Thermal Storage Container; Solar One of Engineering.com

Thermal Storage Container; Solar One

By Corporal Willy, June 22^nd 2009

I’m moving right along now on the Thermal Storage Container part of this job. I bought the cheapest ½ inch plywood I could find and that was easy to find of course. The harder part is going to be in finding all those very tiny splinters that seem to be exponentially propagated as the price of the lumber goes down. I guess it really doesn’t have to be pretty looking. It is just going to be used for physical protection for the thermal barrier that will be going on the inside of the box. I will cut and glue 2 inch thick Styrofoam insulation and completely cover the entire inside of the box. Then I will use 5/8 inch thick water resistant sheet rock to cover the Styrofoam because I was told that it would start melting at 250 degrees Fahrenheit. I don’t want that to happen. Finally, I will use a water proof membrane or some sort of plastic to prevent the various inside layers from getting wet. Even though I am going to utilize dry ingredients to help absorb and hold the BTU’s I will be pumping into the box, I must take this added step to prevent moisture from getting into the box as well. We do get rain every once in awhile here.

Solar One can exceed that melting temperature I am happy to report.

After the copper coils are laid in, I will start filling up the box with dry materials like very small pebbles or even a course sand to absorb the thermal energy. Solar One has now proven itself to be capable of producing some very high heat reaching 350 degrees Fahrenheit as pictured in my previous article and the picture up above here. I am still amazed over what it can do just like that childhood story of the “little choo, choo that could.” It still has not been optimized for the proper orientation as it should be, at near perpendicular angles to the sun.

The box measurements on the outside are 46” X 46” X 23” high and on the inside of the thermal chamber, it will be 3.375 inches less all around due to the insulating layers so it will be 42.6250 inches square by 19.625 inches high. That will come out to be a Thermal Storage Container area of 35,656.478 square inches or 247.6144 square feet. This box when filled should be pretty heavy depending upon what I finally decide to fill it with. So I built a foundation of half or corner cement blocks to keep it off of the ground and also to aid in placing thermal sensors in different locations around the inside of the box from the outside. Pictures down below will show you what I mean.

It was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit that day I decided to embed the blocks into the gravel. This was formally a play area for kids with the previous owners of the house. It is now my play area. My plan here for much later on during the winter months, is to heat that trailer up, making believe it is a small house. Don’t forget now my Solar One Array is only 1/4^th of the full sized one I originally planned on making, so this un-insulated trailer should give a pretty good indication if Solar One can keep up with the heat loss of that structure during the winter months. That also will be monitored with thermal sensors too. The secondary coil placed a little higher in the Thermal Storage Container will have its own 120 volt pump to push hot water through a baseboard radiator inside and be thermostatically controlled. This will provide much useful data to see if a 247.6 square foot Thermal Container can provide useful heat for prolonged periods of time.

Due South is almost directly looking at that trailer.

I made this physical protection for the Thermal Storage Container using .5 inch plywood and furring strips to join the corners and bottom and top together with. It’s going to take me two additional days to find all those splinters.

Tomorrow, I will go and get some wood life to protect the bare wood with. I will slap it on generously to help protect it for as long as possible from the cruel sun and wind we have. Then I will place it on top of the blocks and any further work done on it will be done right there in place. I might even paint it. What do you think about the color of it, or what I should put inside of it to absorb Solar One’s Thermal Heat production?

Today was the first full day of summer, so triple digit temperatures will be norm rather than the exception pretty soon. On top of this box will be another box for the mechanical drive gears for tracking the sun around the sky and for two pumps plus some other things. Eventually it will start to look like the pictures down below here.

Solar one is taking shape slowly but surely. Thermal Storage Container on the bottom. Mechanical Box on top and Solar One’s Mirror Array will be on the very top of course. I disregarded the mirrors in the screen shots along with all the bolts and nuts and washers. My computer is having enough trouble keeping up with all my ideas. The silver guide rail for the Horizon Cam will be supported in a similar manner here. The wooden gears to the left hand side will crank the array around. I will have to take sextant readings on the hour every hour for about eight hours to get the right configuration and height for that rail which I will bend some electrical metallic tubing or EMT as we call it in the electrical trade to get that proper shape for the Horizon Guide Cam. I know someone out there is going to say that in the winter the sun is at a lower angle and so will my solar mirror array. I will just lower the guide arm for the slide support that is mated to the Horizon Cam. It might wind up being a telescoping pipe with one sleeved over the other and a bolt to go through the both pieces to either extend or shorten the support guide. That’s it so far. Hope you are following along with this project. Let me know what you think about any colors and or what should go inside of that Thermal Storage Container. Bye for now.