Posted by Average Shmo on February 11, 2006, 5:33 am
Thanks to everyone who replied to my post about using mirrors to concentrate
more light onto a solar panel. Although the outcome seemed to be that it
would be a waist of time, Im thinking there way be a way to get more bang
for the buck.
Ive still got a spare solar panel and i want to get more power output from
it. What about relfecting certain parts of the spectrum so that the solar
panel doesnt heat up (as much) and gives an increase in power output?
Thanks again :-)
Posted by beemerwacker on February 11, 2006, 7:02 am
Here comes the giant prism out of the mothballs! I keep it in the same
box with my 100 mpg carb.
Seriously, what kind of site do you have them at?
Do you have photos?
Maybe that would help the responses.
Posted by SJC on February 11, 2006, 1:01 pm
> Thanks to everyone who replied to my post about using mirrors to concentrate
> more light onto a solar panel. Although the outcome seemed to be that it
> would be a waist of time, Im thinking there way be a way to get more bang
> for the buck.
>
> Ive still got a spare solar panel and i want to get more power output from
> it. What about relfecting certain parts of the spectrum so that the solar
> panel doesnt heat up (as much) and gives an increase in power output?
>
> Thanks again :-)
>
You could research what are called "cold mirrors" online.
These are mirrors that reflect shorter wave lengths but not longer ones.
They are not that selective, so shorter wave lengths of light that you
can convert into electricity will pass through to some degree.
Posted by SJC on February 11, 2006, 1:15 pm
>
>> Thanks to everyone who replied to my post about using mirrors to concentrate
>> more light onto a solar panel. Although the outcome seemed to be that it
>> would be a waist of time, Im thinking there way be a way to get more bang
>> for the buck.
>>
>> Ive still got a spare solar panel and i want to get more power output from
>> it. What about relfecting certain parts of the spectrum so that the solar
>> panel doesnt heat up (as much) and gives an increase in power output?
>>
>> Thanks again :-)
>>
>>
> You could research what are called "cold mirrors" online.
> These are mirrors that reflect shorter wave lengths but not longer ones.
> They are not that selective, so shorter wave lengths of light that you
> can convert into electricity will pass through to some degree.
OTOH you may find that cold mirrors are costly and too non-selective
to be very efficient. So, I would go for thermally conductive reflectors
that can sink the heat out to them like fins. They have lots of surface
area and are in the wind. BTW the wind will be a big factor as well.
Posted by SJC on February 11, 2006, 3:01 pm
Another point to consider is shadowing. If you have a four sided
"picture frame" type of refector configuration on a rectangular panel,
at some sun angles the reflector will shadow part or all of the panel.
This would expose some of the cells to intense light and others to
just ambient light, or shadow. You would probably want to consider
what happens to the panel when 1/2 of the cells get close to 2x illumination
and the other 1/2 gets shadow.
When I experimented with my thin film panel, I made sure the panel was
aimed at the sun, such that there was no shadowing.
>
>>
>>> Thanks to everyone who replied to my post about using mirrors to concentrate
>>> more light onto a solar panel. Although the outcome seemed to be that it
>>> would be a waist of time, Im thinking there way be a way to get more bang
>>> for the buck.
>>>
>>> Ive still got a spare solar panel and i want to get more power output from
>>> it. What about relfecting certain parts of the spectrum so that the solar
>>> panel doesnt heat up (as much) and gives an increase in power output?
>>>
>>> Thanks again :-)
>>>
>>>
>> You could research what are called "cold mirrors" online.
>> These are mirrors that reflect shorter wave lengths but not longer ones.
>> They are not that selective, so shorter wave lengths of light that you
>> can convert into electricity will pass through to some degree.
>
> OTOH you may find that cold mirrors are costly and too non-selective
> to be very efficient. So, I would go for thermally conductive reflectors
> that can sink the heat out to them like fins. They have lots of surface
> area and are in the wind. BTW the wind will be a big factor as well.
> more light onto a solar panel. Although the outcome seemed to be that it
> would be a waist of time, Im thinking there way be a way to get more bang
> for the buck.
>
> Ive still got a spare solar panel and i want to get more power output from
> it. What about relfecting certain parts of the spectrum so that the solar
> panel doesnt heat up (as much) and gives an increase in power output?
>
> Thanks again :-)
>