A SUN pump~~World Record Solar Efficiency Day & Night!

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slave
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06 Jun 2015, 9:39 pm

....BUT is it true???

They claim " The graphic above shows the 1:7 ratio one SunPump Solar Evaporator panel has the same 1750 thermal watts/hour rating as 7 PV panels with 1750 electrical watts per hour. Both 1.75 capacity systems would heat the same volume of 37.6 liters water by 40 C. in 1 hour. It is physics – the laws of thermodynamics. For simplicity sake we are not considering solar efficiency losses or other factors at this stage, we can quibble about those later.

One hour is just a metric, in this case 1.75 kWh, one hour is not meaningful so what is each system capable of producing in a whole day? Well, the PV system could annually average 6 hours day, and heat 225 Liters of water, (6 hr x 37.6 L = 225). The SunPump is not limited by having sunshine on the panel, it can produce at the rated capacity in the dark of night, and so would produce 4 times the production in 24 hours or 900 Liters in one day, (24 hr / 6 hr = 4 x 225 L = 900 L).

When we combine the 1:7 ratio by the 4-fold amount of time the SunPump is capable of operating, we have a possible 28-fold or 2800% greater solar efficiency potential. Realistically, the SunPump will not need to run 24/7, it may operate for a fraction of that time even in the Winter, at 1/3 or 8 hours per day SunPump is still around 10 x the solar efficiency.

Here is a Reality check. A CSA tested SunPump with a name-plate rated 14 kw heating capacity operates with 8 panels, so each panel is 14 kw/8 = 1.75 kW/panel. Yes, that is real. If the 14 kW ran for 12 hours it would produce 168 kWh of thermal energy. How Many 250 watt (0.25 kW) solar panels would that equate to operating for 6 hours? The answer is a staggering 112 solar PV panels. (168 kwh/6 hr = 28 kW per hour/250 watts = 112 panels). A 14 kW SunPump for $10,000 can produce as much as 112 solar panels for $100,000 in 1/2 day. Wow!

Source:https://www.sunpump.solar/services/technical-support/

They also claim "Introducing the first renewable energy to cost less than fossil fuel heating systems.

Here is the math. Incumbent System Cost – Renewable System Cost = Incremental Cost/Annual Savings = Simple Pay Back

Cost of a comparable Natural Gas Boiler or Furnace $12,000
Cost of a 14 kW SunPump is $9000,
the difference is <$3,000>
-3,000/$1 = 30-day simple Pay Back.
Explanation: Any initially lower cost or negative incremental difference divided by any positive savings amount is instant Pay Back, and the 30-day reference is to say the bill at months end is lower than without the SunPump.

Source:https://www.sunpump.solar/services/free-estimate/

I'm all for alt. energy, but is this too good to be true?
What do you guys think of their claims?

https://www.sunpump.solar/

I'm curious about the investment potential, but I am always VERY skeptical.



LupaLuna
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07 Jun 2015, 12:38 am

On a high solar noon. The sun shining on a 8'x3' surface area is about 1.5kw of raw sun power. and that's at 100% efficiency. Most PV's are on average at 20% efficiency. A vacuum tube solar heater can get about 90% efficiency.



Adamantium
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07 Jun 2015, 12:06 pm

It doesn't seem useful to compare this to PV panels.
This is not going to help you when you want to recharge your laptop.
Big difference between "energy" and electricity. A big rock does a great job of storing solar energy as a thermal mass. Not so good for running lights.



slave
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07 Jun 2015, 7:19 pm

They claim it provides energy when it is raining, or at night, or when it is snowing and cold...no matter what day or night, hot or cold, dry or wet.



Adamantium
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08 Jun 2015, 9:41 am

Quote:
What Does SunPump Do?

At it’s core SunPump is a multi-source heat pump that moves energy from warm to cold. The prime uses include space heating and cooling, hot water, and optionally the generation of photovoltaic DC power from panels. The entire energy of a building is possible from this renewable heating and power system.


https://www.sunpump.solar/solar-heating-f-q/

So what it's doing is moving heat, not electricity, unless you add photovoltaics.

It seems there is a little hype and oversell in these descriptions.

It might be a great advance in heating and cooling technology, but it doesn't seem like the Total Energy Solution that some of the language gushes about.
I would be curious to see more specifics on the at night/cloudy heating, too.

The key detail seems to be this:
Quote:
The black panels are single piece seamless aluminum with complex micro-channels that circulate refrigerant in order to boil or evaporate into a gas at -50 C. The reult is a simple, reliable unglazed panel that can boil the heat transfer liquid at ambient temperatures above -50 C.


I can see that this lets you do part of the job at low temps, but what about the effect on the other half? How does this help you get the heat out of the boiling-but-cold transfer fluid inside the house?



eric76
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08 Jun 2015, 9:53 am

slave wrote:
They claim it provides energy when it is raining, or at night, or when it is snowing and cold...no matter what day or night, hot or cold, dry or wet.


That right there makes their claims suspicious.

I'd wait until they had a track record for maybe five years.



slave
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08 Jun 2015, 8:44 pm

I appreciate the input on this product...pls keep it coming :)



Adamantium
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09 Jun 2015, 8:19 am

It would help if they explained what the mean by "multi-source."



slave
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11 Jun 2015, 5:49 pm

Adamantium wrote:
It would help if they explained what the mean by "multi-source."


I agree.
The info they provide is 9 parts sales pitch and 1 part info. which I strongly dislike.
I want a clear explanation on the Science behind this supposed advance before I can form an opinion, which the bastards don't provide.
The fact that there are virtually no details on the product is very telling.