Alt-BEAM Archive

Message #05226



To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
From: Bob Shannon bshannon@tiac.net
Date: Sat, 10 Jul 1999 10:09:32 -0400
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: Light Bulbs for Solar Cells




Terry Newton wrote:

> Here's a (I hope) simple question for you all:
> What kind of light bulbs work best for panasonic solar cells?

Try using full spectrum lightbulbs such as the Chromalux bulbs often
sold
to combat Seasonal Effective Disorders.

The Panaosonic cells are sensitive to the near IR end of the spectrum,
and
are nearly blind when you get up to the green optical frequencies.
this is why they ignore flouresent lighting, which is mostly green (we
dont see this
greenish tint, but many types of flim will deliver greenish tinted
pictures under
flouresent lighting because of this)

> I was fooling around with my micro-picbot powered by a 3733 cell
> (with evolving nervous networks on-board:) and noticed I got about
> 30% activity time in sunlight, but only about 4% active directly
> underneath a metal-hooded 75 watt bulb that seems as bright or
> brighter than the sunlight was. Surely there must be a better
> substitute for sunlight. The specs say not for indoor light but
> I didn't realise it was that bad. (used to the slowness I guess
> but darn, now I know what I'm missing...)
>
> Terry Newton

If you get the cell too hot under that bulb, performance will fall off
also.
Dont let them get too hot!




------------------------------------------------------------------------

eGroups.com home: http://www.egroups.com/group/alt-beam
http://www.egroups.com - Simplifying group communications



Home