WO1997040535A2 - System for recovering energy radiated by electrodeless light sources - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention pertains to a system for recovering energy radiated by electrodeless light sources, in particular from spherical, rotating, cooled lamps containing small amounts of argon and sulfur or selenium and arranged in an electromagnetic field of micrometer waves focused by a wire cage, thus radiating a glaring, cold, spectrally sun-like light into a relatively long light tube that has a transparent reflection layer on its inside and guides the light through light outlets onto the surface to be illuminated, wherein the light guiding tube is coaxially surrounded by a second, outer tube, with screening elements made of plastic inserted between light guiding tube and outer tube. To recover energy the screening elements have on their curved surface facing the light guiding tube a photovoltaic coating that transforms the quantity of light penetrating the transparent reflection layer into direct current or else, in place of the outer tube and the screening elements, a housing with this coating and light outlets at least partially surrounds the light guiding tube.

Description

 Plant for the recovery of electrodeless

Light sources of radiated energy

The invention relates to a system for recovering energy emitted by electrodeless light sources, in particular from spherical, small and small amounts of argon and sulfur or selenium, rotating and cooled lamps, which are arranged in an electromagnetic field focused by a wire cage and are composed of micrometer waves Bright, cold spectrum-like light radiate into a relatively long length from a light guide tube provided on the inside with a transparent reflection layer, which directs the light through light exit openings onto the surface to be illuminated, the light guide tube being coaxially enclosed by a second outer tube and into the room cup-shaped absorption elements made of plastic are inserted between the light guide tube and the outer tube. 5 From WO 9628840 AI a device for the excitation of an electrodeless lamp by microwave radiation is known, with which a bright sun-like light can be generated. The spherical lamp without any metal parts contains a small amount of sulfur or

10 selenium in an inert gas from argon. When irradiated with focused microwaves, the plasma in the lamp glows like a sun. For example, each of these lamps generates a light quantity of 450,000 with an output of 5,900 watts.

15 U.S. Patent 5,448,135 further describes one

Device in which a sulfur lamp is arranged in the center of a screen. The lamp is surrounded by a transparent outer conductor structure through which the radiation falls on the screen and distributes it

Turns 20.

According to a brochure from Fusion Lighting Inc. (1997), the sun-like light is directed into a tube made of acrylic glass with a reflective layer on the inside

25. Has longitudinal slots from which the light is emitted onto the surface to be illuminated. However, the impressive advantages of the known sulfur lamps have the disadvantage that the amount of light emitted is oversized for many applications

30 is. This subsequently leads to energy and efficiency losses, on the one hand because a constant amount of energy must be available for lighting purposes, and on the other hand the excess part of this amount of energy through absorption with suitable ones

35 absorption materials must be destroyed. Also known are devices for converting energy from solar energy, so-called photovoltaic generators, which, when connected by solar cell modules and arrays, generate an open-circuit DC voltage when exposed to sunlight. The efficiencies of such solar cell modules are around 18% for gallium arsenide cells, around 14% for silicon cells and 8% for copper sulfite / cadmium diselenide cells (Lexikon-Umwelttechnik, p.1091, VDI-Verlag, 1994). The relatively poor efficiency is caused by uneven lighting, a lack of orientation to the sun, a high proportion of diffuse radiation and network losses. The efficiency of the photovoltaic generators is also temperature-dependent. The trend in the development of photovoltaic systems is therefore to reduce the manufacturing costs by switching to thin layers and cheaper material and to increase the efficiency.

From US Pat. No. 5,089,055, a solar energy generation system for aircraft has become known which consists of optical means for receiving and concentrating the sun's rays, a flexible transmission line for the transmission of the concentrated sun's rays to a solar energy converter, solar energy conversion means, and the arrays of photovoltaic cells include to convert the sun's rays into electrical energy and there is a protective housing for the photovoltaic cells. A large number of optical fiber waveguides form the transmission line. However, only limited success can be achieved in reducing costs in the manufacture of modules and systems because, on the one hand, the maximum efficiency of the solar cells is between 5 and 10 ° C and, on the other hand, the solar cells heat up to around 60 to 70 ° C during operation, which means that cooling is necessary.

