Geometry in Everyday Life Essay

A solar urine estruser is the most competitive alternative to stodgy water high temperature methods such as electric geysers and burn-fed kettledrums. It makes an attractive and sustainable option, with its global distribution, pollution free nature, virtually inexhaustible supply and near-zero useable bell. solar water stir upers run on a free fuel (i. e. temperatenessshine), thus saving on susceptibility be that help happen its initial cost in just 2-4 geezerhood. Hot water end-to-end the year the schema works all year round, though youll posit to heat the water further with a boiler or assiduity heater during the winter months.Cut your bills f telephone line weatherlight is free, so once youve nonrecreational for the initial installation your keen water costs will be reduced. Cut your carbon footprint solar het up water is a green, renewable heating corpse and behind reduce your carbon dioxide emissions. solar water heating systems use solar display board s, called collectors, fitted to your crown. These collect heat from the sun and use it to heat up water which is stored in a yearning water cylinder. A boiler or immersion heater freighter be use as a back up to heat the water further to reach the temperature you want.There ar two types of solar water heating panels evacuated tubes (as in the picture above) two-dimensional plate collectors, which ordure be fixed on the roof tiles or integrated into the roof. bigger solar panels dissolve also be arranged to provide any(prenominal) contribution to heating your home as well. However, the amount of heat provided is largely very small and it is not normally considered worth while. Maintenance costs for solar water heating systems ar generally very low. closely solar water heating systems arrest with a five-year or ten-year guarantee and require little maintenance.Once fitted your installer should leave written details of any maintenance checks that you depose carry out fr om condemnation to beat, ensuring everything is functional decently. peradventure the most important thing you force out check for yourself from epoch to time is whether there be any leaks. If there are any leaks of anti-freeze (even if you pott see any liquid state) this will bewilder a sacrosanct smell. If you notice this you should contact your installer. In general you should keep an eye on your system to check that it is doing what it has been inventioned to do.If you are not getting hot water or the solar pipework is cold (when the pump is running) on warm, sunny days then again you should contact your installer. For peace of judgment some installation companies offer an annual service check. You should have your system checked more thoroughly by an accredited installer every 3-7 years, or as specified by your installer. It is likely that after this period of time the anti-freeze that is utilize to protect your system in the winter months will shoot to topped u p or be replaced as it breaks down oer time reducing the per take a shitance of your system.Anti-freeze lasts better if the solar water system is used throughout the year and not left unused during the warmest weeks of the year. This cost of renew the anti-freezer is usually around ? 100. The different thing that your installer should check is the pump. In a well maintained system, pumps can last for ten years plus and usually cost around ? 90 to replace. solar water heating systems can achieve nest egg on your efficacy bills. establish on the results of our recent field trial, typical savings from a well-installed and properly used system are ? 60 per year when replacing splosh heating and ? 5 per year when replacing electric immersion heating however, savings will vary from user to user. Typical carbon savings are around 230kgCO2/year when replacing gas and 500kgCO2/year when replacing electric immersion heating. Spherical hypothecateor type cooker Spherical mirrors are the simplest type of concentrator and are easy to build and use. It is easy to focus sun rays, and if one opts for a moving vessel to meet the focus, cooking can also be done very easily. Such a design was suggested for the premiere time in the year 1961 by Stam (1961).He suggested a large reflector of 4. m diam do of local satisfying which could even include mud, and the reflector surface suitably smoothed with beauteous mud/cement and coated with aluminized polyester. An appropriate technology handbook describes a simple method of construction of the spherical mirror in the constitute (a tall tripod with a long string to which a stone is attach at the tip, will act as a guide for excavating a hollow in the farming) and after finishing and stabilizing the interior, the reflector stuff could be stuck to make it into a spherical mirror. Such a mirror, of some 2. m in diameter, would do useful work for at least five to six hours a day.The cooking vessel could be hung from the tripod or a suitable back up and positioned to meet the focus. Dan Halacy (1974) suggests a similar design. He uses two full and several half cardboard ribs to fabricate the substructure and attaches mylar film as a reflector. This device was meant mainly for campers. Bamboo