Topic: my $2 (3 euro aprox) direct sun radiation shield

[weather34]

good morning

a few weeks ago i installed some new hardware a Oregon WMR300 , I first built a solar powered FARS made from some beige white plastic dishes from the local diy store
i paid around $3 and used a small solar panel to recharge the 4xAA duracell batteries with a 6v fan it works extremely well and is quite efficient however I need to do some redesign on the solar power side to make it fully weatherproof(rain/snow) .

so as a short term substitute I bought two plastic wall vents for aprox $2 when calculated from local currency (9tl) then glued them together and then inserted two screws to hold them firmly together as you can see in the photograph .

the result is quite amazing really as at a certain time a day 1pm to 4pm the sun here in istanbul is still strong and warm at this time of year and directly hits one side of the original sensor shield especially noticeable as the sun is lower in the sky as it declines.

the outcome was measured for a few days during this time of day using the change in temperature over short periods .

without it I was able to just shift it out of position for periods and noticed anywhere between 0.5 to 1.2c increases over a 15 minute period before it stabilised when sun was directly shining on it.

with it in position as shown in photograph the temperature change was dramaticly lower never going above 0.5c increase at anytime during a 15 minute period .
I monitored this for a week (5 days) and came to conclusion probably best $2 i ever spent

mounting it offset allows plenty of airflow through the ventilation slots and in between the original reduces any warm air getting trapped between .

its survived 80kmh winds over the weekend so it wont fall or break up.

thought some may find it useful or inspire some to improve or share there homemade designs but for $2 nothing to lose on this one . Hopefully once I get some time to weatherproof (rain) my homemade FARS will publish something about that with some photos of the solar powered battery source compartment..





brian..

[ValentineWeather]

Nice  love the ingenuity.   

[weather34]

Nice  love the ingenuity.   

living in istanbul you have to use your imagination a lot as we dont have access to things that are ready made for these purposes so ingenuity is often at the forefront and we have to improvise ..

i actually have another prototype im going try next week , i also bought a wall extractor vent like this but it has a 6inch extractor fan with a aprox 6 inch funnel/tubing it runs  240v it cost aprox $15 if it dont work ill use it in the kitchen to replace our old one..more curious on that one not expecting anything spectacular ..

brian

[Bashy]

Cool lol

As for 240v outside, in the elements, you sir are my hero, i take my hat off to you, braver than me 

[Bashy]

PS, how did you balance up that pole and take a photo?

[weather34]

Its not on a pole ıts mounted on a stand off bracket think in the uk you call em wall brackets  , I don’t have a garden or backyard  . As for 240v unlikely I will leave it there use it however as it is only positive and negative wired it would not be to difficult to a have 240v cable run to it as I can’t imagine it pulls much current as the rpm is very slow so I don’t think it will actually much use at those speeds .

Ps my balance is shot to bits so I don’t go climbing poles or even high ladders anymore ..me up on a ladde resembles the song shake rattle and roll..which is quite a contrast as I spent my youth at times installing sky satellite dishes when it first was available and some of those tower blocks in London at the time were scary in terms of height..probably still are

[weather34]

Sorry correct that the our garden somewhat small is north facing and has no direct sunlight for most of the day from 9am ish so the solar powered unit wouldn’t get any sunlight..

We share the garden with our neighbor and only use it for gatherings in the summer so,again not ideal to mount anything like this there.

[weather34]

then waking up finding a small crow sitting on it i decided to use these $1(3tl) pack of prongs think there made for cooking something will have to goback and get another pack..

improvising we enjoy

[weather34]

couldn't find another 4 prongs so it ended like this not the prettiest thing to look at but effective way of keeping the birds away.. ..brian

[ValentineWeather]

My first year here in Nebraska I couldn't keep the birds off even with lot more spikes than that, but for some reason they stopped using them. I took the spikes off even and rarely have any bird perch or poop. I was thinking since I've added stations was about the time it stopped, maybe its like scarecrows not sure just glad they decided to stop using.

[weather34]

unfortunately its not just crows , ive had Owls sitting on my old one all night we have a few local prowlers that appear as silhouettes in the night when look up ,during the migration season its not uncommon to find storks resting on the roof tops here overnight luckily this year we had none but year before we had a few.. but crows are the worst here they turn up in gangs touch wood it will do the job..brian

anyway nothing lost if dont work except a 4 turkish lira($1.50)  ..brian