| Author | Message | ||
     Anonymous |
I was browsing your site and I thought of an idea. Could you hook a bunch of the mini solar panels together, hook that up with a small heating coil and use the heating coil to power the candle-powered steamboat but use the panels instead of the candle? Travis | ||
| Simon Quellen Field (Sfield) |
Yes, but... Solar panels are not very efficient, so to collect solar energy as electricity and then convert that to heat would require large solar panels. If you simply collected the solar energy as heat to start with, say with a fresnel lens focused on the tubing and a black coating on the tube, you would require less collector area. You would have to track the sun, however, to keep the focus on the tube. | ||
| Anonymous |
How about a combination of Natural Gas, solar and steam powered boat ? Or do I sound like an idiot ? | ||
| Anonymous |
methane? | ||
| Simon Quellen Field (sfield) Senior Member Username: sfield Post Number: 261 Registered: 12-2004 |
You don't sound like an idiot from here. But then again, you're too far away to hear. ;-) A natural gas (or methane) powered steam boat is quite feasible. Burn it instead of the candle. | ||
| mnado (Mnado) Senior Member Username: Mnado Post Number: 172 Registered: 12-2005 |
Does changing the candle with a small homemade oil lamp does any change? |
