Patent Application
20110303215
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a modular solar house, and more particularly to a solar house having a modular structure that can be installed in a limited space, such as on the roof of a building or in a small yard, individually or in combination.
2. Description of Related Art
As environmental protection issues becoming the center of attention in recent years, various forms of alternative energy have been reevaluated. Particularly, solar energy is considered a practical alternative energy and has been utilized in daily applications such as solar cells or solar water heaters. Such solar devices require the use of solar panels. In order to achieve higher efficiency, a solar cell or a solar water heater is usually mounted on an unobstructed location such as the roof of a building or an open yard by a sloping mounting frame at an inclining angle. For example, for a country located near the Tropic of Cancer such as Taiwan, the optimal angle of incline for a solar panel would be around 25-30 degrees. However, such a sloping configuration would create a space under the mounting frame of solar cells or solar water heaters that are usually ineffectively utilized.
Moreover, the conventional mounting frames for solar panels lack flexibility, as the amount and dimension of the holding frames is dictated by the amount of the solar cells or solar water heaters a user wishes to apply. Once the devices are installed in place, it becomes inflexible to make further adjustments to the amount of solar devices on the mounting frame should the user requirement be changed.
Furthermore, commercially available solar cells or solar water heaters are fixedly mounted on the holders. When the sunlight intensity varies as the season changes, for example in winter, the mounted solar cells or water heaters may be insufficient to meet the user's need. The conventional solar device holding frames cannot offer easy and flexible means to adjust the amount of the solar cells or solar water heaters mounted thereon.
Therefore, there is a need of a novel structure which overcomes the above disadvantages.
The object of the present invention is to provide a modular solar house having modular prefabricated structures that can be flexibly adapted to meet a wide range of space requirements, such as on a roof top of a building or in an open yard, individually or in combination.
Another object of the invention is to provide a modular solar house in which the amount of solar cells or solar water heaters can be flexibly adjusted to achieve high solar power efficiency and meet user requirements.
In order to achieve the above and other objectives, a modular solar house having prefab structures is disclosed. The prefab modular solar house comprises a prefabricated room having a plurality of vertical interconnected walls and a roof capable of mounting solar devices, at least one solar cell or a solar water heater detachably mounted on the roof, and a hot water reservoir mounted inside the prefab room for storing the water flowing through the solar water heater.
The invention offers the following advantages.
1. The prefab room can effectively utilize the space under the solar cells and solar water heaters, thus overcoming the shortcoming of the prior art.
2. The solar house has a modular structure which can be installed individually or in combination to meet a wide range of space requirements, such as on a roof top of a building or in an open playground.
3. The solar cells or solar water heaters can be detachably mounted on the roof. With the use of the detachable design, different amount of solar cells or water heaters can be mounted according to different seasons or locations to meet the users' need.
In order to further the understanding regarding the present invention, the following embodiments are provided along with illustrations to facilitate the disclosure of the present invention.
The aforementioned illustrations and following detailed descriptions are exemplary for the purpose of further explaining the scope of the present invention. Other objectives and advantages related to the present invention will be illustrated in the subsequent descriptions and appended drawings.
Referring to
The prefab room 10 has a main body and a roof 16 disposed on the main body. The at least one solar cell 20 and the at least one solar water heater 30 are detachably mounted on the roof 16, while a hot water reservoir 32 is installed inside the prefab room 10 for storing the water flowing through the solar water heater 30.
The prefab room 10 may be a green house, in which case a plurality of light transparent walls is adapted. The prefab room 10 may also be used as a residential dwelling, a car garage, or a warehouse. The prefab room 10 of the instant disclosure can effectively utilize the space under the sloping mounting frame of the solar cell 20 or the solar water heater 30, thus overcoming the space usage shortcomings of the conventional solar cell mounting structures.
Specifically, the prefab room 10 offers the convenience of being portable and reassembled at a predetermined destination. As shown in
The roof 16 has two slanting roof pieces 16a, 16b joining each other at a certain angle. The solar cell 20 and/or the solar water heater 30 are then detachably installed on the roof. Since the optimal angle for receiving sun lights differs from location to location, the angle of the joining slant roof pieces may be adjusted accordingly. An additional cover of different opacity may be mounted on the roof 16 in advance. In another embodiment, the slant roof pieces 16a, 16b respectively have a plurality of frames arranged in an array, such as the vertically arranged frames 161 and the horizontally arranged frames 163. In other words, the solar panels of the solar cell 20 and the solar water heater 30 can be directly used as the covering plates for the roof 16. For green house applications, the roof 16 may include a plurality of transparent plates 40 for the sun lights to enter into the prefab room 10.
Different types of solar cells may be adapted to the modular solar house, such as single-poly crystalline solar cells or thin-film solar cells. Furthermore, the thin-film solar cells can be non-crystalline silicon solar cells, micro-crystalline silicon solar cells or nano-scale solar cells. Since the conventional single-poly crystalline solar cells, thin-film solar cells, and solar water heaters are often of modular design, they can be flexibly combined to meet a wide range of operational requirements.
One characteristic of the instant disclosure is that the solar cells 20 and the solar water heaters 30 are detachably mounted on the roof 16. Such design enables flexibility, as the amount of solar cells and/or solar water heaters may be chosen to meet specific operational requirements or to fit particular geographical locations. More specifically, the user may adjust the amount or the ratio of the single-poly crystalline solar cells, thin-film solar cells and solar water heaters to meet their needs.
The detachable installation of the solar panels may include, for example, using stripe adaptors in combination of fixing means, such as screws, on the peripheral of the solar panel frame. Alternatively, the edges of the solar panel frame may be directly fastened by screws on to the roof frame structure 16. Moreover, the frames of the solar panel and the roof frame structure 16 may comprise matching engagement mechanisms to provide even easier installation.
Another characteristic of the instant disclosure rests in the modular combinability. Particularly, the modular design of the instant solar prefab units 100 enables flexible adaptability and wide range of configuration possibilities, as demonstrated in
The descriptions illustrated supra set forth simply the preferred embodiments of the present invention; however, the characteristics of the present invention are by no means restricted thereto. All changes, alternations, or modifications conveniently considered by those skilled in the art are deemed to be encompassed within the scope of the present invention delineated by the following claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 099211254 | Jun 2010 | TW | national |
