|
Interesting Projects |
| Mirror gives Italian
Village Its Place in the Sun
http://www.gizmowatch.com
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6189371.stm#map |
 "ROME
(Reuters) - A village in the Italian Alps is finally basking in
winter sunlight thanks to a giant mirror installed on a mountain
top to reflect the sun's rays into the main square."
They use a heliostat to reflect sun into the town
square. I've thought about doing this (on a much smaller scale)
to reflect light into my east facing living room windows. |
| Solar Bubble Build
www.solarbubblebuild.com/build_images13.php
|
 Pretty
detailed description of a building using the soap bubble
insulation scheme.
I'd say this is on the experimental side, but the idea has been
used on some "real" greenhouses -- quite an interesting concept! |
Hippo Roller water
transport
From Inhabitat.com
http://www.inhabitat.com/ ...
|
An easy way to transport several days worth of water for a
family.
The best designs are the simple ones. |
| A Solar Water Heater
Made of PET Bottles
www.temasactuales.com/...
Update:
http://www.temasactuales.com/ ...
Instructional Manual:
http://www.iap.pr.gov.br/arquivos/File/pdf/solar.pdf
English Translation of Manual:
Construction Manual in English ... (pdf)
(Thanks to Chris for finding this!)
|
 An
interesting solar water heater design made from PET bottles. It
looks like plastic(?) pipes run up the center of each row of
PET bottles. The PET bottles (I think) act as glazing, and also
hold reflectors made from beverage cartons(?)The
Instructional Manual has a lot of good pictures that make it
fairly clear how it goes together.
Its an inventive design with most of the materials coming from
stuff that would otherwise go to the landfill.
(Thanks to Cameron and Tom for providing more
info on this.) |
| Roasting Coffee on
Sunshine
How to get articles from Home Power ... |
 Issue
105 Home Power MagazineHow to build a 1200F solar coffee bean
roaster. |
| A very large pipe coil
solar pool heater
http://pasarlascanutas.com/...
|
 This
is the Mother of All pipe coil solar pool heaters. It uses 4000
ft of black poly irrigation pipe.
Very nicely done, lots of good detailed pictures, and some
performance data.
Its in Spanish, but the Google "translate" button is your
friend. |
| My Shower Curtain is a
Green Warrior
www.inhabitat.com/2009/...
|
 This
is one way to stop your teenagers from taking those hour long
showers :) |
The Rutgers Solar
Heating System for Greenhouses
Mears, Roberts, Simpkins, and Kendall
Rutgers University
The Rutgers Solar Heating System for Greenhouse - 1977 (0.8
MB pdf)
Greenhouse Solar Heating-1981 (2.5MB pdf)
A related paper on a solar home using a similar flooded
subfloor heat storage scheme.
|
 The
solar collector shown here was developed in the 70's as a very
inexpensive greenhouse heater. It works well for situations in
which only low temperatures are required (like greenhouses and
pools).While I do not know of anyone who has tried this as a
pool heater, it seems to me it might work well, and it would be
very inexpensive -- perhaps $2 per square foot?
The papers give information on a several greenhouse energy
schemes, so you have to wade through all this to find the
details on building the collector. The collectors described in
the paper are quite large, but could be scaled down. Note that
even though this is a very simple collector, there are details
that you must get right for it to hold together -- so read all
the construction notes.
If you build one of these PLEASE let me know --
Gary
A number of other interesting commercial greenhouse related
papers at the Rutgers Horticultural Engineering Website:
http://aesop.rutgers.edu/~horteng/ |
| The Snail Shell System
http://www.n55.dk
|
 Just
could not pass this up.I think I would need a window. |
| The James Hand Washer
http://www.lehmans.com
Another supplier of human powered washers:
http://www.berryhilllimited.com/...
|
 Person
powered washers, clothes drying hardware, and other interesting
stuff. |
| Accelerated Composites
Aptera
http://apteramotors.com/
The
FAQ page has most of the details...
More from AutoBlogGreen on Aptera... |
 The
Accelerated Composites Aptera will be produced as an all
electric and as a plug in hybrid. Seating for two adults + an
infant seat behind. Zero to 60 in 10 secs, top speed around
85 mph. Drag coefficient of 0.05., weight 850 lbs, range 120
miles(?).While it is licensed as a motorcycle, they have put
a lot of emphasis on safety including air bags and front, side,
and rollover protection.