and/or other locally available materials could be used to fabricate such hemispherical baskets. Recently Prof. Quintone of the United Kingdom has taken up this design and is nerve-racking to popularize it in places likePeru.In his beautifully knowing and illustrated site he presents detailed instructions on fabricating the design and using it. The cooker below is a simple steel bowl used for carrying sand, is coated with a reflector foil and a blackened cooking vessel is put in it. The entire assembly is covered over by a matt sheet glass. The design is very similar toSuryakund cited by Kuhnke et al in their book solar Cookers in the third world. In Suryakund, the vessels are kept in a inverted glass jar. Like Suryakund, this cooker too would start out from limitation of sizing.Unfortunately, this simple design has not attracted oftentimes attention, but on a very big scale, like in source generation (as in Marseilles, France), such a hemispherical mirror is be used (Jet Propulsion Laboratory 1981). Scientists ofAustralia (Anon. 1979) have presented a similar design. Margaret Koshoni developed the strobilus Cooker to suit the inescapably of Nigerian women. Most people live in flats with balconies the structure of the balconies will shade the CooKit and make a shadow. The Cone Cooker being placed on a stand has the advantage of elevation and the stand can be moved about without disturbing the cooking.Medved et al. , propose an fire design (1996) called a SOLAR BALL. It is an inflatable plastic earth with lower part of reflective material. The cooking vessel is kept at the base. It is an interesting variation but there appears to be some grievous limitations with reference to size of the ball as well as size and handling of the cooking vessel. Recently, the spherical geometry seems to have do a come back, and we see that at Auroville in India a 15 meter diameter mirror cooks food for over 1500 persons. A similar large solar bowl was built at the University of Mexico. photovoltaic solar boothsPV jail cells are made from layers of semi-conducting material, usually silicon. When light shines on the cell it creates an electric field across the layers. The stronger the sunshine, the more electricity is constructd. Groups of cells are mount together in panels or modules that can be mounted on your roof. The part of a PV cell is measured in kilowatts peak (kWp). Thats the rate at which it generates energy at peak performance in full luff cheerfulness during the summer. PV cells come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Most PV systems are made up of panels that fit on top of an existing roof, but you can also fit solar tiles.Solar tiles and slates Solar tiles are knowing to be used in place of ordinary roof tiles. A system made up of solar tiles will typically cost around twice as much as an equivalent panel system, although you will save the money you would have spent on roof tiles or slates. Solar tile systems are not normally as cost-effective as panel systems, and are usually only considered where panels are not considered appropriate for aesthetic or planning reasons. Solar PV needs little maintenance youll just need to keep the panels relatively scavenge and make sure trees dont begin to overshadow them.In the UK panels that are tilted at 15 or more have the additional benefit of being cleaned by rainfall to ensure optimal performance. Debris is more likely to accumulate if you have ground mounted panels. If dust, debris, snow or bird droppings are a line they should be removed with warm water (and perhaps some washing-up liquid or something similar your installer can advise) and a brush or a high pressure hose (or tele scopic cleaning pole) if the panels are ticklish to reach. Always be careful if you are working above the ground or near the top of a ladder.Alternatively, there are a number of specialist window cleaning companies who will clean solar PV panels for you at a cost (of around ? 30 based on our research in March 2012) depending on the size of your array and location. umteen of these companies use a water fed pole system which does onward with the need for a ladder. Once fitted, your installer should leave written details of any maintenance checks that you should carry out from time to time to ensure everything is working properly. This should include details of the main inverter fault signals and key trouble-shooting guidance.Ideally your installer should confront this to you at the point of handover. Keeping a close eye on your system and the amount of electricity its generating (alongside the weather conditions) will familiarize you with what to expect and alert you to when somet hing might be wrong. The panels should last 25 years or more, but the inverter is likely to need replacing some time during this period, at a authoritative cost of around ? 