Heliostats
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Heliostats
What are Heliostats?
Heliostats are self-adjusting mirrors for the precise transmission of sunlight. The collected sunlight can be used either for the production of energy or for the illumination of windowless areas, for the lighting of shaded objects or as a source of natural light.
The idea behind...
Already in the Ancient World people had the idea to use the sun for lighting purposes. It is known that the Old Egyptians illuminated their monumental buildings with the help of bronze mirrors which were manually adjusted to the position of the sun.
In our days collecting and guidance of the sunlight is done by so-called Heliostats (Greek «sun» + «bring to a halt»), this astronomical term describes an instrument with plane mirrors which is moved by a clockwork mechanism. It continually projects the starry sky into a fix-mounted telescope.
The OPAL Light beam rotation mirror
A plane mirror tracks the sun via two axes (Kardan construction) thus the sunlight conducts to any specific location.
Adjustment
The remarkable feature of Lumena OPAL Heliostats is the adjustment system. It is based on optical tracing of the sun. That means that the rotation axis of the Heliostats aligns oneself with the optical axis of the guided light beam. This system makes the Lumena OPAL Heliostats applicaple at any location on earth as long as sun is in sight. No parametrisation and programming is required.
Mechanics
Lumena OPAL Heliostats is made of highly refined materials. The drive components are wear-proof and resistant to varying climatic conditions. The drive components and the gears are conceived to resist wind speeds of up to 180 km/h. The gears are free of backlash.
Power Supply
The energy consumption for the tracking is very modest and may ? if required ? be provided directly by two 10W photovoltaic modules. This means that the Heliostats may also be installed in locations where no power supply is available.
Trouble-free
The Heliostats is provided by a sensor technology called SOLSEN DC. It was developed to handle seasonal temperature variations and to interpret difficult light situations. This tool assures a trouble-free operation and is proven for over 10 years.
Mainteance-free
The Heliostat is a complex, highly precise electromechanical instrument to be operated only by qualified personnel, and it is therefore of decisive advantage to the user that the instrument requires no maintenace. Lumena Heliostats are absolutely maintenance-free and need no periodical adjustment.
Variant to the Kardan Construction
Alternative to the Kardan Construction, the OPAL light beam rotation mirror is also available as a turn-table set-up. This set-up provides the sunlight over a lightpipe directly to its intended target or distributes it evenly over a certain distance to illuminate the rooms. The light-pipe serves as a natural luminary and is connected to the weather situation outdoors.