Their goal is to offer the EV version in late 2008 and the
hybrid version in late 2009 -- prices projected to start at
$27K. Pretty exciting vehicle. |
| Solar Still ElPaso
Solar Energy Association
http://www.txses.org/epsea/stills.html |
 Plans
for a solar still used to purify water. Report on daily output. |
| The Bruce Weiner
MicroCar Museum
http://www.microcarmuseum.com/index.html
|
 Fascinating
collection of Micro Cars. These very small and efficient cars
were developed in Europe in the rebuilding times after world war
II.
Many on display in Madison, GA |
|
Bert Race |
 This
has less than nothing to do with solar energy, but I just could
not resist. |
|
David Goes Electric
Bruce Johnson
How to get articles from Home Power ... |
 Home
Power Magazine article, issue 53Interesting article on
converting a walk behind gas tractor to electric power on a
budget.
|
Hot Water, Cold Beer
Doug |
 Doug's
homemade heat pump that efficiently cools his beer kegs and
heats domestic hot water.Its a heat pump that pumps heat out
of the beer and into the domestic hot water tank.
All the details ... |
| Spiral Pump
http://www.earthgarden.com.au/waterwheel.html
The Spiral Pump - A High Lift, Slow Turning Pump, Peter
Trailer
www.lurkertech.com/chris/eco/pump/tailer/
Wild Water Power -- more spiral pump information:
http://www.wildwaterpower.com/
|
 This
pump uses a rotating pipe coil to pump water. It requires only
moving water to power it.The pump in the picture pumps 400
gallons per day to a tank 50 ft above the pump.
 The
Spiral Pump - A High Lift, Slow Turning Pump, Peter Trailer
Very interesting set of tests on a spiral pump. Quite a bit of
design and construction information is also provided.
Sometime I am going to have to sit down an figure why this
works :-) |
| Dog Powered Scooter
http://www.dogpoweredscooter.com/
|
 Yes,
I can just see my dog doing this -- not. |
Water-Powered PV
Tracker
Bill Spurlock
How to get articles from Home Power ... |
 Home
Power magazine article, issue 85Describes a clever solar
panel tracking system that uses gravity feed water to power the
tracker. |
| RedRok
www.redrok.com |
 An
interesting and eclectic collection of information. Lots of
information on heliostats and simple but effective solar
tracking systems. |
| Harvesting water from
fog
OAS article on Fog Harvesting...
Article from Inhabitat... |
 Areas
that have frequent fogs (eg some coastal areas) can harvest
water fairly efficiently and inexpensively from from the fog
using nets. |
Beer Bottle Solar Water
Heater,
Ma Yanjun
www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2360667.html
|
 An
unusual approach!I guess you work with what's available. |
Building a Simple
Sterling Engine
Jay Wilson
How to get articles from Home Power ... |
 Home
Power Magazine article, issue 76.Interesting article on
building a demonstration level Sterling
engine from hardware store parts. |
| Single Seat Volkswagen
www.altenergymag.com/...
US News Article...
|
 This
single seat car that VW is working on would get 250+ mpg, top
speed 75 mph. It can travel over 400 miles on its 1.7 gallon
fuel tank!
Weighs 660 lbs.
This car is powered by gasoline only, and its 250 mpg is not one
of the phony plug in hybrid mileage ratings that does not
include fossil fuel burned to make electricity -- its an honest
250 mpg -- amazing.
Said to be ready to go on sale in Shanghai in 2010. |
| A Low Tech Hot Tub &
Solar Heater
http://eco-ants.co.nz/solarhw.html
|
 Here
is a low tech hot tub and a simple, but effective solar and wood
burning hot tub heater.More on the
new
version of the collector...
And a start on a
temperature controller for the hot tub ...
(I think there is some risk here of getting
the plastic pipe to hot if the collector stagnates -- see notes
on our
PEX collector and stagnation) |
| Water bed cooling |
 Randy
suggests that in hot climates sleeping directly on the water bed
bladder will be cooler.
Remove all the coverings except for a sheet or two, and let the
water conduct heat away from your body.
The temperature of the water in the bladder will be the average
of the last few days, and cooler than body temperature.
