The sun is a water tower. Scheme, description

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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF RADIO ELECTRONICS AND ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING
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The sun is a water tower. Encyclopedia of radio electronics and electrical engineering

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Encyclopedia of radio electronics and electrical engineering / Alternative energy sources

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The original idea is this. Any body, as you know, expands when heated, and contracts when cooled. Isn't it true, some analogy with oscillatory motion is already visible: it heats up - it cools, it expands - it contracts ...

For the first experiment, we need two identical flasks or large transparent bottles, a wide board one meter long, about the same or slightly longer length vinyl chloride tube, thick steel wire, a long nail, a piece of cloth and ... the sun.

We drive a nail into the middle of the board, put the board on the legs, as shown in fig. 1.

The sun is a water tower
Fig. 1

We hang a wire rocker with bottles attached to it on a nail. In bottles half-filled with water, we insert rubber stoppers that fit snugly to the necks with a vinyl chloride tube passed through them, reaching almost to the bottom of the bottles. In order for the water to be in the tube, the following operation should be performed: first, pour the water to the top into one of the bottles, suck the water out of the free end of the tube and quickly insert it into the second bottle. After a while, the water level in both bottles will equalize. For better tightness, the necks of the bottles can be covered with plasticine. Cover the bottom half of the board with a damp cloth. It remains to expose this entire system to the sun so that both the water bottles and the rag are on the shady side.

By pressing on one end of the lever, lower one bottle so that direct sunlight falls on it, while the other bottle, on the contrary, will be in the shade. Soon it will become noticeable how the water in the heated bottle will begin to gradually decrease, turning into a cold one. A dish illuminated by the sun will become somewhat lighter than a dish in the shade behind a board and a wet rag. Now take your hand off the lever...

Your solar engine has started. The principle is easy to understand. The vapor pressure of water in a sunlit bottle increases. The pressure difference distills part of the liquid into another bottle. And a wet rag is needed in order to help the lighter bottle hiding in the shade cool faster. Soon the bottles will switch places again (of course, unless the sun disappears behind the clouds, and you remember to moisten the dried rag again).

But, you say, such an engine will work too lazily. That's right, it's not a water tower. But from this experience it is easy to logically move on to the next one - the goal of our conversation. Let this experience be purely mental to begin with. Note: after all, the vapor pressure over a liquid will be maximum if the largest part of the liquid at a given temperature passes into a gaseous state. Therefore, it is necessary to use a liquid with an extremely low boiling point, such as ether, instead of water. The design of such a heat engine is shown in Fig. 2.

The sun is a water tower
Fig. 2

Imagine a well into which a container with a valve and a hermetically sealed lid with two tubes coming out of it is lowered. A large canned food can can serve as a blank for such a container. Water will flow through one tube (it is desirable that its height and diameter be as small as possible), and excess pressure will be transmitted through the other. The device that creates this excess pressure is fixed on the edge of the well. This may be an old metal barrel, in the lid of which a large hole is cut so that sufficiently wide sides remain. A copper lid is screwed tightly to them, and the edges of a strong plastic bag are laid between it and the barrel. The remaining gaps are sealed with putty. A metal cylinder with a tube for draining water is welded to the top of the barrel. A small hole is made in the copper lid, through which ether is poured into the plastic bag, after which the hole is tightly closed with a cork and also carefully sealed.

In the pictures you see an imaginary engine in action. The sun heats the copper sheet, the ether begins to evaporate intensively (Fig. 2b), the excess pressure of the ether vapor is transferred to the water in the lower tank, the water rises from the well through the pipe and performs double work: it waters the garden and cools the lid. Then the cooled ether is compressed, the pressure in the barrel decreases, and water again enters the lower container through the opened valve (Fig. 2, a).

Do not rush to implement this project. Assemble first a small working model on the table. After all, it is clear that such an automatic well will not give more than a few buckets of water a day. The maximum that he is capable of is watering the garden or replenishing the supply of water in the tank. But, firstly, and this is not bad. And secondly, can you tell me a way to increase the performance of the solar pump?

Author: S.Valyansky

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