December 2nd 2008 08:09 pm
The First Solar Panel Garage Door?
The new plug-in Hybrids (PHEV) will revolutionize the way we think about fuel efficiency. Chevy has one called the Volt and Toyota has a new version of the Prius. Currently, neither one is available for purchase to the masses, but there are 3rd party conversions that you can get to transform your current Prius into a plug-in right now.
The idea is that the PHEVs charge overnight and then run off the electric battery until the power is depleted, at which point, it switches to the standard Hybrid method of fuel consumption.
CalCars.org and OEMtek agree that the initial charge should last between 50 to 70 miles. Which means if you drive less than 25 miles to work each day you could conceivably get there and back each day without using a drop of gasoline. Now, that’s what I call reducing dependency on foreign oil. But can we do even better? Let’s at least give it a try, shall we?
The car will need at least 9 kWh of energy each evening and that can easily be achieved by plugging it into a standard wall outlet. But emissions from electricity generation account for a higher portion of world greenhouse gas emissions than transportation. Clearly, a better way is needed. We can imagine a way that is totally clean and will produce sufficient energy to fully power the car’s battery at $0 cost… A solar panel garage door.
Solar panels are able to produce about 1 kWh of total energy for every square meter of surface area. A standard double-wide garage door measuring 16′x 7′ provides about 10.4 square meters of surface space. That should produce the amount of energy needed.
Solar panels have advanced to the point where they can be anywhere. There are marine solar panels and Karma has the world’s first curved solar panel. So, why not on the garage door? We are going to begin testing this as we believe it makes a tremendous amount of sense.
Think about it… the technology exists right now – right now. That we could drive back and forth to work every day and never use a drop of gas (as long as it’s less than 25 or 30 miles from home).
Start by jumping over to OEMtek and learn how to convert your hybrid into a plug-in, we’ll get started on the garage door.
Map Of Precision Door Locations
Precision Garage Door of Delaware
20 Shea Way, Suite 206B
Newark, DE 19713
(302) 429-1992
www.GarageDoorsDelaware.com
Precision Garage Door of Pittsburgh PA
603 Parkway View Dr
Pittsburgh, PA 15205
(412) 307-4481
www.PittsburghGarageDoors.com
Precision Garage Door of Nashville TN
8161 Highway 100, Suite 184
Nashville, TN 37221
(615) 369-2033
www.GarageDoorsTN.com
Precision Garage Doors of Greenville SC
4009 Pelham Ct
Greer, SC 29650
(864) 990-1979
www.Precision-Door.com
Precision Garage Doors of Jacksonville FL
8535 Baymeadows Rd
Jacksonville, FL 32256
(904) 677-8975
www.GarageDoorsJacksonvilleFL.com
Precision Garage Doors of Portland OR
14865 SW 74th Ave Suite 150
Tigard, OR 97223
(503) 636-1711
www.PDSPortland.com
Precision Garage Doors of Orlando FL
3208 Colonial Drive, Suite C #194
Orlando, FL 32803
(407) 218-8330
www.GarageDoorsFL.com
Precision Garage Doors of Brevard County FL
132 Tomahawk Drive,
Indian Harbour Beach, FL 32937
(321) 252-4834
www.PrecisionGarageDoorsFL.com
Precision Garage Doors of Denver CO
700 N Colorado Blvd., Suite 130
Denver, CO 80206
(303) 424-0830
www.GarageDoorsCO.com
Precision Garage Doors of Southern New Jersey
440 Herbertsville Rd
Brick, NJ 08724
(732) 836-9090
www.PrecisionGarageDoorsNJ.com
Precision Garage Doors of Westchester NY
241 Bleakley Ave
Buchanan, NY 10511
(914) 734-7033
www.GarageDoorsWestchesterNY.com
Precision Garage Doors Wisconsin
N57W13556 Reichert Ave.
