US20110303215A1

US20110303215A1 - Modular solar house

Info

Publication number: US20110303215A1
Application number: US12/873,456
Authority: US
Inventors: Mei-Chen Chuang
Original assignee: Lite-On Green Technologies Inc
Current assignee: Lite-On Green Technologies Inc
Priority date: 2010-06-11
Filing date: 2010-09-01
Publication date: 2011-12-15
Also published as: TWM391573U; JP3163760U

Abstract

The instant disclosure relates to a modular solar house having a modulate structure that can be installed individually or in combination to meet specific space requirements. The modular solar house includes a modular main body and a roof capable of mounting a plurality of solar panel devices. The main body comprises a plurality of vertically disposed modular walls. The modular solar house further comprises at least one solar cell, one solar water heater detachably mounted on the roof, and a hot water reservoir disposed inside the prefab room for storing the water flowing through the solar water heater.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

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.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

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.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a modular solar house according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 shows a top view of a modular solar house according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a modular solar house as a green house according to one embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 4 shows a top view of a modular solar house according to another embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 5 shows a side view of a modular solar house according to another embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 6 shows a schematic view of a modular solar house in assembly according to another embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

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 FIG. 1, which shows a perspective view of a modular solar house according to the instant disclosure. The modular solar house 100 includes a prefabricated room 12, at least one solar cell 20, at least one solar water heater 30, and a hot water reservoir 32.
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 FIG. 1, the main body of the prefab room includes walls 12 and 14, which are transparent in the instant drawing. The adjacent walls stand substantially vertically and are in connection with each other. Each of the walls 12/14 comprises a plurality of vertical frames 121, horizontal frames 122, inclining frames 124, and a plurality of French wall pieces 123, 125 matchingly disposed on the prefab frames. For green house application, the French wall pieces 123, 125 are preferably transparent, and at least one of the French wall pieces 125 may be a door. However, as the prefab room 10 may be used for purposes other than a green house, and the transparent French walls on the body frames may not be necessary for other applications.
The roof 16 has two slanting roof pieces 16 a, 16 b 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 16 a, 16 b 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.
FIG. 2 is a top view of a modular solar house according to one embodiment of the instant disclosure. The slanting roof piece 16 a on the right has a plurality of transparent plates 40. The slanting roof piece 16 b on the left hosts a combination of solar cells 20 and solar water heaters 30. The solar cells 20 and the solar water heater 30 are preferably arranged in a symmetric manner to retain the balance of the roof structure.
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.
FIG. 3 is a schematic view of a modular solar house configured as a green house according to the instant disclosure. In this embodiment, a plurality of plant pots 50 may be placed in the interior of the prefab room. A hot water reservoir 32 is placed under the roof 16 in the house. Furthermore, the slanting angle of the roof pieces 16 a, 16 b may be adjusted by the use of the difference side walls 12 (shown in FIG. 1).
FIGS. 4 and 5 show a top view and a side view of a modular solar house according to another embodiment of the invention, respectively. To improve incidental light intensity to the interior of the room, a transparent solar panel such as a thin-film solar cell may be employed on the slanting roof piece 16 b. The modular solar house 100 of the instant disclosure may further comprise a lightning rod 60 on the roof 16.
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 FIG. 6. Because the modular prefab units share identical side walls, they can be easily configured to join each other to form a combined structure. Thus, the modular prefab units of the instant disclosure may 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. After the solar prefab units 100 are assembled together, the French wall piece and the frame at the connected sides of the prefab units can be removed, so that the interiors can be communicated and the indoor space is used more conveniently.
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.

Claims

1. A modular solar house, comprising:

at least one modular room unit having a main body and a roof unit disposed on the main body,

wherein the roof unit comprises two slanting roof pieces joining each other at an angle,

wherein each slanting roof piece includes a plurality of frames arranged in an array

wherein the modular room units are joinable to each other; and

at least one solar panel device detachably mounted on the roof,

wherein the at least one solar panel device is detachably mounted on the frames of the slanting roof.

2. The modular solar house of claim 1, wherein the solar panel device is a solar cell.

3. The modular solar house of claim 1, wherein the solar panel device is a solar water heater.

4. The modular solar house of claim 3, further comprising a hot water reservoir in the main body of the modular room unit for storing hot water from the solar water heater.

5. The modular solar house of claim 1, wherein the main body comprises a plurality of vertically disposed modular walls.

6. The modular solar house of claim 5, wherein the vertical modular walls comprise a plurality of modular frames and a plurality of French wall pieces.

7. The modular solar house of claim 5, wherein the main body comprises a plurality of vertical frames.

8. The modular solar house of claim 6, wherein at least one of the French wall pieces is a door.

9. The modular solar house of claim 1, wherein the angle of the slanting roof is adjustable.

10. The modular solar house of claim 1, wherein the at least one solar panel device is disposed symmetrically on the roof.

11. The modular solar house of claim 1, wherein the roof comprises a plurality of transparent plates.

12. The modular solar house of claim 1, further comprising a lightning protection system on the roof.