4 ms·
You can do a pretty nifty heliostat with passive heat collectors and a closed loop containing a fluid which vaporizes at a convenient temperature for shifting t
by jws 13y ago
You can do a pretty nifty heliostat with passive heat collectors and a closed loop containing a fluid which vaporizes at a convenient temperature for shifting the center of gravity. (And dampers so wind buffeting doesn't jiggle the panel too much.)
That said, $30 of motors and $50 of controller board is probably cheaper and more accurate. The passive system is good enough for orienting solar panels, probably not for aiming a mirror.
- jacquesm 13y agoYou can't use passive systems like that for pointing a mirror at a stationary source since they will aim the mirror straight at the sun. The whole point is that the mirrors form a parabola and that you point each mirror slightly different. Passive hookups like you describe would aim all the mirrors in the same direction. I've done some toying around with this and came up with a system that can run off a limited number of motors. http://pics.ww.com/v/jacques/renewables/concentrator/8.jpg.html http://pics.ww.com/v/jacques/renewables/concentrator/8.jpg.h...
- pjc50 13y agoHave you seen how large the heliostats are? They look over 2 meters on each side, and the surface looks like glass or stainless steel. That's several thousand dollars of light engineering right there. Plus shipping to a desert, plus installation crew. So you're looking at $100-$1000 of motor. Several hundred dollars for the controller board (how do they know where to point? Are they networked or something?), or thousands if you have to design it yourself. Then you have to cable power to it, all of which has to be up to code. The whole thing also has to be weatherproof in a desert and not blow over in the wind. (The passive one-axis heliostat does sound interesting for DIY systems, though)