This seems to have reached the level of a bar-room argument .. more about one's favoured source of power for one's toys .. rather than the original question .. and I am probably as guilty as the next person.
Given that this seems to be quite a tricky question .. one would have thought there...
This was interesting
http://www.researchgate.net/post/Can_a_optical_fiber_coupler_2x1_4x1_8x1_be_used_as_a_power_combiner
I think the consensus was that it was possible to have a Y coupler such that if you had 2 inputs of x lumens the output would be >x lumens nut less than 2x ... which...
Is this is question of imprecise language ... my original question was (or should have been) about visible light.. ie that part of the spectrum which is necessary for us to be able to see ... is the heating of the window not down to parts of the spectrum which may be classified as heat?
I...
Is this "proof" of climate change?
Fossil fuels are effectively the conversion of incoming solar energy to chemical.. over the whole earth.. over a long period of time ... Industrialisation has resulted in this being converted back to heat over a short period .. therefore it result in...
Thanks for the link .. not sure how I missed that..
My question was more about the theoretical limits of such a system rather than looking for a specific product ..
Andy Resnik's link to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonimaging_optics
was most informative.
Perhaps I should have asked 2...
Just because a question is difficult doesn't mean we should not ask it .. or try to find an answer ...
The charts of installed windfarm "capacity" are readily available and have been referred to in the thread at least a couple of time now.
What is not so obvious is whether anyone has tried to...
My mental image has an optical fibre being the same as a glass window .. with rather more thickness and rather less area..
My "gut feel" is that a glass window will allow almost every lumen which falls on the window to pass through .. with perhaps a very small loss (assuming it is clean).
One...
Is there a number for "too intense" ?
My model in my mind has no heat only light .. only light ... if such a thing were possible ..
lumens rather than watts
I have seen light pipes which "conduct" sunlight from an outdoor receptor to the dark recesses of buildings ... but they all seem to be awkward bulky metallised tubes.
Is it not possible to achieve the same effect with fibre optics?
Could one not focus the light at the receptor into a...
Odd that there are not "lots" of studies referenced in this thread...
In fact I have found very few ... which is really what prompted the question in the first place.
I expect that the only significant environmental effect would be possible minor changes in wind patterns and weather locally.
AM
Interesting... as one of the reports quoted earlier suggested that hurricanes could be tamed by suitably located windfarms ..
This has helped my mind's model a lot.
So I have a high pressure area at point A.. a low at point B .. and a set of air pockets departing A and arriving B until such time as the pressures are equal .. those pockets encountering a mill (or a tree of comparable size) will be slowed ... this will...
Perhaps my term 'free' would be better phrased as ..without consequence...
I'm with OmCheeto with the simplified models, and the model in my head has the Earth as a kind of energy storage unit.. which has been receiving energy from the sun since dot... some of which has been reflected, some...