with a once a day wind up pendulum clock mechanism. Yes, I know it sounds impossible but we are working on that part of the project together. To lessen the doubts that many engineers might have about this I would like to direct you to his web site to see some absolutely astonishing mechanical engineering and artistry. Goto: http://www.hardwoodclocks.com/ (copy and paste) and check out the gallery section. If there is any possible way to do this then Mr. Maxwell will accomplish it. Heavy weights will be used to drive this full array around the sky. I estimate the total weight to be around 100lbs or 45.4 Kilograms.
I feel I must apologize to this membership for not doing a much better scientific job here in this first test. I just could not wait to see if it would at least get something hot. It did and my finger will testify to that if you can believe it. If the second half of the full array was added to this one with all clean mirrors and a better focus and near perpendicular orientation to the sun, I do believe I could get some steam. At the very least this one quarter scaled down version of the full sized one would produce a lot more power I suppose, but this one is hard enough and costly to make for me. Perhaps a fresnal lens placed just before the focus hits the target could be done as well. Just don’t know. This much I do know. The world is not flat and this can work even for someone that cannot see well anymore that made it. J
Sure hope this article was interesting for you. There are many things I don’t know how to do but I am moving forward with this. “Fools rush in where Angels fear to tread.” Bye for now, enjoy the week.