treehugger.com — Imagine a roof that looks like shaded glass by day, but by evening is transformed into an illuminated array of white LEDs. Sharp's LumiWall promises to do this, and it's powered entirely by thin-film solar panels inside the glass.
Jul 27, 2006 View in Crawl 4
eskwayrdJul 27, 2006
@somnus:I'm not a roofer, but here are some starting thoughts:1) Roof maintenance could be dramatically more dangerous; you'd have to walk on the glass.2) Useless for most non-tropical homes where an insulation barrier must exist between the roof and the interior ceilings; you'd never see any of the generated light with these things used as roof panels.3) The traditional technique of flashing around vents, chimneys, etc. would need to be altered to avoid blocking out the sunlight (the flashing is typically hidden beneath the exterior roof sheathing, like asphalt shingles, shakes, tiles, etc)... but only for those homes without an intervening insulation barrier.4) Snow loads? Resistance to minor impacts (think kids playing baseball)?And, echoing the comments of others who worry about the light being emitted towards the sky, and speaking as an amateur astronomer, it would be nice to see a guarantee of no increase in light pollution.
kalessinJul 27, 2006
as stated by others. this has applications as sky-light alternatives. this isn't meant to replace conventional roofing nor solar panels.
agretJul 28, 2006
$80 every 5 years isn't expensive.....
intacoJul 28, 2006
The LumiWall may not be capable of absorbing light within the visible spectrum, but there is still a large amount of energy to harvest from UV-light, and what little remains of the more energy-rich wavelengths. My own biggest concern is the current quality of plastic solar panels, which still has a long way to go in development before it becomes actually useful.
intacoJul 28, 2006
You're thinking about conventional solar panels, which require a large amount of maintainance (relatively, at least). LumiWall uses plastic solar panels, which are very durable and has little in the way of visible electronics. It is easy to completely encase a plastic solar panel plus some electronics in glass. Take it from someone who're in the biz of nanotechnology.
jrblack10Jul 28, 2006
TreeHugger.com... That alone gave me a chuckle...
kanundraJul 28, 2006
Mod me down, but I just can't believe that there's a treehugger.com, and that it's a real site not a site making a mockary of treehuggers.
toomuchgreenteaJul 29, 2006
Stop guessing people, these panels have actually been in use since early 2005. In Sharp's 2005 annual report, there is a picture of the panels being used at the front entrance of their Katsuragi Plant.<a class="user" href="http://www.sharp-world.com/corporate/ir/ar/pdf/9-10.pdf">http://www.sharp-world.com/corporate/ir/ar/pdf/9-10.pdf</a>