ClearDome Solar Thermal
95.5% is the highest level of reflection known for extended outdoor use,
and it is 10-20% more reflective than normal glass mirrors, aluminum foil and
Mylar reflector film. Total spectral reflectivity of the first surface-coated AA panels for the entire light spectrum between 450 and 2500 mn is at or above 93.5% with a 55-70 degree light angle.
It also has the highest rating for continuous outdoor use in any weather at 5-7 years minimum, and an estimated 15-20 year use after continuous extreme accelerated age testing.
Watch for our upcoming new 94% SolaReflex Mirror Surface Film coming by mid-summer 2008 that also has a 5-7 year minimum outdoor life with no degradation. It will come with a peel-off adhesive back surface and peel-off protective front surface for easy application.
This is not a cheap mylar film with 75-80% reflectivity, it is much thicker, stronger and more durable for extended life in the most severe environments. The expected cost per square foot will be about midway between our diffused SolaReflex foil and AA panels.
The left photo below shows the backside of our 2x4' SolaReflex AA Daylighting reflector panel mounted on our adjustable ground/wall mount that provides front or backside reflection into rooms, onto plants, or for other needs where direct sunlight is not available.
The wide swath of reflected sunlight falls on the entire north facing front wall, and passes through the large window
into the living room wall inside. On the right is an interior photo of a room with 17 foot ceilings being daylit with the wide reflection from our small prototype 1x2' Daylighting reflector.
It's sending bright sunlight from 30 feet away, outside through a glass patio door. The larger 2x4' reflected light is 4 times larger and brighter. The high quality
mirror surface of our AA panels will send a wide beam of reflected sunlight over 100 feet away, through windows or skylights deep into building interiors.
Our unique convex arched design spreads the light over a much wider area, and when properly aligned to the sun, it
needs little or no sun adjustments for most of the day. Flat reflectors send a much smaller reflection and need to be automatically tracked to the moving sun to keep the reflected light on a fixed location.
Solar Reflective CoolTarp is Now Available!
The world's most solar reflective and coolest tarp made is now available--it's about 25% more reflective than our Thermal Barrier Fabric and much less expensive than our SolaReflex AA panels. It is a SolaReflex 97.4% reflective foil product called SolaReflex CoolTarp (click for more details) , that comes with optional grommets for easy installation anywhere in the hot sun. It passively cools spaces underneath the hot summer sun even better than Thermal Barrier Fabric by reflecting all the blazing sunlight away from patios, tents, over roofs, RV's and boats, carports, work spaces, animal enclosures, and garden areas that are warmed by too much sunlight. Areas below CoolTarp will stay within about 10-15 degrees of the ambient air temps. Unlike typical painted or light colored tarps that absorb the sun's energy and get very hot underneath in summer sun, CoolTarp has the our top-rated reflective SolaReflex metallized coated surface on both sides that allows only a very small amount of heat to pass through, and no light, keeping that surface and space below it cool.
Our SolaReflex AA reflectors were recently installed at the Richmond, Virginia Science center for a permanant outdoor public solar heating demonstration that allows visitors to orient three connected flat AA panels in a heliostat configuration to reflect sunlight on to our SolaReflex 2500SA extreme temperature dish parabolic to show the true heating power of sunlight. Next time you're in Virginia, stop by for a visit and an amazing solar demo. A photo our our experimental 4 panel AA heliostat is at the bottom of this page. You can also see our BISFA (building Integrated Solar Forced air heaters) mounted in a nearby display generating lots of free hot air.
We decided to use the same patented technique for
coating and applying the protective invisible weather coating surface, just as we use on our super hot
SolarReflex
900 and 900X parabolic solar reflectors.
Below are two views of our hot new SolaReflex AA Octagon Parabolic cooker
that was specially bent into this unique 8-sided parabolic cooking reflector.
They can be also used as secondary concentrated light and radiant heat reflectors in special applications, such as behind floor radiators to reflect nearly all the heat back into the room and away from the nearby wall or floor with minimal heat loss through the walls. And they can also be used to re-direct heat created by engines, most flames, or fireplaces as long as the flames don't coat the surface with soot.
And click here to read a recent scientific paper from the Florida Institute of Technology that shows how our SolaReflex panel reflector was used to boost PV panel efficiency by as
much as 22%! This paper was presented at the recent ASME Congress in Seattle, Washington. The 2x4' SolaReflex reflector used was our previous generation polycarbonate substrate panel that has since been improved and updated with the more
durable AA (polished anodized alumminum) panels shown on this page.
Below is a single SolaReflex AA mirror surface panel mounted on a flat twin-wall polycarbonate plastic sheet that has been bent into a simple trough parabolic form to demonstrate how easy it is to make your own
solar concentrator. Wire is used to pull the ends of the trough together and concentrate the sun's energy at the adjustable focal point, indicated with the white rope attached to the wire. We propped up the back side with a box. Metal frames and mounts can be made to better support the trough, and manually or
automatically adjust it to the sun.
