Comments for Home-Heating Mirrors at http://www.ecogeek.org , comment 1 to 36 out of 20 comments http://www.ecogeek.org Sun, 19 May 2013 05:38:50 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.ecogeek.org/solar-power/2636#comment-28339 this is an interesting concept - Fred Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:57:48 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/solar-power/2636#comment-26963 Hats off to all u guys who have tried and are small but important steps , am workin on sunlight to light up my house... will keep the team updated...any success stories here. read an intresting article on village in Italy lit up with mirror..story dated 2006. Does anybody here have any updates..did it work? - James Mon, 18 May 2009 23:43:27 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/solar-power/2636#comment-26350 Practical Solar has a new FAQ section of its website dedicated to answering the questions/comments made here. Go to www.practicalsolar.com/products.html and scroll down to FAQ. If I've forgotten to address anything, please send me an email at racheln@practicalsolar.com. Thanks for your feedback! Rachel - Rachel Mon, 27 Apr 2009 08:11:17 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/solar-power/2636#comment-25783 Yes, well in a cloudy area in the winter the sun just doesn't store. I tried to charge a tiny solar battery, the kind used for cameras and mobile phones on my roof for weeks. Only just now in April is it fully charged. A mirror on the other hand focuses the light. Am I right? And what is non-tracking - barbionit Tue, 07 Apr 2009 01:50:19 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/solar-power/2636#comment-25781 I tried this very idea last winter. Set up some surplus non-tracking mirrors in the back yard, shined them through a bedroom window and the morning sun significantly warmed up the room. The light also brightened up a very dark bathroom. No fires, no dead birds. (Mesa, Arizona) - D. Hawley Mon, 06 Apr 2009 22:18:58 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/solar-power/2636#comment-25777 To defuse light with mirrors or reflective metals to cascade a room in the light. They were placed in various areas, across large rooms, to light the room as the sun moved in orbit during the day. The bright sun energy projected from a yard sounds a bit unsafe, but in Mexico, they have a tower with reflective pv, and it heats a water pipe inside the tower, to give heat as well as a steam to turn a generator and produce electricity. Add a windmill for the night winds, to also turn at night when the sun is down as a back up with lithium battery charge. In fact have two sets of backup emergency conversion, when the wattage drops to a certain point. Just a thought. - Kim Mon, 06 Apr 2009 20:05:27 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/solar-power/2636#comment-25729 What I like most about this technology is the interest and discussion it provokes. Let's look at cradle-to-grave for all of these technologies; the pros and cons of alternatives. They may be placed off the ground to minimize the interaction w/eyes on the ground? - M Hevezi Sun, 05 Apr 2009 14:50:15 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/solar-power/2636#comment-25725 I thought of it long time ago, but didn't get around to implement it. I use another static approach, using a solar thermal collector to heat air and pump it into the house, getting fresh air at the same time. Heat is the lowest form of energy, so it's easy to generate heat. A problem was/is it's cloudy in winter when we need heat the most, at least in my area. - Tony Sun, 05 Apr 2009 11:57:09 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/solar-power/2636#comment-25724 Pitty they cant do it from space for a large area to keep snow melted in areas where its not wanted, do the whole town so we all can get around without having to use snow ploughs. - Mobis Sun, 05 Apr 2009 10:44:40 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/solar-power/2636#comment-25711 In the three dampish winter months, in a semi arid place, like where I live it can take days for laundry to dry on a line. Inside or outside. A hassle if you are out of underwear. I will try angling a mirror nearby, if next year I am still alive. What a savings over buying a dryer! - barbionit Sat, 04 Apr 2009 22:22:30 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/solar-power/2636#comment-25661 I've been lining up mirrors on my deck in front of a set of sliding glass doors for several years. The temperature in that room rises several degrees on sunny days. It lowers my heating costs. I get plants to bloom that had never bloomed in my house before. The light that gets past the plants shines onto a brick wall. I get the mirrors for free at the swap shop at the town dump. I do have to adjust the angle of the mirrors every couple of weeks to focus the light. While the product Practical Solar is selling is undoubtedly more efficient then my system, my system is much cheaper - free. - Josh Fri, 03 Apr 2009 09:32:14 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/solar-power/2636#comment-25644 What happens when all the mirrors focus on the house and it bursts into flames? - gnomic Thu, 02 Apr 2009 21:17:12 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/solar-power/2636#comment-25640 this was the april fools joke, right? - Rain Thu, 02 Apr 2009 19:09:46 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/solar-power/2636#comment-25633 Seems to me this would work best in conjunction with intelligent passive solar design of houses. Perhaps to compensate where sun exposure isn't quite enough to keep the passive solar heating at optimum levels. Without passive solar design it makes very little sense. - Valkyrie607 Thu, 02 Apr 2009 13:06:12 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/solar-power/2636#comment-25632 I am all for alternative energy methods. But this doesn't appeal to me. The glare of the mirrors would drive me nuts. And if the homeowner could orient the mirrors so that it wouldn't bother them, what about their neighbors or the general public. - Peggy Maurhoff Thu, 02 Apr 2009 12:43:28 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/solar-power/2636#comment-25624 Don't consider this idea. It creates an extreme hazard for birds. Bird-window collisions are already a serious threat, killing hundreds of millions of birds per year. Why create more reflections for birds to fly into? - Gerri Thu, 02 Apr 2009 06:43:27 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/solar-power/2636#comment-25615 It seems to me that this is ideal technology and scaled just about right to use to reflect the sun onto a black-body collector which is used to heat/boil a liquid transfer medium. Use it to supplement heating of a swimming pool or drive a small steam turbine electrical generator. - Tom Wed, 01 Apr 2009 22:42:57 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/solar-power/2636#comment-25614 So let me get this straight...Mirror heating is perfect for locations that: -get lots of sun in winter -but don't get snow deep enough to cover the mirrors -must be aimed in through the windows otherwise they just warm the siding -take up yard space that could be used for something else (or here's a radical notion--NOT EVERYONE ON EARTH HAS/NEEDS A BIG YARD!!!) -and there's the initial logic-leap of "Photovoltaics are wonderful, but there are some far cheaper ways to harness the power of the sun to do good work for us." Yeah so put a bunch of heliostat mirrors in your yard MUCH CHEAPER THAN PV! This is a stupid idea on a micro level, and one of the reasons "green" ideas get bashed in the media. Solar farms like in Spain and California are a much better idea because of the scale. PV panels and solar water heating are a much better idea on a local/micro level. - Mark Wed, 01 Apr 2009 22:36:27 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/solar-power/2636#comment-25608 Before the clouds roll away, just brush them off and use them to melt the snow next time the sun comes out! You could aim them at your driveway so you won't have to shovel or use a gas-burning engine to power the snowblower! *8^) Interesting idea though... - JD Wed, 01 Apr 2009 18:04:22 +0100 http://www.ecogeek.org/solar-power/2636#comment-25605 This seems rather half hazard. Maybe what would make this more practical would be to focus the mirrors on a green house containing a thermal mass to capture and radiate the heat. Then you would need some sort of conduit/ducting system to transfer the heat to in a controled manner to the house. - Emmett Wed, 01 Apr 2009 17:04:33 +0100