Stoves and furnaces – Tool having fluid fuel burner – Curling iron
Patent
1987-04-21
1988-08-23
Yeung, James C.
Stoves and furnaces
Tool having fluid fuel burner
Curling iron
126424, 126419, F24J 238
Patent
active
047653094
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to a solar tracking device for causing a solar energy collector to follow the sun from east to west during the course of a day so as to maintain a position close to optimum with respect to the sun and for reorientating the collector to the easterly direction at the end of the day ready for sunrise on the following morning.
Numerous tracking devices have been developed to cause solar energy collecting devices to follow the sun from east to west during the course of a day so as to allow the solar energy collecting devices to operate most efficiently by increasing both total output and uniformity of output. Many such tracking devices are of complex construction and require an external energy supply and as a result are not cost-effective.
A simple tracking device which operates without relying either on an external energy supply or on energy gathered by the collector itself, is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,999,943 to C. W. Geer. In that solar tracking device, a pair of containers are interconnected and sealed so as to form a closed system which is partially filled with a volatile liquid. The containers are supported on a pivotal platform which also carries a solar radiation collector, the containers being disposed opposite one another one to each side of the pivot axis. The containers have shades which are so arranged that when the rays of the sun are normal to the surface of the collector, the containers receive equal amounts of solar radiation. When, owing to westerly movement of the sun, the rays are no longer normal to the collector surface, the shades allow the container that is farther from the sun to receive a larger amount of radiation than the container which is closer to the sun, thereby producing a temperature differential between the two containers. The temperature differential between the two containers results in a transfer of liquid to the cooler container which in turn alters the static balance of the device thereby causing rotation of the device until the temperature differential is eliminated. In this way, the device follows the sun from east to west during the course of the day. At the commencement of the day and throughout the morning the device is in an easterly-facing direction and hence the eastern container is lower than the western container. The two containers are at the same height when the device attains the central position at midday and in the afternoon thereafter the device assumes a westerly-facing direction in which the western container is lower than the eastern container. At the end of the day, the device stays in the westerly-facing direction and is required to be manually reoriented to the easterly-facing direction. If the device is not manually reoriented, it would remain in the westerly-facing direction until such time as the sun rose sufficiently high in the east to shine over the eastern shade to strike the western container and thus the benefit of many hours of sunlight would be lost.
While not specifically disclosed in the Geer patent, the two containers will have unequal cooling rates if the sun is obscured when the device has tracked to a tilted position. This is because the lower container contains more liquid than the higher container and therefore has greater thermal mass and must cool more slowly. The differential cooling rates provide a tendency for fluid transfer from the lower container to the higher container owing to the lower pressure of vaporised liquid in the higher container. Such tendency for fluid transfer is opposed by the head of the volatile liquid in the closed system. If fluid transfer should take place, it would have the effect of altering the static balance of the device so as to cause the device to commence to tilt towards the central position. The tendency for the liquid to move to the higher container would however be eliminated if the device approached the central position as at this point the containers would now hold equal quantities of liquid and would therefore cool at equal rates. Consequently, the device would n
REFERENCES:
patent: 4175391 (1979-11-01), Baer
patent: 4275712 (1981-06-01), Baer
patent: 4349011 (1982-09-01), Hartsog
patent: 4476854 (1984-10-01), Baer
patent: 4505255 (1985-03-01), Baer
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