Stoves and furnaces – Tool having fluid fuel burner – Curling iron
Patent
1986-06-30
1988-04-19
Jones, Larry
Stoves and furnaces
Tool having fluid fuel burner
Curling iron
126446, 126448, 126DIG2, F24J 232
Patent
active
047382473
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to roof installations, particularly adapted to collecting solar energy.
For some years attempts have been made to make use of the energy falling on roofs from solar radiation. The classical approach has been to mount so-called solar panels on the roof, these generally consisting of some form of sandwich or tubular construction through which a working fluid, usually water, was passed, the construction being designed to be heat absorbing e.g. by being matte black. Such systems are expensive in terms of capital cost, prone to difficulties of sealing, corrosion and clogging in use, and tend not to blend aesthetically with the roof structure. Although they allow impinging radiant energy to be used, conversion efficiencies are very low.
Some devices of this type attempt to rely on the so-called greenhouse effect of a trapped body of circulating air. Such types are particularly prone to severe difficulties in operation due to condensation of trapped water vapour.
Typical complex constructions of this nature are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,133,298 and 4,479,487 and in various citations listed in each of those two specifications.
Reliance upon heat absorption and thermal conductivity to secure adequate heat transfer is not universal. Proposals have been made to take advantage of the improved heat transfer properties of so-called heat pipes, closed systems in which a working fluid, for example a freon, is evaporated in one region of the pipe and condensed, giving up its latent heat of evaporation, in another region. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,996,919, 4,067,315 and 4,122,356 show a number of ways in which heat pipes have been proposed for use in connection with the collection and use of solar energy.
None of the systems described in any of the specifications listed above is simple and straightforward to construct, nor is it particularly efficient in use. In particular, none of the systems attempts to integrate the collection of thermal solar energy with the construction of a sound weather-proof roof structure.
In accordance with the present invention, an array of heat pipes is used which is incorporated within a roof structure and in which the pipes run parallel to the plane of the roof structure.
Thus in accordance with a first feature of the present invention there is provided a roof installation comprising a set of interfitting members adapted to form a generally planar roof covering, a set of heat pipes consisting of closed tubes each containing a quantity of evaporatable liquid, the axes of the pipes running parallel to the plane of the roof covering, the pipes being in thermal contact with the interfitting members, and means for extracting heat from the heat pipes.
Such a system may be built into a flat roof but is preferably used in a pitched roof, the upper ends of a set of heat pipes being located adjacent the ridge of the roof. However, although that system works well, it is not necessary to run the heat pipes up and down the roof; they can run horizontally, either in a pitched roof or a flat one. Heat may be extracted from the upper end of non-horizontal heat pipes or from one or more positions in the case of horizontal heat pipes.
Heat pipes running generally parallel to the roof plane may be incorporated in a roof structure in a very wide variety of ways. One way of particular value is to locate each of the heat pipes in a tubular housing, either in one of the interfitting members of formed e.g. by two semi-cylindrical grooves in adjacent interfitting members. In such cases, the interfitting members are usually fairly long and e.g. in a pitched roof run from eaves to ridge. An alternative approach is to provide that each of the heat pipes is located in a set of aligned tubular housings in a corresponding set of interfitting members. For example a number of "tiles" may be threaded onto a heat pipe running from eaves to roof ridge, either directly or they may be threaded onto a tube which in turn contains a heat pipe.
The construction of the interfitting members must of course act as a roof
REFERENCES:
patent: 3996919 (1976-12-01), Hepp
patent: 4086913 (1978-05-01), Gavin
patent: 4127105 (1978-11-01), Watt
patent: 4319437 (1982-03-01), Murphy
patent: 4392539 (1983-07-01), Franklin
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