Green Good World

Archive for January, 2011

If the paint could collect solar energy to charge a battery, and then once the car starts moving, other fibers in the paint could convert the wind passing over the car to electrical energy, wouldn’t this be a way to decrease our dependency on fossil fuels. Is there any technology out there that can do such a thing?

No. Air drag is one of the chief components in auto efficiency. What you describe would increase air drag.

As far as the solar part goes most cars have about 12 square feet of surface in the sun when the car is in the sun. 12 square feet can produce 900 watts. In four hours that would be 2700 Watt hours. A gallon of gasoline is about 37,000 Watt hours. What means is is that it is going to take over 100 days to produce the energy of one gallon of gasoline and everything has to be perfect.

I was thinking of having it installed in my house but I still have to do some research if it is economical and efficient.

Unfortunately to use solar panels that convert sunlight directly into electricity is not economical or energy efficient. The only time it is really worth it is if you are in a remote location and it is one of your only options.

Solar panels lose 40% of the energy from the sun as heat loss. If instead you used solar collectors to directly heat the water you use in your home you would save more money and energy. Solar Collector systems are much cheaper. Why convert the suns energy to electricity only to turn around an convert it to heat again to warm your water?

Photoelectric Solar panels are very expensive to produce money-wise, and energy-wise. With current technology the amount of energy that is used to produce a photoelectric panel is MORE than the amount of energy it will ever produce. The quality of Silicon Crystal required does not occur naturally and the process that it takes to produce it is very energy intensive. ( 2100-2300 degree C temps are required ) Photoelectric power has the perception of being "green" but only if you leave the production process out of the equation.

as for the money side, you might be able to come out ahead if you can buy the panels outright and recieve a tax break. Then if you live in a very sunny area, the more direct sunlight you get the more benefit you recieve.

Is there a do it yourself conversion kit available on the market, or are there companies who can be hired to do this? I live in the Oklahoma City area.

You best check first with your city building zoning codes before you invest in it. My cousin had to remove his windmill because it created a lot of noise for his neighbors.

Solar electric panels (photovoltaic) are getting popular but it’s a bit more pricey. Make sure your electric company will let you run their meter backwards when you are not using the electricity.

If you haven’t gotten a solar hot water system yet, consider a thermosiphon type system. It requires no pump, and no electricity to make all the hot water for your home.

Is it possible to take, for example, solar energy ‘A’ (that has already been stored) and magnify ‘A’ with further (new) solar energy (’B') to create more power than A and B would have if they were to just be combined normally? Sort of like a chemical reaction, perhaps?

To explain further, I would imagine that solar energy is built up to be one big energy in normal circumstances. (For lack of better way to explain.) However, would it be possible to store a certain amount of solar energy, then take some more energy from the sun and somehow take that energy and use it to increase the energy of the previously stored energy? And on and on until it’s being magnified in large amounts as you collect small amounts of energy and magnify the energy you continue to store? ….

It’s hard to explain! But I’m wondering if anyone knows if this is at all possible?

You can magnify the sunlight on its way to a solar collector or photovoltaic cell. This would let you benefit more from the cost of the device. You can accumulate the heat from a solar collector to keep heating water to higher temperatures (within limits). You can accumulate the electricity from a photovoltaic cell in a battery. Plants accumulate the carbohydrates they produce using photosynthesis.

We don’t have a practical way to store sunlight. Combining energy to produce more energy than you started with violates laws of conservation of energy.