Posted on 08/03/2005 6:57:34 PM PDT by SandRat
Sierra Vistan Gary Robertson has just received a patent on his Solar Tree, a 16-by-16-foot power and hot water producer for the home improvement industry. The "leaves" are solar leaves and 20 gallons of water is stored in the bark, which can be heated to 108 degrees. Ed Honda€Herald/Review
Warning label should note that planting such trees in hurricane prone areas could lead to high numbers of replacements.
Is this satire?
Piping and pumping for a thousand little leaves is supposed to be more efficient than a few large panels? What BS!
Neat-o ban-dee-toe.
Ever run the water from a dark colored hose over your hand that's been sitting in the sun for a while?
"Ever run the water from a dark colored hose over your hand that's been sitting in the sun for a while?"
Ever take a drink of that water? Awful.
Why not just build a water heating grid into the roof of a building where the water is delivered. Ditto for the solar panels. This reads as a total joke. Plant a real tree, not some goofy looking plastic one.
ROI? -30%
Reminds me of an idea I had for a bit of functional artwork.
I thought of constructing, from pieces and connections of copper pipe, a "Condensation Tree."
I'm used to well-water, and the water comes out of the ground at a pretty cool temperature. I thought it would be useful to move some of that through the branches from the inside, (one could use plastic lines to feed it out to the tips), and the cool water inside would cause condensation to form on the "tree."
That water could then fall onto musically tuned bits of metal, and collect in a small pond.
After processing through the tree, and warming up, the formerly cold water could then be the supply line to the hot-water heater, having been pre-warmed.
The condensation pond could be used by the pets, or just be decorative.
I wouldn't even call it an investment. I haven't worked with solar since 1979, and not much has changed since that time. Solar stills are used in some parts of the world where it makes sense.
Check the link. This is real, and is going to be patented.
If the home improvement outfits think it's a joke, then so be it. Otherwise, the inventor is going to be laughing all the way to the bank.
I much prefer the aesthetics of a tree to ugly black panels on my roof, thank you very much.
I much prefer a real tree. Solar panels can be installed in a way that blends with the architecture and you wouldn't even notice them unless it was pointed out to you. Can't do that with a fake tree made of pipes and solar cells.
THE "TOBONGA"! That's cool and a real blast from the past. A friend of mine and I since high school, have communicated for decades through wars, marriages, distance and life in general, by just sending a post card from wherever we were at and just wrote "Tobonga" on it, relating to that corny movie. We often wondered if there were any other "Tobongo's", as we called ourselves, others who were also amused by this movie.
Yes, they can. But it ain't happening that way here in the sunny Southwest, not in residential construction.
To be honest, I see this as something used in rural residences where folks want to either live off the grid, or reduce their reliance on public utilities.
Our local electric coop pays rebates to consumers who install devices that use less electricity, especially solar devices and heat pumps. I can see this happening with solar trees as well.
Nope real story
I never let my hand sit in the sun a while :-)
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