After more experience, Randy adds that during the cooler season,
you want more insulation (e.g. a blanket) between you and the
water bladder to keep it from getting to chilly. Its a mater of
adjusting the amount of insulation between you and the thermal
mass. |
|
A Solar Ammonia Absorption Icemaker
Jaroslav Vanek, Mark “Moth” Green, and
Steven Vanek
http://homepower.com/files/solarice.pdf
Or,
How to get articles from Home Power ...
|
 Home
Power Magazine article, issue 53Interesting article
describing a demonstration level solar refrigerator using
Ammonia as the refrigerant and a parabolic trough solar
collector as the heat source. The article may be available as a
free download at the first link, if not, search the HP achieves
for issue 53, and order the download. |
|
Bubble Wrap Window Insulation
Gary
New Installation Instruction Sheet (8/15/06)
AND, The Card Board Shutter
Based on the popularity of this Bubble Wrap
window treatment, here is a Cardboard Shutter |
 A
really cheap and quick way to insulate windows that you don't
need a clear view out of.Added some small updates to
instructions 11/13/05.
Instruction sheet added 8/15/06
Reported life of bubble wrap added 2/27/07
 Another
cheap (but very effective) window insulator
Card Board Shutter --> |
| Solar Heated and
Insulated Horse Tank - Version 2
Full details - performance and construction ...
|
 Newest
version of the solar heated, well insulated, double glazed
horse/stock tank.
Full construction step-by-step.
All the details ... |
| True DIY Heat Pump
Projects
The Homemade Heat Pump Manifesto...
Multi part EcoRenovator blog on DIY GSHP...
|
 These
are two long (as in 22 pages) posts on completely DIY ground
source heat pump projects. The heat pump units are made from
salvaged AC units. The projects even include homemade rigs to
drill the boreholes for the geo exchange loops. Very good
detail.The
EcoRenovator site and forum have some fascinating, unusual,
and hard core DIY energy projects. |
| Fran's Use of
Subterranean Air to Defeat the Evil Air Conditioner
The whole story... |
 Fran
shows how he used cool air from his basement to defeat the evil
air conditioner.
A nice simple and effective system and a well written story ... |
| Homemade Pipe Radiator |
 These
pictures show a radiator that is used to heat the visitors
center in Dawson City, Yukon Territory -- according to the staff
it does an outstanding job.
More pictures... |
| Homes from
Steel Grain Bins
Its Not Just a Grain Bin...It's a Home...
More from Mother Earth News...
More...
And...
One using strawbale insulation...
|
 This
is an interesting idea for a home.
The bins have a good ratio of wall area to internal volume. You
could add as much insulation as you like, and this could be done
with no thermal bridging.
Once you start looking for these on Google, you find there
are a lot of them. |
| Rotating
Solar Home
http://www.pege.org/gemini-house/solar-home.htm |
 A
rather unique solar home that rotates.Maybe this should be in
the "active solar" section :-) |
| A More Efficient Shower
http://www.sunfrost.com/efficient_shower.html
|
 A
shower idea that reduces heat losses and air currents so that
you can have a comfortable shower with less water that is less
hot.
Interesting story and prototype. |
| Steam Power - An
Introduction
How to get articles from Home Power ... |
 Home
Power Magazine article, issue 62Good article on with quite a
bit of detail on how to size,
design, and even build a steam engine.
|
| Bill
Lishman's Underground House
www.williamlishman.com/underground.htm
|
 Bill
Lishmans's unique and beautifully done underground home. |
| Beer Can Solar Air Heating
Collector
Original Hungarian version:
http://napenergia.freeweb.hu/gyak/szp/sztgyi.htm
English Translation:
http://www.freeweb.hu/napenergia/gyak/szp/sztgyi_en.htm
More...
http://www.sorkollektor.hu/eng/?p=8
And another from Brian ... |
 This
is a nicely done and well documented version of the alum beer
can collector design -- similar to the CanSolar commercial
collectors.
More about the builder and collector ...
A pretty good video on the
CanSolar collector with some construction detail
... |
| Sleep Genie -- A sleep
Compartment with AC
http://www.sunfrost.com/sleep_genie.html
From Sunfrost |
 An
interesting concept to provide a comfortable, air-conditioned
environment in a limited space for sleeping comfort.
It saves the energy cost of needlessly air-conditioning a
large space when your are only occupying a small space. |
| Solar Heated Ice Fishing Shack
All the details from Bob... |
 Solar
collectors are not just for heating homes -- Bob uses this very
simple and effective thermosyphon solar air heating collector to
heat his ice fishing shack.
It cost almost nothing to build, and heats the insulated fishing
shack very well.
All the details from Bob... |
|
Our own "Experimental" page ... |
 Our
own collection of experimental ideas and projects. |
| Solar Autoclave Using
Evacuated Tube Collectors Sydney University, Australia
Solar Autoclave Paper (pdf) |
 A
solar powered autoclave that uses evacuated tube collectors as
the heat source.Two sizes described. The smaller size uses
only one evacuated tube. |
