Semi-transparent solar cells that could be added to windows to efficiently harvest energy from indoor light as well as the sun have been developed by an international team led by UCL researchers.
I’ve seen a large installation in person and they light plenty of light in, but aren’t quite clear so you can’t really enjoy the view out as you would with a normal window.
They would make good skylights in an office situation when you want natural light but don’t need to see out of them.
I sorta was thinking there are only so many windows in my place that we really look out for the view. talked to my wife and we agreed that we would be fine with a less than clear view for everything in our place outside of the balcony and the master bedroom.
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.
A solar panel can’t heat a space more just by being present, but if it replaces reflective surfaces then sure.
In normal circumstances it reduces heat compared to a similar surface due to converting solar energy which would’ve become heat into electricity (assuming you don’t use all that energy right away, in which case it merely transports where the heat happens away from the panel)
I was actually installing a system with passive IR motion sensors that worked great at night, but as soon a as the sun was shining in, went all haywire. We brought them down the hall to the older tinted window wing, and they behaved normally again. They even worked well outside, which we thought was the worst case scenario during testing.
When we came back with an ir camera, it was full of scattered noise, but the resolution wasn’t good enough to understand exactly what was happening and we had already switched to different hardware that worked around the problem.
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.
I’ve been hearing about this for years. The fact that it never materialized is a sign that it probably doesn’t make sense economically.
Or because people want windows to let light into their homes?
Solar panels make sense on roofs, not windows
I’ve seen a large installation in person and they light plenty of light in, but aren’t quite clear so you can’t really enjoy the view out as you would with a normal window.
They would make good skylights in an office situation when you want natural light but don’t need to see out of them.
I sorta was thinking there are only so many windows in my place that we really look out for the view. talked to my wife and we agreed that we would be fine with a less than clear view for everything in our place outside of the balcony and the master bedroom.
The ones I saw were near an overpass and the headlights looked like a 1980s camera star filter. Or maybe what people with astigmatism see.
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.
Yeah it’s literal window dressing.
Yes! Efficient window coatings are typically reflective or the light you don’t want. This is the opposite.
Nice in the winter, I suppose.
A solar panel can’t heat a space more just by being present, but if it replaces reflective surfaces then sure.
In normal circumstances it reduces heat compared to a similar surface due to converting solar energy which would’ve become heat into electricity (assuming you don’t use all that energy right away, in which case it merely transports where the heat happens away from the panel)
They scattered infrared light in a weird way.
I was actually installing a system with passive IR motion sensors that worked great at night, but as soon a as the sun was shining in, went all haywire. We brought them down the hall to the older tinted window wing, and they behaved normally again. They even worked well outside, which we thought was the worst case scenario during testing.
When we came back with an ir camera, it was full of scattered noise, but the resolution wasn’t good enough to understand exactly what was happening and we had already switched to different hardware that worked around the problem.
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.
Doesn’t make sense economically/for big corporations.