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Just saw a program with a segment on windows that act as solar panels. For a home, this would be a waste. However, for large commercial buildings this could be an option towards solar power to augment city utilities. What I don’t know is the cost of purchase and instillation versus energy savings. I work at a large local hospital and would like to put together an initial proposal to my bosses for such a project. Because of the nature of the project it would have to be a major capital improvement budget project which could result in the closing of several patient wings at a time while the instillation is being performed as well as master electrician installation of a controller that would either separate from city utilities should the city have a power outage or not be connected to the city at all or see the city power loss and disconnect from the hospital to avoid the power surge from the emergency generators. Such planning would require major planning beyond my knowledge.
It's beyond your current knowledge. No pun intended!
It will require a team effort. Gather your team and start the research . From building schematics to past use of energy. Then go to your manufacturer and have them do a cost assessment.
Our local hospital revamped to solar and did so in increment stages. No where did it reflect in pass thru savings to departments or the patients who fund the facility. So the upfront cost will always be a contention to the board or investors. The reality is, they want to see returns rather quickly.
I appreciate that you see potential in this energy source. I sense though putting this into actual execution is beyond your scope.
..... the instillation is being performed as well as master electrician installation of a controller that would either separate from city utilities should the city have a power outage or not be connected to the city at allor see the city power loss and disconnect from the hospital to avoid the power surge from the emergency generators. Such planning would require major planning beyond my knowledge.
Indeed.....
"Not connected to the city at all".....That would be a major 'off grid' installation. Problem with that is even the size of a hospital can't compete on price with grid power. The hospital would have to install a HUGE battery bank to carry the load during non solar periods....clouds, night.......and still have to have that back up generator. Not the least bit practical.....just as it isn't currently for anyone to go off grid IF they have grid available. Very hard to compete with grid pricing because of their huge generating capacity.
The hospital COULD reduce their electric costs by installing solar in whatever form, (roof top, panels in the yard or covering parking, or those windows) and simply use the power in house in lieu of buying, and back feed excess production to the grid for credit.
BTW, that 'surge' from the emergency generator isn't really a surge. When grid power drops, the lights go out. The automatic transfer switch on the generator system takes a few seconds before the generators kick in, mainly to see if the grid outage was just a 'blip', then they fire up. The lights come back on.
It's beyond your current knowledge. No pun intended!
It will require a team effort. Gather your team and start the research . From building schematics to past use of energy. Then go to your manufacturer and have them do a cost assessment.
Our local hospital revamped to solar and did so in increment stages. No where did it reflect in pass thru savings to departments or the patients who fund the facility. So the upfront cost will always be a contention to the board or investors. The reality is, they want to see returns rather quickly.
I appreciate that you see potential in this energy source. I sense though putting this into actual execution is beyond your scope.
I’m just the boiler plant operator. Been here for 20 years. We work with the boilers, HVAC, generators, medical gas, water treatment, elevators, and are first responders for non-medical nor security related emergencies (fire, flooding, or elevator entrapment for example). Thanks to renovations all sides of the hospital are glass. The other concern is strength of the glass. This hospital is in south Louisiana and we sometimes get hurricanes. When I said it wouldn’t be connected to the city grid, I wasn’t talking about the hospital itself. Should have left that out. What I meant was automatically disconnecting the solar power supply to prevent the solar power from going back to the city gridwhile the power is out.
What I meant was automatically disconnecting the solar power supply to prevent the solar power from going back to the city gridwhile the power is out.
That is a given with any grid tied solar (or any site generated power of any kind)....the whole purpose of a transfer switch is to prevent back feeding to the grid, which NO utility will allow.
All grid tie inverters MUST meet UL 1741 standard which disconnects the inverter from the grid as soon as it quits sensing grid power to be utility approved for interconnection.
I saw these solar windows and solar awnings in action about 3 years ago at the Solar Decathlon in Irvine, Ca. At the time, the builders said they were 80% less efficient than a typical solar panel which makes sense since the panels are opaque and the window/awning have about 30-80% transparency. If they are anything like solar panels, they are quickly improving and the costs are declining.
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