Thread: Panel efficiency experiment

Thanks JayTee, that was a truely interesting video.

Some 15 odd years ago, a company I use to deal with, imported some special solar panels from Turkey.

These panels had tubing fixed to the back of the solar panels ( like the info in that video ) but while the tubing was intended to cool the solar panel but the water was intended to be used in a domestic hot water system.

I have demonstrated, on numerous occasions, how just pouring cold water over a hot solar panel increases to output substantially, to most observers disbelief.

I have never considered or heard of using air flow to cool a solar panel.

If I ever get some spare time, I must try out his experiment.

Simple enough tech, weight in mobile situations would be horrendous!

I'd suggest for a long term static install (house etc) may pay off over time

Thanks for posting

Originally Posted by Tombie

Simple enough tech, weight in mobile situations would be horrendous!

Agreed, which is why I used the qualifier "yet". I imagine early commercial use of this idea would have a "horrendous" price tag as well.

Stands to reason

We are building some huge Data Centres & while i know they are not the same they must be kept cool to operate efficiently.

Cheers

Trouble with using airflow to cool panels in a mobile application is that, while there can be plenty of it, it happens precisely when you don't need it!

Originally Posted by chuck

Stands to reason

We are building some huge Data Centres & while i know they are not the same they must be kept cool to operate efficiently.

Cheers

I imagine heat dissipation is of major concern when designing those. You could probably heat a small city off googles servers alone.

Originally Posted by drivesafe

I have demonstrated, on numerous occasions, how just pouring cold water over a hot solar panel increases to output substantially, to most observers disbelief.

Yes, I tested this on my home solar panels. The output definitely rose.

Originally Posted by p38arover

Yes, I tested this on my home solar panels. The output definitely rose.

That effect is not noticeable in Melbourne when it rains... Oh, wait...