Two initial, major finds last week have a) created new avenues, and b) confirmed some realities.
The first discovery I made was found by researching Hybrid Solar Lighting on the Web. A Vancouver-based company called SunCentral Inc., is bringing sunlight into buildings using a canopy system of mirrors that has very low light loss. An outreach of UBC research, this technology has been tested and applied and uses a novel way to do it - without fibre optics! The application to below ground rooms is not known by me, but I have a good chance to view this system and learn more about SunCentral's take on HSL systems.
Secondly, the original list of manufacturers I had identified early on included Sunlight Direct (California), Parans (Sweden), and Himawari (Japan). I emailed the first with inquiries about Canadian representation and three weeks later have no answer. A message on their website perhaps says it all, " As of November 2008, the technology is no longer being offered for commercial/residential building lighting as it awaits cost improvements and further product development." Cost a bit of a problem?
Parans of Canada names two Canadian representatives - promising! I sent both representatives inquiries regarding the cost of purchasing the advertised systems on the parent company's website and both representatives were gracious enough to answer the call. Unfortunately I have to guess at what the cost of shipping from Sweden will be to arrive at a grand total figure. With what I have learned, one solar-tracking collector and mount, four hybrid luminaires, 15 metres of fibre optic cable, and a control feature to turn off the lighting system during daylight hours will exceed $20,000 CDN(!). Gulp.
Himawari of Japan is next on my target list for pricing information.
Now that I have some realism on the cost of purchasing a hybrid solar system, I await further information on local installations, and, perhaps, a new list of suppliers.
Thanks for reading, and please comment!
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Thanks for the update Tony. It is very helpful to keep your blog viewers up to date. It is amazing how expensive these systems are! Perhaps you could price out a do-it-yourself option using some fiber optics and a metal dinner plate or something? At that price it would be cheaper to install photovoltaic panels and use LED lighting in the basement, but I guess you would not get quite the same quality of light.
ReplyDeleteHi Dale,
ReplyDeleteDefinitely, there is room for improvement in the price department. I may have mentioned in conversation that less expensive attempts at creating a solar lighting system have been documented. One of my sources utilized a chromed satellite dish as the solar collector, then industry standard communications-grade fibre optic cable to channel the light. This sounds greatly achievable to me, as there are abundant satellite dishes to be had, and their shape and focal point appear to closely resemble what the Oakridge National Research Laboratory was working with.
As I commented back to Jody, the efficiency of direct solar lighting compared with PV panels, electricity, wiring and conversion back to useable light, favors the direct method by at least three to one - when the sun's out!
Full visible spectrum light from the sun has the proportions or weighting of colour temperatures that both plants and humans favour best. The functional benefits of sunlight promote the technology beyond energy efficiency and into the arena of clean, beneficial, and energy efficient coup de grace technologies!
Thanks for the comment,
-T.
Hey Tony,
ReplyDeleteI think the research you are doing is great. If you could harnes the light energy of the sun with almost no energy loss it would reduce emmisions greatly. I also like the idea of having sunlight placed into rooms which may not be able to have it regularly. Of course the cost of the assembly is quite high, but as Dale said there must be a cheaper way of doing it. It would also be interesting if there was a way that you could store the light in a capacitor like assembly in order to have light during the night.
Thanks Tony,
ReplyDeleteGet out of my head! The capacitor-like thing would revolutionize solar lighting for sure, and I wish I could be the one to figure out how you could store light. It certainly would help if light could be trapped in a mirror-maze once the source was gone. To use it later, an opening micro shutter could open to let the reflecting light out to use up gradually, until the light source (sun) was out again.
Anybody out there know where we can get one of these?
Hey Tony,
ReplyDeleteI found a great article on HSL. It's not too long and I think it gives a great description of what it is and how it works. Here is the link: http://infraredoven.getshopguide.com/light-of-the-future-hybrid-solar-lighting/
Thanks Scotty,
ReplyDeleteThe article is factual in spite of being chopped up, having weird phrases inserted randomly, and authored by noone in particular. Thanks and keep it coming!
Tony B.