1,000. Consult with your installer for assume maintenance requirements before you commit to installing a solar PV system. Photovoltaics is the direct conversion of light into electricity at the atomic level.Some materials express a property know as the photoelectric effect that causes them to take up photons of light and release electrons. When these free electrons are captured, an electric current results that can be used as electricity. The photoelectric effect was first renowned by a French physicist, Edmund Bequerel, in 1839, who found that certain materials would produce small amounts of electric current when exposed to light. In 1905, Albert Einstein describe the nature of light and the photoelectric effect on which photovoltaic technology is based, for which he afterward won a Nobel prize in physics. The first photovoltaic module was built by Bell Laboratories in 1954. It was charge as a solar battery and was mostly just a curiosity as it was too expensive to gain widespread use. In the 1960s, the space industry began to make the first serious use of the technology to provide power aboard spacecraft. Through the space programs, the technology advanced, its dependability was established, and the cost began to decline. During the energy crisis in the 1970s, photovoltaic technology gained recognition as a source of power for non-space applications.A number of solar cells electrically connected to each other and mounted in a verify structure or frame is called a photovoltaic module. Modules are designed to supply electricity at a certain voltage, such as a common 12 volts system. The current produced is directly dependent on how much light strikes the module. Photovoltaic solar plants work like this As light hits the solar panels, the solar radiation is converted into direct curre nt electricity (DC). The direct current flows from the panels and is converted into alternating current (AC) used by local electric utilities.Finally, the electricity travels through transformers, and the voltage is boosted for lurch onto the transmission lines so local electric utilities can distribute the electricity to homes and businesses. Solar-Thermal plants work like this Solar collectors capture and concentrate sunlight to heat a synthetic oil called therminol, which then heats water to create steam. The steam is piped to an onsite turbine-generator to produce electricity, which is then transmitted over power lines. On complex days, the plant has a supplementary natural gas boiler. The plant can burn natural gas to heat the water, creating steam to generate electricity.Solar power plants use the suns rays to produce electricity. Photovoltaic plants and solar caloric systems are the most commonly used solar technologies today. Solar cells such as these are used in photov oltaic solar technology There are two types of solar power plants. They are differentiated depending on how the energy from the sun is converted into electricity both via photovoltaic or solar cells, or via solar caloric power plants. Photovoltaic plants A photovoltaic cell, commonly called a solar cell or PV, is a technology used to convert solar energy directly into electricity.A photovoltaic cell is usually made from silicon alloys. Particles of solar energy, known as photons, strike the surface of a photovoltaic cell between two semiconductors. These semiconductors exhibit a property known as the photoelectric effect, which causes them to absorb the photons and release electrons. The electrons are captured in the form of an electric current in other words, electricity. Solar thermal power plants A solar thermal plant generates heat and electricity by concentrating the suns energy. That in turn builds steam that helps to feed a turbine and generator to produce electricity.The re are three types of solar thermal power plants 1) Parabolic troughs This is the most common type of solar thermal plant. A solar field usually contains many parallel rows of solar parabolic trough collectors. They use parabola-shaped reflectors to focus the sun at 30 to 100 times its normal intensity. The method is used to heat a special type of fluid, which is then collected at a rally location to generate high-pressure, superheated steam. 2) Solar power tower This system uses hundreds to thousands of flat sun-tracking mirrors called heliostats to reflect and concentrate the suns energy onto a cardinal receiver tower.The energy can be concentrated as much as 1,500 times that of the energy coming in from the sun. A running solar power tower exists in Juelich in the western German state of North-Rhine Westphalia. It is spread over 18,000 square meters (194,000 square feet) and uses more than 2,000 sun-tracking mirrors to reflect and concentrate the suns energy onto a 60-meter-hi gh (200 foot high) of import receiver tower. The concentrated solar energy is used to heat the air in the tower to up to 700 degrees Celsius (1,300 degrees Fahrenheit).The heat is captured in a boiler and is used to produce electricity with the help of a steam turbine. Solar thermal energy collectors work well even in ill weather conditions. Theyre used in the Mojave Desert in calcium and have withstood hailstorms and sandstorms. 3) Solar pond This is a pool of saltwater which collects and stores solar thermal energy. It uses so-called salinity-gradient technology. Basically, the bottom layer of the pond is extremely hot up to 85 degrees Celsius and acts as a transparent insulator, permitting sunlight to be trapped from which heat may be withdrawn or stored for later use.