> -----Original Message-----
> From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu 
> [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf Of Martin Klingensmith
> Sent: Monday, November 20, 2006 10:44 AM
> To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
> Subject: Re: [OT]: Solar energy 5HP + hot water
> 
> The web page says that "you can hear the shop air compressor 
> running..."
> It also says "It makes about . 5 horsepower" so I'm not sure 
> if that's a misplaced "."
> It seems unlikely that there is enough energy from the sun in that
> pi*r^2 area to produce 5 HP.
> --
> Martin K

You might be surprised how much power there is in sunlight.  wikipedia
sez from 125 to 375 watts/m^2 in North America.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power  That 8 foot dish is 4.6m^2, so
should generate 1.7kW, or about 2.3 hp max.

Take a look at your electricity bill and you may find that your average
usage over a month is about 2 kW.

EE times had a good article about heliostats some time ago:

http://www.eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=53700939

Not surprising that this geek welfare research hasn't gone anywhere in 2
years while a guy in a shed in El Paso builds a prototype that works.  I
wonder why he doesn't use an off the shelf steam turbine instead of what
he's built?

--steve


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