Super Simple Solar Energy

Making the hardware efficient to within 99.7% is going to cost a lot

Correct. But in Denmark the cost of the arrays are about 10.000 USD for 6kW. If you make the MPPT 10% more efficient, that is 1000 USD saved

USD 1.6/W is indeed expensive. I am getting flexible at $0.50/W right now. Fixed panels are even cheaper, perhaps $0.30/W. So, 10% for 6kW is only $180.

You were pricing adjusting auto-angle panel arrays?

My roof was expensive, $4/W installed, four years ago, should be under half that now. Bare panels $0.5/W now.

" You were pricing adjusting auto-angle panel arrays?"

These are flexible panels with adhesive backing, just roll out and stick on the roof. Much easier to install. Got 20 pcs yesterday, getting another 30 today. I think they have around 200 left. I need to find place to store them for now.

" My roof was expensive, $4/W installed, four years ago, should be under half that now. Bare panels $0.5/W now."

Simple coal/nuclear and gas power plants have an electric efficiency about 30-40 %, thus with resistive heating that would also be the heating efficiency,

However, if a heat pump with COP 3 or better, about the same heat can be recovered as burning the gas locally for heating. If the power plant low quality heat is used for district heating to local users, the fuel energy can be used very effectively.

Yeah, and it works

It is used in many different satellites in operation, been through thorough reviews by a lot of people. We never had an issue with it

I tried to do an alternative design with an ADC for sampling, so the S/H would have zero droop, but it became simply too complex.

I did add a twist that would let it operate with very high capacitance on the array, worked very good

Cheers

Klaus

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rfectly accurate.

re like NT not understanding what is being said and.

old, dry air is then passed over the other end of the heat-pump circuit to warm it up again (and recondense the refrigerant that little bit faster).

does lower its RH.

tic properties, which is on average lower in moisture content, and which th en drops RH as it warms.

than indoor air, or warmer or cooler. Swapping air with the outside world i s ventilation.

hanism by which the great majority of houses are dehumidified.

. If you are getting worried by damp patches on the walls, dehumidifiers at tack the problem directly. NT is in evasive mode here.

old, dry

eel dehumidifiers don't use chilling at all. Nor do box-of-salt type ones, even though they're of minimal use.

ts, but some hardware stores cater for people with little money and even le ss sense. As NT admits, they don't work well enough to be of much use, and they certainly aren't cost effective.

egenerated by heating, but strictly for tiny volumes of air.

merely an invitation to enter into his spiral of madness. I'm not interest ed in doing so & don't care what he has to say.

unhelpful pontification.

What do you do with the hot, damp air? Blow it into the cool, damp air so you have warm damp air?

I don't know what plumbing you have done, but the stuff I've done has been much harder than plugging in some connectors and maybe soldering a wire. I'm glad you find plumbing so easy.

I think you greatly underestimate the number of homes with finished basements.

Idiot. They know what the frost line is and prepare for it. And, yes, in particularly cold winters there are water pipes frozen. Yes, and 7' down.

I still want to know where I can buy some of this magic 55F dirt.

Picture a wall with a long narrow slot. Put a wheel in the slot with one end of the axle on one side of the slot and the other end of the axle on the other side of the slot so half the wheel is on each side of the wall, and put a sliding seal on the edges of the slot so each side is sealed from the other side. Coat the wheel with dessicant. One side of the wall is exposed to interior air and the interior moisture is absorbed by the dessicant as this air is blown over the wheel. Rotate the wheel so the now saturated dessicant is on the other side of the wall, exposed to the outside air. Blow warm outside air over the dessicant to dry it out, exhausting the moist warm air to the outside. Now rotate the wheel so the dry half is back inside where it cools back down and takes up more moisture. Repeat ad nauseum. Actually, of course, the wheel always turns but you get the idea. The problems are the sliding seals, the lifespan of the dessicant, and the heat carried into the house by the warm wheel, assuming it is hotter outside.

desiccant on the other. Pass hot air through it, which then circulates aro und a metal compartment. The metal is cooled by the room air, forming conde nsation thus removing damp from the compartment. Condensate drips into a co ntainer or down a pipe. These machines are ideal for unheated spaces, where compressor types become near useless.

NT has probably run into a dehumifier that don't let its condensing coil ge t below the freezing point, where it'd ice up.

There are ways of dealing with this - as anybody who owns a modern freezer knows. You warm up the condensor coils from time to time to melt the ice an d let it run off as water. This pretty much demands using a microcontroller and extra sensors.

NT doesn't think about stuff like that, so he probably ran into a dehumidif ier that didn't work well in a cold room some time ago , and never bothered to work out why.

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Trouble is that here, in the summer, the wheel would pick up moisture from the warm, wet air outside and bring that into the house where the cool, dry air (because of the air conditioning) would pick up the moisture. So both heat and moisture would be transferred from the outside to the inside. I guess that's better than opening a window since it keeps the dirt out.

I guess this works well in the same regions where swamp coolers are functio nal. In fact, they can be used together. Use a swamp cooler to cool the i nside air but making it damp, then use the desiccant wheel to move the mois ture back outside while letting some heat back in.

That's what I get for posting while watching TV, I left out the part where you heat the wheel while it is outside. That's what drives the water out of the dessicant, and you blow outside air over it just to carry the water vapor away. Some of that water will condense so you need to provide a liquid water drain, too, along with the air exhaust flow. That means the wheel is a good bit hotter than the outside temperature when it cycles back inside, which makes the added heat load that much worse.

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Ok, I see where you are going with this. You want to cool the desiccant wi th water before it rotates back into the home? LOL

So a double energy whammy! Pay to generate the extra heat to be added to t he heat already being picked up by the wheel and brought inside. Then pay for additional A/C to cool the place... but doesn't the A/C remove moisture from the air? Why would you need both?

Ah, the desiccant is used with the swamp coolers which DON'T reduce the ins ide humidity! Got it!

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perfectly accurate.

more like NT not understanding what is being said and.

cold, dry air is then passed over the other end of the heat-pump circuit t o warm it up again (and recondense the refrigerant that little bit faster).

t does lower its RH.

estic properties, which is on average lower in moisture content, and which then drops RH as it warms.

r than indoor air, or warmer or cooler. Swapping air with the outside world is ventilation.

echanism by which the great majority of houses are dehumidified.

on. If you are getting worried by damp patches on the walls, dehumidifiers attack the problem directly. NT is in evasive mode here.

cold, dry

wheel dehumidifiers don't use chilling at all. Nor do box-of-salt type ones , even though they're of minimal use.

nuts, but some hardware stores cater for people with little money and even less sense. As NT admits, they don't work well enough to be of much use, an d they certainly aren't cost effective.

regenerated by heating, but strictly for tiny volumes of air.

is merely an invitation to enter into his spiral of madness. I'm not intere sted in doing so & don't care what he has to say.

r unhelpful pontification.

o you have warm damp air?

That was already explained. Circulate it through a metal container whereupo n condensation occurs on the metal, which is collected for disposal.

NT

It's too often a pita but it's not complex.

NT

That would work, but would need access to outdoor air & would be energy wasteful. Add 1 more conceptual step to get what practical dehumidifiers do.

NT

The added heat load is trivial via that route as the wheel is very slow moving & has trivial mass. 99% of the heat load (or somewhere in that region) comes from the condensing box.

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with water before it rotates back into the home? LOL

the heat already being picked up by the wheel and brought inside. Then pa y for additional A/C to cool the place... but doesn't the A/C remove moistu re from the air? Why would you need both?

nside humidity! Got it!

Whatever you've got I hope you get it treated.

NT