DE 296 03 465 UI attempts to increase the power yield of a photovoltaic system by having at least five solar modules arranged in a pentagon, which are illuminated by at least one light source fed by an external radiation source, the light sources being direct-current energy-saving lamps. DE 37 00 045 C2 also describes a luminaire with a light source which is surrounded by a lampshade which is air-permeable in its upper region of the lampshade and has a fan operated by an electric motor in the upper region of the lampshade. Solar cells are arranged in the area of the light source as the current source for the electric motor.

The combination of light-emitting tubes of higher intensity with a photovoltaic system is known from US Pat. No. 5,500,054. A tube made of crystal, ceramic or glass containing the emitting material is heated and the radiation generated is directed onto photovoltaic cells. The system is preferably used as a measuring device for the detection of nuclear radiation. Another combination of an artificial light source with solar cells is described in DE 87 10 131, in which the solar cell is arranged on the top of an essentially flat support surface of a surgical hand instrument.

All known solutions that use artificial light sources for feeding solar modules have the disadvantage that the solar modules have to be placed very close to the artificial light sources on a flat surface. As soon as larger distances between the source of the radiation and the solar cells have to be bridged or light deflection takes place, the known solutions become uneconomical, if not unusable. Warm light is also used.

In this prior art, the invention has for its object to improve a system of the type mentioned in such a way that a significant part of the energy from artificial light rays despite greater distance from their point of origin and also when the light rays are deflected more cost-effectively and user-friendly with high ease of maintenance and safety of the system is regained.

This object is achieved according to the invention in that on the shielding elements on their curved surface facing the light guide tube there is a photovoltaic quantity of light penetrating the transparent reflection layer Coating DC-converting arranged or the light guide tube is at least partially surrounded by a housing provided with this coating, replacing the outer tube and the shielding elements with light dropout openings.

10

According to an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the coating is applied to an aluminum, titanium or plastic film, which is inserted into the space between 15 shielding element light guide tube.

Another preferred embodiment of the system according to the invention provides that the coating is applied directly to the curved inside of the shielding elements.

According to a further feature of the invention, the shielding elements are made from a flat, flexible metal or plastic insert or from a curved glass shell. The dimensioning of the shielding elements is such that their curvature follows the

25. Adapted the curvature of the space between the light guide tube and the outer tube.

The reflective layer applied to the inside of the light pipe reflects that from the sulfur lamp

_30 generated and incident cold light inside the tube. These tubes reach total lengths of up to 23 m and can be guided several times on flat surfaces by integrated elbows. Through slit-shaped light outlet openings incorporated into the tubes, this passes through the

35 tubes reflected light on those areas that are to be illuminated. The reflective coating is transparent to a certain proportion of the light rays. This radiation impinges on the shield-shaped shielding elements which are arranged around the light guide tube and are held in position by an outer tube. A separate aluminum, titanium or plastic film is inserted between the light guide tube and shielding elements as a support for the photovolatic coating.

The photovoltaic coating preferably consists of thin-layer materials such as silicon, amorphous silicon, copper indium diselenide or CdTe or twin solar cells. Of course, it is also part of the invention if the shell-shaped shielding elements on it

Surface facing the light guide tube have a photovoltaic coating, which convert part of the photon current into potential electrical energy, which can be tapped off as direct current.

The efficiency of the system according to the invention can preferably be adjusted by the type of coating. For example, in that the film or the shielding elements are provided with the photovoltaic coating over the whole or in part.

In an expedient embodiment of the invention, the coating is applied as a network with a variable network width. It is part of the invention that the bandwidth of the network either increases or decreases from the point of entry of the light rays into the light guide tube or into the outer tube towards the end of the tube.

In the event that instead of the outer tube and the shielding elements, the light guide tube is enclosed by a housing with slot-shaped outlet openings for the light is, the photovoltaic coating is on the inside of the housing facing the light pipe. The coating can be applied as a mesh, ring, strip or honeycomb structure.

Light guide tubes made of transparent plastic, preferably acrylic glass, have proven to be particularly suitable.

The application of the system according to the invention is very simple. The light guide tube is integrated, for example, in a housing provided with the photovoltaic coating, which is part of a solar module, a wall covering composed of profiles, a box system or a base plate.