The closeup view shows a strip of oak smoking seconds after the focal point begins to heat it up.
Wood burns at 455 degrees F, and we recorded higher temps above along the entire hot spot strip.
A fluid solar heating tube would normally be positioned at the hot spot for quick solar heating. By adding more panels, heating temperatures will increase considerably.
Parabolic troughs like this are used to concentrate sunlight in large commercial solar thermal and solar PV power generator arrays and are automatically tracked to the moving sun.
These are top quality solar and artificial lighting reflectors
that make it much easier to build parabolic heating or lighting troughs for concentrating thermal and PV, solar cooking and heating projects, daylighting reflectors, and for motion
picture and photo uses. They can be cut, drilled, glued and mounted without
cracking or damaging the panel. They come with a clear protective peel-off film on the reflective side that's easily
pulled off after the panels have been cut and mounted.
To order your SolaReflex AA reflector panels, please use the PayPal order links below. We also accept money orders through the mail. The standard USA shipping price
is shown by clicking on the order link. Overseas shipping estimates can be provided if you send your shipping address by email. We can produce large orders with advance notice.
Unlike our popular 97.4% SolaReflex thick diffused foil that has to be cut, glued and applied to flat or curved surfaces, you'll find these super durable panels ready to use and more moisture, scratch, and salt air resistant than any other type of solar reflectors . Our super hot 900X non near-mirror parabolic reaches over 1350 degrees F, and our center focus 2500SA, 24" polished spun aluminum parabolic reflector coated with SolaReflex will generate over 2800 degrees F.
Best quality, low cost reflectors
SolaReflex AA flat panels are low cost solar and lighting reflectors that are comparable or better than the most expensive glass reflectors that cost many times more but can't be bent by the user for concentrating solar energy. For parabolic solar trough builders, the 2x4' size is convenient for low cost shipping and installation on site since they are unbreakable and lightweight. Build the reflector as large as is required, then secure multiple panels to the smooth framce surface with waterproof contact cement or attach them on the edges with rivets or screws. As a result, crating and shipping costs are much lower than shipping glass or metal reflectors because of the smaller size. And because they are very resistant to wind vibration when they are bent and mounted into a parabolic shaped frame, you'll save money on having to make expensive heavy duty support frames.
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You can direct the reflection to a single large object and reach temps over 250 degrees F, or to our 24" parabolic reflectors to nearly quadruple the incoming
sun energy into four close hot spots for extreme temps in a larger area.
SolaReflex AA reflector panels can easily be cut and attached to flat, rigid and smooth substrates of wood or metal to
form single or a facited reflector.
We recorded a 228 degree F temperature on a shaded dark wooden fence 30 feet away from four, 1x1 AA panels focused on the same
spot. Add more panels to increase the temperature, and have students
participate by holding and pointing each panel. The power of the sun can
now be in their hands as they work as a team. They can also be used for
classroom lighting, solar cooking or other heating projects.
Solar thermal designers, educators and solar demonstrators can discover
many practical and interactive classroom uses for these lightweight panels, such
as creating a flat multi-mirror concentrating reflector array called a heilostat that can duplicate a
section of a parabolic and focus flat sunlight reflections to a single point. The photo on the right shows our experimental
4-mirror AA fully adjustable heliostat array. It is manually adjusted, but automatic sun trackers can be found on the Internet.
Superior as still and motion picture reflectors
Motion picture and still photographers are amazed
at how extremely bright and versatile they are for indoor light enhancement and outdoors as well.
They can also be used to for background lighting effects when the panel is arched or twisted.
These are the brightest and most durable
flat and bendable photo and day lighting reflectors made. Our tests
have shown reflection levels up to 4-6 times brighter than the well
known flexible cloth reflectors in bright sunlight.
ClearDome SolaReflex AA 2'x 4' lighting and radiant heat reflective panels cost
$165, plus shipping and handling.
Discount prices are available for bulk purchases, educational and demo
uses. Overseas shipping can be as much as 3-5 times the default USA shipping prices, depending on the country, so please request an estimate.
These panels are available to order in any quantities
from this web page using the PayPal order links, and we also accept U.S. money orders through the mail. Discounted prices are available for quantities over 25 panels. Processing time is normally 1-2 weeks for smaller orders, and because
we occasionaly have high volume orders that reduces our stock it's good to confirm the estimated shipping time for your order.
For more information about this or any of our other
innovative ClearDome Solar thermal products including our SolaReflex reflective foil, BISFA (building integrated) solar forced
air space heaters, solar spa water heating pads, solar still, and solar cooking products,
please visit our homepage at: www.cleardomesolar.com.
Click
to Email your questions to Deris
ClearDome Solar
Thermal
Ingenious solar thermal
products for everyday living
© 1999-2008,
ClearDome Solar Thermal LLC · 3368 Governor Dr., San Diego, CA 92122
·
619-990-7977
cleardomesolar@sbcglobal.net
