Solar wall panel

A construction member comprising a curved metal frame having a conical beam concentrator, an exterior plate glass cover, and an interior plastic wall panel mounted therein and serving as the circular wall panel of a circular building. The concentrator receives an incipient beam of diffused sunlight and refracts a concentrated annular beam onto a conical mirror which reflects a convergent lateral beam inward to the center of the building. A circular conical beam concentrator located in the crawl space refracts the beam twice more and emits a concentrated beam onto a heating element through which domestic hot water circulates.

BACKGROUND 
The code designation of the optical lenses of the solar wall panel is 
2RT-L-RT:C (R--refracting section of a component lens, T--transmitting 
section of a component lens, L--reflecting section of a mirror, and 
C--concentrating stage lens). 2RT refers to the circular conical beam 
concentrator in the center of the building, L refers to the conical 
mirror, RT refers to the conical beam concentrator mounted in the panel 
forming the exterior wall of the building, and C refers to the function of 
the lenses. 
Prior art includes three conical beam concentrators which receive annular 
incipient beams of direct sunlight and emit concentrated circular whole 
beams (U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,881,654 and 2,882,784 by Toffolo and 4,325,612 by 
Clegg) and four conical beam concentrators which receive whole incipient 
beams of direct sunlight and emit concentrated whole beams (U.S. Pat. Nos. 
4,277,148; 4,333,713; 4,492,438; and 4,521,085 by Clegg). None of these 
concentrators can receive convergent conical incipient beams and emit 
concentrated convergent lateral beams in the horizontal plane, this being 
the distinctive patentable feature of the disclosure. 
Concurrent art includes three conical beam concentrators which receive 
convergent conical beams of diffused sunlight and emit circular whole 
beams parallel to the vertical axis; Conical Beam Concentrator RT:C, Ser. 
No. 634,155, filed 7/25/84, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,575,196, Conical Beam 
Concentrator RT:C, Ser. No. 651,015, filed 9/17/84, now U.S. Pat. No. 
4,577,938, and Conical Beam Concentrator RT:C, Ser. No. 641,274, filed 
8/16/84. 
The circular conical beam concentrator mounted in the crawl space in the 
center of the building in the subject disclosure is identical to a 
concentrator in an application filed earlier; Circular Conical Beam 
Concentrator 2RT:C, Ser. No. 654,297, filed 9/25/84, now abandoned. 
The solar panel wall disclosed herein is one of three inventions in which 
the elements of conical optics and architecture are combined to produce 
circular buildings which are heated by diffused solar radiation. The other 
two inventions are; Conical Diffused-Sunlight Solar Panel, Ser. No. 
762,896, filed 8/6/85, with an annular roof-mounted conical lens, and 
Wall-Mounted Conical Beam Concentrator, Ser. No. 770126, filed 8/28/85, 
with a conical lens mounted to the lower three courses of a concrete-block 
wall. 
The areas of the incipient beams of these units are measured in hundred of 
thousands of square centimeters, and the concentrated lateral beams which 
provide the heat to the heating elements are less than ten square 
centimeters in area. Beam reductions of this magnitude are necessary 
because the heat content of diffused radiation is low.

DESCRIPTION 
The term solar wall panel used herein refers to a system comprising a wall 
panel and its constituent parts including the circular conical beam 
concentrator mounted in the center of the building. 
FIG. 1 is an elevation of the solar wall panel 1 showing the annular 
frusto-conical beam concentrator 2 mounted on bracket 3 inside side plate 
4, exterior plate glass cover 5, interior plastic wall panel 6, concave 
conical mirror 7 mounted on bracket 8, and the circular conical beam 
concentrator 9 (FIG. 2) mounted in the center of the circular building 10 
(FIG. 5). The near side plate (not shown) has been excluded from the 
drawing in order to expose the interior parts to view. 
Panel 1 rests on foundation wall 11 and supports floor joists 12 and 
rafters 13 as shown. 
FIG. 4 is an elevation of panel 1 showing front plate 14 and plate glass 
cover 5. 
FIG. 5 is a plan view of circular building 10 constructed of forty panels. 
The diameter of the building is fifteen and a half meters (fifty-one 
feet). A circular building is adapted to the use of annular conical beam 
concentrators, and it has a cost advantage over rectangular buildings in 
that it encloses twenty seven percent more floor space than a rectangular 
building with walls of the same length. 
Referring to the ray diagrams of FIGS. 1 and 2, convergent conical 
incipient beams 15 of diffused sunlight is received and transmitted by 
thirty-four inset convex conical sections 16 and refracted by concave 
conical section 17, forming concentrated annular beam 18, 
Beam 18 is reflected by concave conical mirror 7, forming convergent 
lateral beam 19 which is projected parallel to the horizontal plane 
through crawl space 20 toward the center of the building. 
Beam 19 is transmitted by cylindrical section 21 and refracted and emitted 
by two opposed concave conical sections 22 of outer component lens 23 of 
concentrator 9, forming two concentrated convergent conical beams 24. 
Beams 24 are transmitted by two opposed convex conical sections 25 and 
refracted and emitted by two opposed concave conical sections 26 of inner 
component lens 27, forming concentrated convergent lateral beam 28 which 
strikes heating element 29. 
Heating element 29 is a vertical hot water pipe which absorbs the heat of 
beam 28 and transfers the heat to water circulating through the pipe. 
Excess hot water treated during the day is stored in a large underground 
tank and circulated throughout the building as a source of heat during the 
night. 
The heat content of diffuse solar radiation is low, and this means that a 
relatively large incipient beam must be received and reduced in size to a 
relatively small concentrated beam with an intensity high enough to 
provide sustained heat to the heating element throughout the daylight 
hours. The beam concentrators of the solar wall panel achieve the required 
reduction in size both by refraction (reduction in the vertical plane) and 
by convergence (reduction in the horizontal plane) as shown in the table 
below: 
______________________________________ 
Incident bm. 
Means of Reduced bm. 
Beam area - cm.sup.2 
reduction area - cm.sup.2 
______________________________________ 
Incipient bm. 15 
667,000 Refraction 122,000 
Conv. lat. bm. 19 
122,000 Convergence 
6,380 
Conv. lat. bm. 19 
6,380 Refraction 496 
Conv. conc. bms. 24 
496 Refraction 9.4 
______________________________________ 
The area of 667,000 cm.sup.2 of incipient beam 15 is produced by only 
thirty two of the total forty panels comprising the wall of the circular 
building. Eight lenses must be excluded to make room for doors and 
windows. 
The reduced beam area of 9.4 cm.sup.2 is the area of concentrated lateral 
beam 28 at the point of contact with heating element 29, the means of 
reduction being both refraction and convergence, with the latter being not 
listed in the table but included in the total reduction in beam size: 
The number of windows needed in the house is less than ordinarily required, 
because the interior plastic wall panels 6 are translucent and admit a 
soft light that would be excluded by solid walls.