Posted by brian on February 12, 2008, 3:56 am
If you mount on an axis paralell to the earth's axis, you can point your
panel at the sun and rotate at 15 degrees per hour and your panel will stay
at the optimum angle to the sun.
I have a simple scematic of how you might do it at
http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Tracking_Solar_Accumulating_Barbecue
Has anybody other low tech ways of tracking the sun?
Brian
Posted by JERD on February 12, 2008, 4:24 am
> If you mount on an axis paralell to the earth's axis, you can point your
> panel at the sun and rotate at 15 degrees per hour and your panel will
> stay
> at the optimum angle to the sun.
> I have a simple scematic of how you might do it at
> http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Tracking_Solar_Accumulating_Barbecue
> Has anybody other low tech ways of tracking the sun?
> Brian
Have a look at my web site and select 'Solar System'
http://www.flightsimulatorandhobbies.com/
JERD
Posted by Anthony Matonak on February 12, 2008, 5:07 am
brian wrote:
> If you mount on an axis paralell to the earth's axis, you can point your
> panel at the sun and rotate at 15 degrees per hour and your panel will stay
> at the optimum angle to the sun.
Well, close enough for cooking and flat panels but if you're
using a concentrator you might need more accuracy than that.
Then again, in any industrialized country cheap parts can be
found to put together a tracker that will always point at the
sun. Perhaps using 12V DC geared motors like those used to move
car windows or wipers.
Anthony
Posted by brian on February 13, 2008, 1:25 am
I have a new tracking method at http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Tracking
which should be easy to modify for the real world. It is the one with the
float in a tank of water. It is currently just a concept. (I have not done
it).
The tracking solar acumulating barbecue is also just a concept.
The latest on it is this video on setting up your parabolic dish like the
heliostat so that your focus remains stationary all day.
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=BSsyUVsBqU4
I will not be able to do this till late march so get there before me!
The parabolic dish that you need can be figured out like i did with my
little figurines in the video and it can then be made with a "mechanical
mathematician" to guide you. I just downloaded different size parabolic
curves from the net and used them to decide on a figurine height.
And from that, I could gestimate sizes for the real dish.
I have other videos to explain the mechanical mathematician.
All this is genuine. Be the first to put the pieces together and you will
(seriously) have a place in solar history!
Enough talk, if it is sunny outside, start your tracking solar accumulating
barbecue project RIGHT NOW!
Brian (in clowdy victoria)
David Williams wrote:
> -> brian wrote:
> -> > If you mount on an axis paralell to the earth's axis, you can point
> your -> > panel at the sun and rotate at 15 degrees per hour and your
> panel will sta -> > at the optimum angle to the sun.
>
> -> Well, close enough for cooking and flat panels but if you're
> -> using a concentrator you might need more accuracy than that.
>
> -> Then again, in any industrialized country cheap parts can be
> -> found to put together a tracker that will always point at the
> -> sun. Perhaps using 12V DC geared motors like those used to move
> -> car windows or wipers.
>
> -> Anthony
>
> Brian's method is pretty accurate for a day or so. It doesn't follow
> the north-south seasonal movement of the sun, but even at its most
> rapid (at the equinoxes) this amounts to less than one solar diameter
> per day.
>
> The main problem is that the cooker, or whatever, is turning about an
> axis that is not vertical (assuming you're not at one of the poles). So
> your pot of soup, or whatever, gets tipped over. Avoiding this problem
> requires something more complex, such as a heliostat with a mirror that
> turns so as to reflect sunlight onto the (stationary) cooker as the sun
> moves across the sky. The mirror can simply rotate about a polar axis,
> as Brian describes, if the cooker is located on the same axis, i.e.
> between the mirror and one of the celestial poles.
>
> dow
XML site map
> panel at the sun and rotate at 15 degrees per hour and your panel will
> stay
> at the optimum angle to the sun.
> I have a simple scematic of how you might do it at
> http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Tracking_Solar_Accumulating_Barbecue
> Has anybody other low tech ways of tracking the sun?
> Brian