solar powered greenhouse heater
Printer-friendly versionHi, Does anyone know of a way to run an electric greenhouse heater on solar power?
Google for solar powered heaters or small solar cells is not easy thing. I tied. I found some interesting site about comfort zone infrared heater and some other heaters, but i forgot address of the site. It's on the first google page.
Hi, Does anyone know of a way to run an electric greenhouse heater on solar power?
Basic photovoltaic solar is going to be fairly inefficient, but here it goes.
1. Photovoltaic solar cells will product electricity
2. You will need a charge controller to "clean" the electricity so you can charge a battery with it
3. Battery (possibly a bank of them) to store the electricity for future use
4. Depending on your electric heater, you may need to get a Power Converter. If your heater is DC (Direct Current) then you can run right from the batteries, if its AC (Alternating Current) then you will need to use a power converter.
5. Heater, hopefully with a built in thermostat.
How about solar heated water to create a "heat sink"?
You sound fairly experienced in the area of solar power Matt. I get customers occasionally that are interested in at least supplementing their power consumption with solar. Sometimes they want a full array on the roof, but I explain that this will block a substantial portion of the light exposure and basically defeats the purpose of using the greenhouse in the first place. We then discuss a separate array on the ground or directly powering, say, a heater with a solar panel.
I was wondering if you had any input as to how things like this could be done or if it is even feasible to try and do?
Actually there's new technology slowly emerging that utilises pipes on roof's that water flow's throw and it heats up. Now as the water heats up/boils, this produces steam and drives a small engine to produce power. These pipes btw aren't copper or anything you've seen (well I doubt you've seen) but rather see-thru hard glass with a special black/purple lining that apparently amplifies the heat coming into the glass tube by trapping it.
I've had the chance to see one of these pipes in action and it's frickin awesome. Yet to see this in a steam turbine senario, but it goes to show there's more to be done in capturing the solar's energy for energy use. Currently designing a greenhouse around my vegetable garden (my second greenhouse as the other one hosts my plants), and researching at the moment how this can be implemented with my 1kW of lighting I"ll be installing.
(BTW, obviously this is great in teh summertime. In the wintertime, I guess we'll just have to raise a mini windfarm or something :)
I think I've actually heard of this process somewhere too. It's pretty new though, but it sounds promising. I agree with you though, I think there is a lot more energy we can be getting from the sun if we can just figure out how to harness it.
I've had this idea for some time, but don't know how to implement it. My leanto style greenhouse is against the same building that has solar panels for my pool. I'm currently using 6 55gal plastic drums across the back wall to provide passive thermal mass ....... but since I don't heat my pool during the Northern California winter (October to April) I wonder if I could divert those panels, pump and filter to circulate those 330 gallons of water through my drums on the days when there is solar heat to be gained????? any ideas, help or examples would be appreciated. The most difficult so far is how to connect together the 55 gal barrels since they only have two 2" NPT bungs on top and I can't reach inside to tighten any fitting nuts..... The pump and panels and control box are already in place, I would just have to get two additional sensors to detect outside temp vs. water temp to trigger the solar gain. Your thoughts please.....
Your idea sounds plausible, but might take some extensive on-site enginering. To connect the barrels I would think the best way would be just to use a hole saw and connect them with PVC pipe. This should work, expecially if you are using a pump to drive the water. You'll want to make sure you seal everything up well though.
You have a good idea. using the panels to heat the water in your drums will increase the temp in the drums providing more heat to the GH. A couple of questions/comments; Is it just water in the drums or did you add somthing to keep things from growing? Are the durms presently connected? Are they sealed? Is there a seperate pump for the panels or does it bleed off the main pool pump? To use the pool pump you will have to seal and connect the drums. If there is a seperate pump for the panels life got a lot simpler. If the panels bleed off the pool pump you will most likley have to install an other pump. depending on the size of the pool, the main pool pump will be way to big.
I am planning doing a similar thing with my GH. When I built it I put tubing in the floor. The plan is to hook up a couple of panels and heat the floor. This will stop the floor from being a heat sink and turn it into a heat sorce. Have the plans for the panels. Just need to find the time and $.
Hi geekfarmer
I just want to ask if this issue also occurs with hayward pumps?
Hopw you will reply :)
Good idea but the solar cell and battery technology is not there yet. Solar cells are between 10 and 15 % effecient. Battries are bulky and expensive. For now, for heating a GH, heating water or other solar mass is the better way to go. IMHO
I've learned that DDTs (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) still continue to destroy households with its suffocatic synthetic materials. My national service training program gave us a miniature project that involves spreading the word against these harmful pesticides and I'm having problems of identifying a medium which will help me in my environmental cause. Perhap three scientific essays would do? A blog maybe or a creative artwork flaunting the destructive power of DDTs. So many ways, so little time.
Sure, it can kill mosquitoes in a single swipe but, would you compromise the health of your family for this?Not a good idea if you ask me.
I think I've actually heard of this process somewhere too. It's pretty new though, but it sounds promising. I agree with you though, I think there is a lot more energy we can be getting from the sun if we can just figure out how to harness it. Thanks for sharing. Regards, shower enclosures
A big, professional hair dryer uses 1.5 kilowatts. A 10' x 10' parabolic reflector running a steam turbine or a sterling engine to turn a generator only produces about 1 kw and power is always lost when you convert from one form to another. (like from electricity to heat)
Peace corps workers in Africa use simple trough solar reflectors to heat oil which then transfers it's heat to a fluid with a lower boiling point and produces steam. Doing this they produce 1kw of power (with less expensive hardware than the example above) and 10 kw of heat. There is also a lot less that can go wrong with a barrel of rocks than there is with a fancy contraption like a solar turbine.
The nature of a polycarbonate install is also not quite the same as glass. With glass, the panels generally fit inside a frame. So you end up with many small panels all situated into their own individual frames thanks for sharing.
Regards,
Chris - moving company minneapolis
Appliances for providing a more-or-less constant supply of hot water are variously known as water heaters, boilers, heat exchangers, calorifiers, or geysers depending on whether they are heating potable or non-potable water, in domestic or industrial use, their energy source, and in which part of the world they are found.
You can Google solar powered heaters or small solar cells but I don't know what the requirements of your heater are or what is necessary to make it run off solar. The solar cells also look pretty pricy too depending on how much power you need.
Would be interested in anyone else's ideas. Anyone?