There are numerous examples of water storage tanks being built into home interiors to form a solar thermal energy storage unit. Primary role of such unit is to act a as a buffer to the daily-nightly swings in temperature.
By storing excess solar energy using water filled tanks, it is possible to control indoor air temperature and minimize huge temperature swings in hallways, living rooms or even greenhouses.
Solar water storage tanks placed near the south side window can provide not only a cool, sculptural centerpiece for your home but can also drastically cut down on your heating bills and save both electrical energy and money. Beside their main role, solar tubes often serve as attractive accents or room space dividers. As you can see in the picture, dyes can be used to additionally increase solar gain (efficiency) and to provide a desired color effect.
The most interesting thing about this innovative tube is that passive solar heating & cooling can be implemented without any solar charge controllers, wires or solar panels. Instead, you simply need to take several transparent fiberglass tubes, fill them with water and place them next to the south window or wherever they will get a maximum exposure to sun light so that they can absorb and store energy from the sun to fill your room with heat . And that`s it, once established - the system will work on its own from there.
PASSIVE THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE - HOW DOES IT WORK?
Well, it`s very similar to Trombe walls. Water tubes form a thermal mass machine with no moving parts and a completely maintenance-free solar thermal energy storage system. Basically, the system stores heat during the day and keep warm at night. The sun is a very powerful energy source, yet mankind allows this heat to be wasted or dissipated. Thermal mass provides us with an inexpensive, non-mechanical way of storing the sun’s heat.
It is known that radiant heating and cooling is most comfortable for a man. Water storage tubes represent a low-tech form of radiant system which prevents wide temperature swings by absorbing and diffusing solar energy. The radiant energy of solar storage tanks will naturally regulate home temperature, but it can not be used as a substitute for heating/cooling needs.
When installed to face the south window, solar tubes function as a Direct Gain Water Wall. Water absorb and store solar energy, while allowing natural daylight to pass through. Solar tubes temper both the light and heat from the sun by removing wide temperature fluctuations while also helping to reduce glare from the south facing windows.
WHAT IS WATER STORAGE TANKS AND THERMAL MASS?
By definition, thermal mass is equivalent to thermal capacitance or heat capacity, in other words it is the ability of a body to store thermal energy. If you check the Specific Thermal Capacity value for various materials, you will notice that water has a remarkably high thermal mass. This means it can store more heat for a given volume. For example, water has a volumetric heat capacity more than double comparing to concrete or bricks. Also it naturally absorbs and releases its heat to the surrounding air. Another important factor is that convection currents in water allow heat to travel around more quickly than in a solid object, like concrete or brick. Thus, water is able to add or remove heat from our home without the external supply of electrical energy.
You can easily build your own DIY thermal reservoir and place it in your living room. Water storage tanks (or so called "heat storage tubes") can range from 4 to 10 feet (1-3 m) in height with 12 to 18 inches (30-45 cm) diameter. That kind of tube holds a lot of water inside, which equals to a lot of free heat. If you plan to construct the tubes yourself, also have in mind that the structure needs to hold and sustain huge amount of water with all the weight and pressure that comes along with such volumes.
It is also possible to install such thermal energy accumulation tubes into a greenhouse. Imagine how much energy and money you could save by utilizing this simple solution.
It all comes down to what you use in the water for, sikorski's already stated that this can be used in a greenhouse or a custom-built house which has these tanks inside the walls itself. But there are other uses besides using the water for drinking or using the water for your garden look at this example
And here is a few more ideas of course we've only shown these clear tubes which could be made of glass or plastic. Of course would you have to keep in mind they are very expensive, so is there a way for you to do this cheaper, the answer is yes anything that holds water can become in a container it's how you learn to weld plastic together and its strength is the key to this DIY project. Example
Now keep in mind that not only plastic containers can be used but metal containers also, remember I said the key was how you weld them together. Going through my blogs you never have to keep a streak thought about the things we create, we want you to expand your imagination because we believe that people in the US are suffering from Death of imagination. So these blogs are to give you ideas sometimes the spelling is not so good but that's not what it's for, it's strictly for building your imaginary thought process like we have here at media library which is the main gold. People who are too rigid will never get this and they will ignore what we have put in front of them. I'm okay with that because we know we have the better project, and our secret is kept.
For centuries, inventors and entrepreneurs marveled at the idea of harnessing sunlight for the betterment of humanity. “So long as the sun shines, man will be able to develop power in abundance,” Thomas Edison.The main reason for the solar boom is the rapidly falling cost of photovoltaic cells – the industry saw a price drop of nearly 80 percent in just four years from 2008 to 2012. In the mid-1970s, it took $96 to install one watt of solar energy. Nowadays that cost is just 68 cents, according to data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Dubai set a new world record for solar power costs with the unveiling of bids as low as 3 cents per kilowatt hour for its new 800-megawatt Sheikh Maktoum Solar Park Phase III. China is currently the big leader in solar energy – in 2013 the country became the largest global installer, and it is now also the largest producer of solar power, with 43 gigawatts of installed capacity. Here are 9 clever ways to harness the power of the sun.
#1. Solar water heater
#2. Glowing algae
Growing algae is not only good for the environment for eating carbon emissions but also can be made into oil for all types of projects including creating gasoline, you can also check out our blogs on that issue; http://showmeyourproof.blogspot.com/2018/07/how-to-make-your-own-algae-biofuel.html
#3. Tubular skylights
These gems are perfect for lighting up small spaces. Cutting into your roof could possibly be the hardest part of installing skylights so best to leave this up to the professionals. The installation process requires that a light collector be attached onto the roof, which allows sunlight to pass through a reflective tube to a diffuser where light is distributed.
Thank you very much for this useful article. I like it.
ReplyDeleteZonnepanelen