They work, but scatter light in a weird way and heat up the space dramatically. Granted that these are floor to ceiling 2 story windows, might have been hot either way, but can’t have reflective coating with solar.
could the reflective coating be on the inner part of the window pointing outward? Which now makes me wonder if doing that would get the solar window to gather more energy.
It seemed like it was a layer inside the window. Almost like a vinyl tint layer, but with a fairly subtle pattern. It also made star filter type patterns on point lights like headlights.
The problem isn’t that IR light, and whatever else, are getting in. Presumably the solar panel captures it. The issue is that any light it collects becomes heat. Solar panels get really hot, because they’re absorbing as much light as possible. This should get slightly less hot, because it’s only absorbing some light, and letting some through, but any heat coming in will become heat, because none is reflected. Any that’s reflected won’t become electricity.
isn’t heat generated a factor of inneficency in the panel? I mean I completely get what you are saying and its a good point. its the any light it collects becomes heat that put the question in my mind. Im not trying to like argue your point. Just I think the one sentence can cause misunderstanding. All light turned into electricity should not cause heat.
I’m not an expert by any means. I think that any of the light that is used to generate electricity heats up the panel though. It has to. It can’t just be destroyed. Some of that becomes electrons moving, which I assume counts as heat physically too, since heat is a measure of motion.
Again though, I’m far from an expert. This was just my layman’s educated guess.
yeah all of that is energy loss. its why a 100% efficient panel is impossible and really why any electrical device is not 100% efficient. Its do to energy loss as heat.
Yeah, obviously. It’s a part of how it generates electricity though. It’s a core part of it absorbing the light. Yes, all heat leaving the system is lost energy, and this is true regardless of the format of energy generation and/or use. But if the PC panel isn’t heating up then it isn’t working, because absorbing the light makes the molecules more energetic, which is heat, and I think it’s part of the process of electricity generation.
yeah its just if we can get insanely high efficiencies the heating would be minimal. Honestly I seem to recall someone has a thing that figures out the highest possible efficiency for solar panels and it was below 90%. Theoretically you can redirect heat to. Like there was a thing that transformed light wavelengths to one that allows it to go off to space. Im not sure what happened to that technology but it was for cooling.
Not solar panels, but NightHawkInLight has a bunch of videos on paints that get sub-ambient by radiating heat into space. That’s reflecting light though, so it is light that the panel isn’t absorbing, but it might be worth the tradeoff if they’re producing too much heat. It wouldn’t work for vertical windows though, because it requires it to be pointing up. It’d work for skylights and horizontal panels though.
Boston’s logan airport has them in the newest terminal.
They work, but scatter light in a weird way and heat up the space dramatically. Granted that these are floor to ceiling 2 story windows, might have been hot either way, but can’t have reflective coating with solar.
Airports, famous for their efficiency and sensible economic policies.
Yes! Efficient window coatings are typically reflective or the light you don’t want. This is the opposite.
Nice in the winter, I suppose.
could the reflective coating be on the inner part of the window pointing outward? Which now makes me wonder if doing that would get the solar window to gather more energy.
It seemed like it was a layer inside the window. Almost like a vinyl tint layer, but with a fairly subtle pattern. It also made star filter type patterns on point lights like headlights.
The problem isn’t that IR light, and whatever else, are getting in. Presumably the solar panel captures it. The issue is that any light it collects becomes heat. Solar panels get really hot, because they’re absorbing as much light as possible. This should get slightly less hot, because it’s only absorbing some light, and letting some through, but any heat coming in will become heat, because none is reflected. Any that’s reflected won’t become electricity.
isn’t heat generated a factor of inneficency in the panel? I mean I completely get what you are saying and its a good point. its the any light it collects becomes heat that put the question in my mind. Im not trying to like argue your point. Just I think the one sentence can cause misunderstanding. All light turned into electricity should not cause heat.
I’m not an expert by any means. I think that any of the light that is used to generate electricity heats up the panel though. It has to. It can’t just be destroyed. Some of that becomes electrons moving, which I assume counts as heat physically too, since heat is a measure of motion.
Again though, I’m far from an expert. This was just my layman’s educated guess.
yeah all of that is energy loss. its why a 100% efficient panel is impossible and really why any electrical device is not 100% efficient. Its do to energy loss as heat.
Yeah, obviously. It’s a part of how it generates electricity though. It’s a core part of it absorbing the light. Yes, all heat leaving the system is lost energy, and this is true regardless of the format of energy generation and/or use. But if the PC panel isn’t heating up then it isn’t working, because absorbing the light makes the molecules more energetic, which is heat, and I think it’s part of the process of electricity generation.
yeah its just if we can get insanely high efficiencies the heating would be minimal. Honestly I seem to recall someone has a thing that figures out the highest possible efficiency for solar panels and it was below 90%. Theoretically you can redirect heat to. Like there was a thing that transformed light wavelengths to one that allows it to go off to space. Im not sure what happened to that technology but it was for cooling.
Not solar panels, but NightHawkInLight has a bunch of videos on paints that get sub-ambient by radiating heat into space. That’s reflecting light though, so it is light that the panel isn’t absorbing, but it might be worth the tradeoff if they’re producing too much heat. It wouldn’t work for vertical windows though, because it requires it to be pointing up. It’d work for skylights and horizontal panels though.