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Introduction: Energy sources

The energy supply of population represents today’s most significant challenge. We need energy to cook, manufacture products, for heating, cooling, and for transportation etc.

Man uses up fossile fuels generated and accumulated during many 100-millions of years in slightly more than 100 years. A hundred-year period is only a fleeting moment in the history of Earth. Now the future of mankind is at stake.

It is high time search for alternative energy sources that can fulfill man’s demand for energy.
people buy what the market offers and with the thinning resources at more and more higher price.
What can the average person or a small community do?

Even if average people cannot save the whole world there are ways that everyone can implement to lessen energy consumption and our impact to the environmnet.
First of all a change in our overall view of the world is needed. We must understand that energy is indispensable treasure and we must use in the most economical way possible.

Secondly we have to realize that we can generate energy at home making do-it-yourself equipment that can generate heat and/or hot water to reduce gas or electricity consumption.

This article provides instruction on how to use solar energy in your home for heating with a collector that anyone who has a bit of knack for tinkering can build at home.

Beer Can Solar Heater („Sörkollektor”)

According to the story this unique solar panle was first made in Canada. A Hungarian engineer Péter Szentgyörgy found out about it on the Internet.
After having studied the concept thoroughly he built the first can solar panel for heating air inside his home.
His example inspired others and more and more beer can solar heater were made and intalles in Hungarian homes in 2006.
Today nearly 1000 m2 homemade solar panel surface operates in the country and this number is growing day by day.

Beer Can Solar Panels Map – The sun icons indcate operating homemade can solar systems

The enthusiastic amateurs help each other with their projects through an Internet community.
The members of the community first met at the national Can Solar Heater Competition at Solt in August 2007 organized by the webmasters of the „Sörkollektor” website.

Beer Can Solar Panel Competition at Solt 8th Aug. 2008

Encouraged by a friend of mine I, too, participated in the competition. A versenyre több internetes barátom unszolására én is beneveztem. My project received the „Everyone’s Beer can Solar Panel” name. The story behind the name is that every step of the panel’s building and assembly was discussed online and that allowed me to choose and build the most suitable version. (The process and the discussions can be accessed at http://www.sorkollektor.hu/ where you can read about other superb can solar heater projects, as well)

Beer can solar panel during construction

Let’s look at some numerical data:

How much building and operating a can solar panel costs?
The „Mindenki sörkollektora -Everyone’s Beer Can Solar Panel” was built from materials and accessories available in stores and it costed 60.000 HUF. Many were able to build it from materials and gadgets found in their homes and made it from 30-40.000 HUF or less.
There is only one nergy consumer during operation the ventilator. Taking 50W as base output it costs around 2 HUF/hour.

How much and how hot air can it blow into our house?
Approx. 100 m3 40 – 50 °C air/hour.

What’s its efficiency?
According to our measurements and calculations the efficiency of such solar panel reaches 70%.

How much energy does it generate and how much can we save with it?
A 2 m2-surface can solar panel with good southern building orientation can generate 300-400 kWh during heating season. This means 12. 000 -16.000 HUF saving calculating with 40 Ft electricity price.

What is it enough for?
Duringtransitional period a whole room can be heated. In winter it helps maintaing temperature inside the room. If we drive in hot iar into the room the thermostat will turn on less frequently and as a result less gas is used.

Where – How large? Based on facts gained by experience we say that a 2 m2-surface beer can solar panel can help in heating a 20 m2 room in proper circumstances.

What are those proper circumstances?

Before any of you starts building a can solar panel, it is important that you reduce the thermal emission of your home first, preventing the generated heat from escaping through bad window seals. Therefore, first you have to improve the outdoor insulation of your house then replace the windows and doors for more airtight ones if necessary.

Conclusion

The Beer Can Solar Panel is a great device from many aspects. It helps to change our view of our world and it inspires people to lead a more environmentally-conscious lifestyle. The beer can that would be thrown into a selective waste bin at best is reused in an inventive way protecting our immediate environment.

( Written by Károly György & Zoltán Horváth)

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 31st, 2008 at 4:43 pm and is filed under Uncategorized.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.