I think the problem is your extremely small scale compared to the other examples given. Just off the top of my head I would think maybe you could make 100 or 200 watts on a sunny day. That might actually be optimistic. This is the same as a single PV panel. But the PV would be much cheaper to implement (and easier). I think PV would be the way to go for electricity. But for heat storage, barrels have been used. Solar is very successful in deserts usually. If you have some water you can do some evaporative cooling also. Just saw a house like this on TV recently.

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1998 C230 330,000 miles (currently dead of second failed EIS, yours will fail too, turning you into the dealer's personal human cash machine)
1988 F150 144,000 miles (leaks all the colors of the rainbow)
Previous stars: 1981 Brava 210,000 miles, 1978 128 150,000 miles, 1977 B200 Van 175,000 miles, 1972 Vega (great, if rusty, car), 1972 Celica, 1986.5 Supra

So, the heat rising in the column spins a turbine? Is that how this works? That's pretty cool. I've never heard of doing this before. If you build this, please put some progress pictures on the forum. That's very interesting.

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" We have nothing to fear but the main stream media itself . . . ."- Adapted from Franklin D Roosevelt for the 21st century

OBK #55

1998 Lincoln Continental - Sold
Max 1984 300TD 285,000 miles - Sold
The Dee8gonator 1987 560SEC 196,000 miles - Sold
Orgasmatron - 2006 CLS500 90,000 miles
2002 C320 Wagon 122,000 miles
2016 AMG GTS 12,000 miles

I take and appreciate your meaning. PV as well as wind are also on the drawing board, but PV has some drawbacks especially in a desert/summer environment. As you are no doubt aware PV suffers from an inverse relationship between temperature and efficiency... ie. the hotter the PV panel gets the less efficient it becomes. This fact is what led me to the SUT, heat is a friend insted of an enemy.

Another benefit to the SUT is that it continues to produce power after the sun goes down, the heated medium (in my case black rocks) in the collector continues to 'do its thang' for some time.


Big thanks to all who responded, please keep it coming!!!

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Cheers,
Robert

Will your house be on or off the electric grid?

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-Marty

1986 300E 220,000 miles+ transmission impossible
(Now waiting under a bridge in order to become one)

Reading your M103 duty cycle:
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showpost.php?p=831799&postcount=13
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showpost.php?p=831807&postcount=14

Here is a product that works with hot air as well

http://www.cansolair.com/

It is for space heating in the winter, but maybe you can get some ideas from it. They use aluminum cans with holes drilled in the bottom and top. They use Aluminum because it absorbs the heat rapidly. You could use two materials for the collector, aluminum or similar, that heats up rapidly, then a more dense material like the rocks you mention, as a heat store.?

Just looking as some of the claims in the Wikipedia article, and thinking about this from the standpoint of how much power one might get from a given collection area:

OK, about 1.1 W per square meter of collection area.

OK, about 5 W per square meter of collection area.

You're proposing a collection area of 37 square meters. Even if it were the case that, building on a vastly smaller scale, you could match the efficiency of what they suggest might be possible - and I wouldn't bet on that without a lot more information - what would you have? 185 W?

in a perfect world... off... I am fully conversant in battery banks, LEDs, and DC appliances. But realistically speaking, I enjoy my creature comforts as much as the next man, plus my various welders pull mega amps, and I'd hate to fire up the genny every time I want to weld.

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Cheers,
Robert

Seems to me you would want to be on the grid if at all possible to avoid the initial investment and replacement cost of batteries. All you have to do is find out the cheapest /watt way to generate more than you use. and chances are great that the electric company will be required to at least trade the energy you provide in the month for what you need on a watt to watt basis. When it comes to heat, it seems like it would be hard to beat passive solar and geothermal... if you're starting from scratch that is.

__________________
-Marty

1986 300E 220,000 miles+ transmission impossible
(Now waiting under a bridge in order to become one)

Reading your M103 duty cycle:
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showpost.php?p=831799&postcount=13
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showpost.php?p=831807&postcount=14

Thanks Eskimo for dumbing it down for me... Thats some good info there, (mpolli was darn close in his watt estimation BTW) its gonna be awfully hard to justify such an investment for a meagre return. I'm looking for at least 4 kW daily, and it doesn't look like that can happen with the current design.

Back to the drawing board.

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Cheers,
Robert

Did you check out the other designs utilizing solar heat?

I'll see if I can find them again through the various links that I followed

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It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so. Robert A. Heinlein


09 Jetta TDI
1985 300D

Yes, I've checked out the parabolic mirror/stirling engine setup($$$$)

And theres a new system in the works that uses superheated molten salt that is almost too scary to contemplate.

And I'm looking into a wind driven 'accessory' to the SUT, but that idea is still incubating in the ol' cerebellum.

I greatly appreciate any and all suggestions and information, but I'm most interested in things that I can build out of reasonably cheap and readily accessible materials (especially steel)

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Cheers,
Robert

here she is from the front... I compare this structure to Sara Jessica Parker...

Ugly?... Possibly.
weird looking?.. Certainly.
Strangely intriguing?.. Yup.

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Cheers,
Robert

It's an intriguing idea and I don't want to rain on your inclination, cuz I like it, but . . .

The big ones get part of their updraft power on the difference 'tween air pressure at the entry and exit points, a large distance for the one proposed in Australia. I just don't know if you'll get enough wattage that you can effectively harness with a smaller one.

One thing that probably could work in a smaller application, is to just have the column of barrels on the south side of the house. As they get hot, air is going to want to rise up and you can use that updraft to exhauxt hot air at the top of ceiling in the house by using ducts connected to the bottom of the column of barrels.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K

4 kw a day is not very much, if you can do grid-tie, net metering and you are in Arizona or somewhere similar, that would be easy to do with PV. You can estimate an average of 6 hours of sunlight per day. You could do that with 4 x 200 watt panels. Not sure if that is enough voltage for a grid-tie inverter. $800 x 4 for the panels, plus $1500 for an inverter is $4700. Build your own pole mount rack that is seasonally adjustable.

I have always thought that wind and PV are a good combination. When it's not sunny, it's usually windy, and the wind can blow all day and all night. Lots of plans online for home built wind turbines. I have read good things about this guy.

http://www.scoraigwind.com/

You mentioned you work with steel, It that house made out of shipping crates? Cool idea.