Improving Efficiency Using a Lens

Sceadwian said:

If you want a dirt cheap high torque DC motor go to a local bargain or thrift store and pick up a couple of the cheapest battery powered drills you can find, they contain decent sized brushed motors and all the gearing required to produce heavy torque. You'll need to figure out how to detect position though, if you're just using a couple of rotating gimbals for the panel it could be as simple as mounting a potentiometer to the drive axis. Using a H-bridge rated to drive the motors and two ADC pins on a micro controller you'll get two axis rotation control. Then the hard part is to calibrate it and program the sun following routines.

Also, you'll want to find as detailed a data sheet on your solar panel as you can, the brightness of direct sunlight can be easily calculated and you can determine how many reflectors you can safely use for your panel. Even just two mirrors should greatly increase your power output without excessive heating.

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rjvh said:

i think that a lens doesn't work to improve efficiency

as you consentrate more solar energy it is manly in the form of heat and one of the things that Photovoltiac cells make less efficient is heat


for heating up water in solar colectors it does work and i made one proto type in small dimentions to messure the differance with if you don't colect more sun (enlarging the sqr meter catchment area)

i only used mirrors no lenses

Robert-Jan

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