[RE-wrenches] module / panel

[Joel Davidson]

Hi Bill,

The module operated at approximately 450 degree F. When the flame became yellow, the PV cell would conduct more and the light power would change the orifice size to get the flame back to blue.

There are lots of unusual ways to use cells, modules, and panels. Solar modules used as desks, tables, and conference room tables by several PV contractors. From my office, I can see a nearby office building with vertically mounted solar panels in portrait mode used as screens to hide roof-mounted air conditioners. Not very efficient mounting panels at 34 degrees latitude, but it's always nice to see more PV.

Here's an interesting solar module as a piece of art. With Valentine's Day coming up, you might want to give your honey a solar rose. Tell them Joel sentcha. They may give you a discount. See http://www.sunbrothers.com/portfolio/flower.htm

Joel Davidson
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Bill Loesch 
  To: RE-wrenches 
  Sent: Wednesday, February 09, 2011 5:02 AM
  Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] module / panel



  Hi Joel,

  Interesting applications.

  I'm not trying to be pedantic but (in the '93 application) did you mean the module was seeing the flame and keeping the _gas valve_ open? Do I understand correctly that it was capable of keeping the electromagnet energized on only pilot flame? Essentially substituting for a thermocouple or thermopile?

  Not exactly an ideal cold temperature application.

  TIA,

  Bill Loesch
  Solar 1 - Saint Louis Solar
  314 631 1094


    ----- Original Message ----- 
    From: Joel Davidson 
    To: RE-wrenches 
    Sent: Tuesday, February 08, 2011 10:01 PM
    Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] module / panel


    Cells? Modules? Bell Labs use to call them solar batteries. Call them what you will, but please buy and use them.

    Nomenclature from micro to macro: Cell > Module > Panel > Sub-array > Array > Power Field.

    From Solar Photovoltaic Applications Seminar: Design, Installation and Operation of Small, Stand-Alone Photovoltaic Systems, July 1980, DOE/CS/32522-T1 (with thanks to Jim Fortenberry for his copy when the DOE shut down the PV Division of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1984):
    A PV array is composed of many subarrays, panels, modules, and cells in various series, parallel, star, and delta combinations. Individual cells are wired together and mounted to produce a module.

    From UL 1703:
    2. Glossary
    2.13 Module (Flat-Plate) - The smallest environmentally protected, essentially planar assembly of solar cells and ancillary parts, such as interconnects and terminals, intended to generate dc power under unconcentrated sunlight. The structural (load-carrying) member of a module can either be the top layer (superstrate), or the back layer (substrate), in which:
    a) The superstrate is the transparent material forming the to (light-facing) outer surface of the module. If load-carrying, this constitutes a structural superstrate.
    b) The substrate is the material forming the back out surface of a module. If load-carrying, this constitutes a structural substrate.
    2.15 Panel (Flat-Plate) - A collection of modules mechanically fastened together, wired, and designed to provide a field-installable unit.

    Cell/Module/Panel factoids:

    There are such things as non-solar PV cells and modules. In 1983, a UCLA researcher used a silicon solar cell to measure the contractions (beats) of a heart cell. The heart cell was viewed on a television screen that was connected to a microscope. The solar cell was taped to the TV screen. When the cell contracted, the photons emitted by the TV screen changed causing the solar cell to generate current that was then recorded.

    In 1993, while at Solec International, I had a customer who used a small custom solar module mounted near the combustion chamber of a natural gas heater. The solar module used the photons emitted by the combusted gas to power the gas flow regulator.

    In 1994, while at Solar Integrated Technologies, I got the first UL listing for a photovoltaic panel (not module).

    Joel Davidson






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