Solar Panel Slideshow

Some heat generation numbers for a day that’s  ~10 degrees F outside, 25 degrees in my uninsulated garage:

  • Full overcast but bright – 40 degree air coming out of the panel (+15)
  • Partial sun, enough for shadows – 60 degree air coming out of the panel (+35)
  • Full sun, 90+ degree air coming out of the panel (+70)

 

Here is a full slide show. The previous posts seem to have cut them off after so many photos.

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A good friend gave me a UNiMAT SL1000 lathe this weekend

The machine is older than me, but appears to be a later model in this production run judging from the color. I have found one broken part, the capture nut to hold down the tooling block.

Now I need to get the rest of the tools needed to use this correctly and learn how to use it safely.

I think this will be a good complement to my blacksmithing as well as allowing me to make some custom parts for a wide variety of my other hobbies: aquaponics, woodworking, electronics, computer mods, and so on.

And of course, the idea of converting it into a CNC is in the back of my mind.

In album

A friend gave me a UNiMAT mini lathe. He rescued it from the trash.

About to cut a bevel on the inside and cut down the outside so I can stack 2 different sizes and make a funnel out of PVC for my aquaponics bell siphon.

I tried the ‘sharpen a pencil on a lathe’ trick. I needed to use a different tool than what came with the lathe though.

I bit of a mess… PVC and wood shavings.

I want to hang this roll of craft paper under the table, so I am making spindles that fit inside and let it roll off.

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I went home during lunch so I could see what my Solar Hot Air panel on my garage…

I went home during lunch so I could see what my Solar Hot Air panel on my garage was doing. The indoor/outdoor thermometer I put into the panel died today, and putting in new batteries didn't help. I had to scrounge around for another thermometer and found a candy thermometer in the kitchen. I put the thermometer in the hole coming from the panel into the garage and ate lunch. When I came out, it was measuring 98 degrees. The panel was getting heavily shaded, about half the panel in some shade, 1/3 was in heavy shade. By the time I took the photo of the thermometer, it was reading closer to 92 degrees. These things appear to be very shade sensitive.

The first thing I noticed was how much the clear plastic cover bowed out. Between the fan blowing air into the panel, and the heat causing expansion, the plastic was bowing out probably 2 inches. Additionally, the landscape fabric which was stapled in tight, was saggy like an oversized sweatshirt.

When I got home about 6pm, I checked the temperature of the garage, it was 50 degrees still. It normally follows the outside air temperature pretty closely, so being 10 degrees warmer than the outside 40 degrees is pretty good. I desperately need to insulate the garage, if only to stop it from being so drafty!

I want to find a 15 watt, 12volt PhotoVoltaic panel to run a computer case fan I have. At that point, heating the garage would become free energy. $80 seems to be the going price for the solar panel. An alternative would be a thermoelectric generator, but they aren't marketed for this application, so it's really hard to read the specs to figure out what I would need. It appears that I would need $60 worth of those (3) in order to work. These would also bleed heat out of my panel, so they are a 2nd level option.

I still need to trim out the panel, which would make it look better as well as seal up the plastic on the front face.

In album $7 Garage Hot Air Solar Panel (40 photos)

You can see the heavy bowing of the front clear plastic in this image.

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