Menomonee Falls WI 53051
(262) 649-1112
www.WisGarageDoors.com
Precision Garage Doors of Northern New Jersey
220 West Parkway Suite 9
Pompton Plains, NJ 07444
(973) 283-3555
www.pdsnj.com
Precision Garage Door San Diego
8920 Activity Road Suite F
San Diego, CA 92126
(619) 916-3304
www.GarageDoorSoCal.com
Precision Garage Door San Diego
27280 Via Industria Suite A
Temecula, CA 92590
(951) 795-4758
www.GarageDoorSoCal.com
Precision Garage Door Akron OH
1195 George Washington Blvd
Akron, OH 44312
(330) 835-6664
www.OhioGarageDoor.com
Precision Garage Door Birmingham
225 Oxmoor Circle, Suite 806
Birmingham, AL 35209
(205) 533-9538
www.BirminghamGarageDoors.com
Precision Garage Door Chicago
2800 Bernice Road
Lansing, IL 60438
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Precision Garage Door Cleveland
9545 Midwest Ave
Garfield Heights, OH 44125
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Precision Garage Door Orange County
1715 E. Wilshire Ave #720
Santa Ana, CA 92705
(714) 786-6853
www.GarageDoorsCA.com
Precision Garage Door Rochester
507 West Commercial St
East Rochester, NY 14445
(585) 267-5174
www.GarageDoorsRochester.com
Precision Garage Door Detroit
11936 Farmington Rd
Livonia, MI 48510
(734) 266-6128
www.PrecisionDoorDetroit.com
Precision Garage Door Las Vegas
3175 West Ali Baba Lane #804
Las Vegas, NV 89118
(702) 891-5266
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Precision Garage Door Massachusetts
158-A Doty Circle
West Springfield, MA 01089
(413) 732-7522
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Precision Garage Door Virginia
1402 Interstate Business Park
Fredericksburg, VA 22405
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Precision Garage Door San Jose
www.TheBaryAreaGarageDoors.com
9 Comments »
Norman P Flout on 13 Dec 2008 at 11:47 pm #
How far along are you on the solar garage door concept? I have a south facing garage door and wanted to know if you guys are ready to go to market.
Thanks,
Ron Gross on 15 Dec 2008 at 6:12 pm #
I have a south facing that, even in the middle of our cold Western New York climate is often very warm to the touch. The solar panel garage door is something I would be interested in. It makes perfect sense.
Thanks for a great idea!
Michael Pfeiffer on 31 Dec 2008 at 10:43 am #
This is very sharp – what a great blend of the garage door and the electric car.
How much weight did the solar panels add to the door? Were additional strut braces needed to keep the door from bowing down when it was in open position – one last question did you replace the springs or add more turns?
Thanks for posting this – all the best.
Painted Pony on 19 Feb 2009 at 3:01 pm #
I just had this great idea! Glad to see someone else thinks this is cool. If—–they can be made to look “architecturally pleasing” —-it would be a great and EASY way to jump into solar. Count me in!
Nanda on 04 Mar 2009 at 8:30 pm #
Great idea!!! I modelled up something in Google SketchUp earlier today, then did a quick web search and found this post….great minds….
Here is what I drew up:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/spincyclz/3329759132/
Trinity Garage Doors on 30 Apr 2009 at 2:11 pm #
Wow!! What a great idea! This could be a great way to further explore the potential of alternative energy sources. How hard would it be to have the door power a garage door opener, I wonder?
Uncle B on 09 May 2009 at 3:09 pm #
Once we get away from the “Prius” model, the current standard, and go to an ultra-light, carbon-fiber bodied two seater at half the body weight, and twice the “Parkability” how far will it go? I never go to work with five people in the car, so why do I have to pay to cart around a five-seater car? Give me two seats at most, rocket-like acceleration, power-regenerating stopping, and make my ride to work a grid-lock free blast every time! If we get the size and cost of running down, and the cost to purchase down too, we could have two or three of these things per family. Huge convenience! The “American Family Sedan” needs to die! The American family it was modeled for is long gone, yet we hang on to this tradition, and even encourage other countries to adopt it! It was dead in the Fifties! We need commuter cars that make sense in the computer age, the 21st Century, not the old black and white movie days. Change is coming, revolutionary change, more change than Obama ever imagined, and we want universal health care too, dammit!
Martin on 09 May 2009 at 4:52 pm #
Well, isn’t there an obvious problem with this? The car is used the most for transportation back and from work, and the period we are at work just happens to coincide rather unfortunately with the period that the sun is up and at its brightest – effectively giving you roughly 1-2 hours of quality sunlight (if you live close enough to the equator) per day!
You might actually be better of convincing your boss to install a solar panel on the top of the building where you work!
Chrispjy on 18 Feb 2010 at 1:42 am #
There are more than a few chalenges with this idea
1 Depending on the roof overhang-you may not have any available solar gain on summer on a south facing door. Sun is high in the sky.
2 Most all EV’s need 110 or 220 AC.
That means you’ll need an inverter.
How will you run DC power to the inverter, especialy when the door opens
3. The figure of 1kw per square meter is for direct gain….like for a tracker.
Fixed array facing horizon would be only a third of that or so …. Over the calendar year