The system according to the invention can be used depending on the lighting requirements at the installation site or can also be combined in such a way that the different lighting requirements in public buildings such as museums, libraries, theaters, sports halls, workshops, train stations, street lighting can be taken into account. Because of their simple structure, their

Ease of installation and maintenance is particularly suitable for the recovery of energy from light of appreciable magnitude for municipalities, in industry and for the military.

With all these features it is achieved that the solution according to the invention better meets the complex requirements for economical use of light energy with high security, ease of maintenance, clarity, compactness and environmental friendliness. Further advantages and details emerge from the following description with reference to the attached drawings.

The invention will be explained in more detail below using an exemplary embodiment.

Show it:

Fig. 1 is a perspective representation of the principle of the system according to the invention

2 shows a section along A-A of FIG. 1,

3 is a perspective view of a curved shielding element with a honeycomb structure of the applied photovoltaic coating,

Fig. 4 shows an arrangement of the invention

System with connection of an inverter, and

Fig. 5 to 13 different applications for the recovery of light energy. According to FIG. 1, the system according to the invention consists of a hollow light guide tube 1 made of acrylic glass, the inner surface 2 of which is provided with a prismatic reflection layer 3. With a reflector 4, the bright sun-like light generated by a commercially available sulfur lamp 5 from Fusion Lighting Inc. is radiated into the end of the light guide tube 1. The light beams 6 reflect multiple times on the inner surface 2 of the light guide tube 1 provided with the reflection layer 3 and thus reach the other end of the light guide tube 1 which is closed with a mirror 7. The reflection layer 3 is at the same time transparent and enables the light to be emitted on all sides around the Longitudinal axis B of the light guide tube 1. An outer tube 8 is placed coaxially around the light guide tube 1. Both tubes 1 and 8 form a space 9 in which a shell-shaped shielding element 10 is inserted, which partially shields the light guide tube 1, in particular in the direction of the ceiling, and leaves light exit openings 15 exposed. The shielding element 10, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, consists of a thin aluminum sheet adapted to the curvature of the space 9, the surface 11 of which is structured in a honeycomb structure. A photovoltaic coating 12 made of amorphous silicon or other suitable thin-layer materials is applied to this surface 11. The aluminum sheet is inserted into the space 9 such that the surface provided with the coating 12 comes to lie opposite the light guide tube 1 and at the same time allows light to be emitted through the light exit openings 15 onto the surface to be illuminated. With the outer tube 8, the light guide tube 1 is held on the ceiling, not shown. The cold light reaching the photovoltaic coating 12 generates a potential electrical energy which can be tapped off as direct current using a commercially available circuit. This direct current is fed to an inverter 13, which converts the direct current into an alternating current, which is emitted into the house network and / or the main network (see FIG. 4).

5 to 13 show possible application variants of the system according to the invention.

5, the system according to the invention is integrated in a hall roof.

6 and 7 show a light guide tube 1, to which an openly designed housing 14 with an inner coating 12 is assigned. Such constructions can be used, for example, for the recovery of light energy in the lighting of train stations or stops.

Of course, the system according to the invention can also be used in closed housings 14, e.g. 8 to 13 can be used. The system according to the invention can thus be fitted into a roof module 16. The system according to the invention recovers part of the light energy not used for the lighting and can be used to improve the efficiency of the solar system during the night (Fig. 8).

As shown in FIG. 9, the system according to the invention can be placed just as advantageously in a wall covering 17 composed, for example, of profiles or panels. Such wall coverings are often decorative wall designs that are indirectly illuminated. Furthermore, the system according to the invention can be used in base plates 18 individually or in a strand assembly (see FIGS. 10 and 11).

12 and 13 show the use of the system according to the invention in a box system forming channels 19 or in a shaft box 20.

The invention is not limited to the applications described here. Rather, it is possible, on the basis of the considerations, optimizations, variations and combinations of the means shown, which are familiar to the person skilled in the art, to find further applications without leaving the invention.

This applies in particular to the use of the system according to the invention for recovering unnecessary light energy in the lighting of streets, theaters, train stations, platforms, motorways, play and sports facilities, parks, schools, museums, department stores, workshops, fish farms, commercial areas, airfields, etc.

