More Photovoltaics...
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I see Adam (EarthMover) has posted his solar pergola project. That encouraged me to post some images of the pv installation I'm working on.
We will be putting three of these racks on the roof of a four-storey building. The design reflects that earlier in the project three roof anchor posts were installed for each of the eventual racks. Now that the racks are being designed we have to make it all work with where those posts were installed. Another design constraint is we have a restriction that the installations can have a maximum height above the roof of just four feet.
This is actually my second version of the rack design. I screwed up the earlier one when I didn't read carefully enough the shop drawing for the 235 watt modules we are using (Sharp NU-U235F1). Turns out that Sharp requires that the long sides of each panel be fully supported. [These panels can't be installed like those in Adam's design]. The need for that continuous support combined with the structural engineer's recommendation that it be fabricated from W6x8.5 structural sections has it being a relatively heavy rack. The steel will all be hot-dip galvanized.
The SketchUp model was rendered using the new Render[In] plugin. The purpose of the model was to work out a design approach our team could agree on and to do it accurately enough that we can take off the important dimensions for our steel fabricators.
Regards, Ross
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more images...
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and a couple more...
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Nice work Ross. Your model is very clean and precise. It is good to see you are making use of Render[In]. It suits you very well.
We did a Design Proposal recently that utilized photovoltaic sun shade panels, unfortunately we did not win the project.
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Beautiful beautiful modeling! I feel a bit lazy now! I am just starting to research PV systems and how it all works. It's new territory for me, but I'm finding it very fascinating and fulfilling. My project was more of a quick mock up to show a fairly large solar installation company in my area the potential benefits of combining landscaping and solar. I hope to do some more precise modeling such as this when I get a little better versed on what the whole system entails. I know the company I am hoping to get involved with is doing some big money, commercial solar projects in the millions of dollars. I think presentation is everything when competing for those type of projects and good renderings and potentially animated sun studies will go a long way in sealing the deal.
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I have for 4 years now solar panels on mine roof, and they work great. because i get more electricity then i use over a year. So every year i get money for delivery of power.
But i like the style of sketching, and i would like to know witch texture you use, because i am skecthing my own house and i need them for my roof
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wow that is hardcore Ross... is it really necessary for it to be that strong? that is some heavy gauge iron...
nice model non-the-less... and the rendering is very realistic. looks like a photo.
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I think it is excessively strong but because there is a structural engineer involved I have to defer to his best judgement and calculations. The rack shown is about 11 feet wide and will be exposed to relatively strong winds. Just the other day we had 60-to-70 mph gusts and that was at ground level. That was a fairly routine storm. We get worse ones a few times a year and the rooftop where these will be located (here's a webcam of the construction site) is above the tree canopy.
I can post the solar pv texture I used when I get home tonight.
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Ross is this a one off installation? or installed in an array like earthies solar pergola.
I'd agree it is heavy structured even despite the forecast wind loading!
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The installation will have three of these racks (all the same) mounted on the flat roof of the building that can be seen in the webcam I linked above. It is an academic building currently under construction that I designed at a local college here in Prince Edward Island, Canada. The PV's are intended more as a demonstration to the students since there aren't enough to power the building. Every little bit helps of course. The facility will have a geothermal system and stormwater is collected for flushing toilets.
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As requested by Henk, here's the PV solar panel texture I used. It looks like the design used on PV's manufactured by Sharp.
I had used a texture on the steel but the render (Render[In] plugin) shows some artifacts. I've brought those issues to the attention of the plugin developers and am hopeful they'll have the texture-related issues solved in their next beta. They've fixed the earlier problem where smoothed geometries were appearing faceted. Now they are nice and smooth.
Regards, Ross
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Thanks Ross! Here's a few more I found online while doing my project.
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Ross, when an architect does payback calculations is any account taken of the decreased solar load on the building because it is shaded by solar panels? Can anyone point me to a solar design where solar panels were used to extend the eaves on a house to shade the walls and windows in addition to providing electricity? What about designs that take into account bird crap and desert dust?
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Very nice, clean and detailed model.
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@roger said:
Can anyone point me to a solar design where solar panels were used to extend the eaves on a house to shade the walls and windows in addition to providing electricity?
Deluxe eave installs capture direct and reflected light as well as allowing light to pass through.
http://us.sanyo.com;80/dynamic/product/Downloads/HIT%20Double%20Brochure-15873583.pdf -
@wind-borne said:
@roger said:
Can anyone point me to a solar design where solar panels were used to extend the eaves on a house to shade the walls and windows in addition to providing electricity?
Deluxe eave installs capture direct and reflected light as well as allowing light to pass through.
http://us.sanyo.com;80/dynamic/product/Downloads/HIT%20Double%20Brochure-15873583.pdfSweet looking product. Probably unaffordable, but still inspirational.
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Ross, glad to see you doing some solar projects. I know there some anti-solar Luddites that lurk in our forums, but I am starting to see the handwriting on the wall. There are several precursors that I recently noticed.
- Two large home improvement outlets here in Phoenix, Arizona carry laser aimed non contact thermometers for checking energy efficiency. When I went to buy one, both companies were temporarily sold out.
- I checked with a local distributor of the Sanyo double HIT solar panels that you told me about and they were also sold out (although its possible that could be traced back to Tsunami/nuclear failure shortages).
- Here and there I am seeing more units installed one-by-one and am seeing a lot more ads from installers.
However, the one thing that bothers me is that I am not impressed with the type of installation being done. The solar units are being tightly coupled to the roof surface. The results are:
The units transmit solar heat to the roof
The units themselves are less electrically efficient at higher temperatures
The units are not being used to create wall shade which in itself would lower electrical demand
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