List of the reference symbols used

Light guide tube 1 inner surface of 1 2 prismatic reflection layer 3 reflector 4

Sulfur lamp 5

Light rays 6

Mirror 7 outer tube 8 space between light guide tube and outer tube 9

Shielding element 10

Surface of 10 11 photovoltaic coating 12 inverter 13

Housing 14

Light exit openings 15

Roof module 16

Wall cladding 17 floor panels 18

Channels 19

Well box 20

Longitudinal axis of the light guide tube 1 B

Claims

claims 1. Plant for the recovery of energy emitted by electrodeless light sources, in particular from spherical, small amounts of argon and sulfur or selenium containing rotating and cooled lamps, which are arranged in an electromagnetic field focused by a wire cage from micrometer times and thereby a bright, cold radiate sun-like light from a spectrum into a relatively long length from a light guide tube provided on the inside with a transparent reflection layer, which guides the light through light exit openings to the surface to be illuminated, the light guide tube being coaxially enclosed by a second outer tube and into the space between the light guide tube and Outer tube shielding elements made of plastic are inserted, characterized in that on the shielding elements (9) on their curved surface (10) facing the light guide tube, a photovoltaic t transparent reflection layer penetrating amount of light converting into direct current Coating (12) is arranged or the light guide tube (1) is at least partially enclosed by a housing (14) provided with this coating (12) and replacing the outer tube and the shielding elements, with light dropout openings (15). 2. Plant according to claim 1, d a d u r c h g e k e n n z e i c h n e t that the coating (12) on an aluminum, titanium or plastic film is brought up, which is inserted into the space (9) between the shielding element (10) and light guide tube (1). 3. System according to claim 1, so that the coating (12) is applied directly to the inner curved surface (11) of the shielding elements (10). 4. System according to claim 1 and 3, d a d u r c h g e k e n e z e i c h n e t that the Abscnirmelemente (10) consist of a flat Schulen-like metal or plastic insert or a curved glass shell. 5. System according to claim 1 to 4, d a d u r c h g e k e n n z e i c h n e t, that the film or the shielding element has a profiled, preferably honeycomb structured surface 6. Plant according to claim I Dis 6, d a d u r c h g e k e n n z e i c h n e t that the Foil or the shielding elements are provided over the whole or in part with the photovoltaic coating (12). 7. System according to claim 6, that the photovoltaic coating (12) is applied as a network, ring-strip or honeycomb structure. 10 8. Plant according to claim 7, d a d u r c h g e k e n n z e i c h n e t that the Network is broadband. 15 9. System according to claim 6 to 8, so that the bandwidth of the network either increases or decreases from the point of entry of the 20 light rays into the light guide or outer tube towards the end of the tube. 25th 10. Plant according to claim 1, d a d u r c h g e k e n n z e i c h n e t that the The inside of the housing (14) is partially or completely coated with the photovoltaic coating (12). 30 11. System according to claim 10, d a d u r c h g e k e n n z e i c h n e t that the photovoltaic coating (12) is applied as a network, ring, 35 strip or honeycomb structure. 5 12. Plant according to claim 11, characterized in that the ring or strip width and / or the distance of the rings or strips either increases from the point of entry of the light rays into the tube to the housing end or 10 decreases. 13. System according to one or more of the preceding 15 claims, that the light guide tube consists of transparent plastic, preferably acrylic glass. 20th 14. Plant according to one or more of the previous ones Claims, d a d u r c h g e k e n n z e i c h n e t that the Coating (12) made of thin-layer materials, preferably 25 _. Silicon, amorphous silicon, copper indium diselenide or CdTe. 15. Plant according to one or more of the preceding 30 claims, d a d u r c h g e k e n n z e i c h n e t that the Coating (12) consists of twin solar cells. 35 16. Plant according to claim 1, d a d u r c h g e k e n n z e i c h n e t that the Housing (14) is a solar module (16). 17. Plant according to claim 1, d a d u r c h g e k e n n z e i c h n e t that the Housing (14) is a wall covering (17) composed of profiles. 18. Plant according to claim 1, d a d u r c h g e k e n n z e i c h n e t that the Housing (14) is a base plate (18). 19. Plant according to claim 1, d a d u r c h g e k e n n z e i c h n e t that the Housing (14) is a box system forming channels (19). 20. System according to claim 16 to 19, so that the housing (14) consists of metal, plastic, glass or stone or is composed of these materials combined. 21. System according to claim 1, so that the coating (14) is connected to an inverter (13) which is connected to the house network and / or main network via an infeed.