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The information on this page (also see About Sola Roof) will trace the finer detail of events and people who contributed to development of Sola Roof technology in the past and also track our progress as we build a worldwide community knit together by our Sola Roof Wiki. I would welcome the contribution of historical stories (especially by the pioneers themselves) and to current milestone events and the people who are making them happen. Introduce your story in a section below with a Link to additional pages where details can be presented. Q & A about the above is welcome within each section or a general discussion at the bottom of the page: Snap ShotOur key team at the start of the Wiki Era: Dr. Patrick Michaud, Professor of Computer Science at Texas A & M University, is hosting our Sola Roof Wiki. Andres Yver, who resides in Chile, and leads our Wiki Website development. Ross Elliott has operated the Lively Up Greenhouse near Ottawa, Canada, and is a champion of our Open Source collaboration for more than two years. Vernon Nolan of Australia has offered use of the V Grip technology, and Attie Esterhuyse of South Africa has contributed engineering support. Many others, including a few enterprises, have engaged in private projects that include activity by NowBatu Inc. in South Korea and TAG International in Malaysia. Rewind: How it happened!Three projects were built before 2000 that are private. These are enterprises (no big business) that are involved for the purpose of their future profitable use of the technology and I have no right to disclose specific information. However, this is no longer important because the Sola Roof technology is now dedicated to Open Source and I only work with groups that are ready to commit to Open Source Disclosure. Projects that are accessible and totally or at least partly dedicated to collaborative development of our knowledge base are the following: The field test projects (outside of laboratory work) large projects that I can openly discuss include these structures:
Fast Forward: What's happening!I have assisted with all of these projects (and many more smaller or private projects) and since my move to England in 2002 I have spent time in Malaysia and Spain to promote the development of manufacturing capacity to serve the EU and other regions - with a special focus on the Wide Span design. Late in 2004 I have developed the Eco Sphere concept, which is my first human habitat project. It is my goal to see the Post Tsunami Visions of 2005 will support the use of this concept for sustainable reconstruction projects in the summer of 2005 in villages located in Sri Lanka. Solaroofguy General Discussion:These can be questions to target the gaps and notes about research efforts and development direction. Notes by Solaroofguy: We should understand that at the time that I independently invented the liquid bubble concept (then called Replaceable Foam Insulation) that a prior art in this technology already existed, having been patented by a Swedish inventor by the name of Zelon, in 1972. I will come back to the specifics of the Zelon patent in a moment, however at this point let me continue with a summary of my own activity in regard to this technology and the patent actions that were taken by myself as inventor. I first described the use of bubbles as a method of climate control in a college term project completed in 1972. The project described large domed structures with vein like ribs over the top of the dome that would distribute transparent insulation in the form of liquid bubbles. In this spring of 1974 while I was employed with the Department of Agriculture of Prince Edward Island, I was assisted by the Agricultural Development Director to evaluate the idea of using liquid replaceable foam insulation in greenhouse walls and roofs. A half-dozen letters were issued to various institutes including Dr. Tom Lawand, Director of the Brace Institute, in Montreal, the National Research Council in Ottawa, and also to Dr. Carl Hodges, Director of the Environmental Research Laboratory [ERL] in Tucson AZ, which is associated with the University of Arizona, Tucson. Dr. Merrill Jenson was one of the researchers at ERL who was engaged in the development work. Some time later they appear to have made a direct connection with Zelon, but at no time did they approach me. I met Carl Hodges at a greenhouse conference in the late 90’s at Univeristy Laval in Quebec City; at that time he was still presenting the idea of liquid foam insulation but in a very nebulous concept. Later in the same year 1974, ERL published results of an experiment where detergent-based foam had been injected into a conventional double poly greenhouse roof system. An article on the subject of ERL's work in American Vegetable Growers trade magazine came to my attention in the fall of 1974. I am not certain whether any relationship might have existed at this time between them and Zelon. I did not start any work on patents in this technology until 1979 when I arrived in Montreal. At this time my technology was split into several different classes of invention. At this time I was still unaware of Zelon (US Patent: 3672184, Jun., 1972). None of our patent searches, which were performed at the United States patent office, had turned up any reference to Zelon patent. I believe it was about 1982 while my patent Replaceable Foam Insulation Patent (filled October 18, 1982 and issued January 7, 1986) was still under examination, that correspondence from the European Patent Office on the same file disclosed to us the existence of the Zelon patent. This prior art was then brought to the attention of the U.S. Patent Office. My basic structure patent Canopy System for a Building Structure issued in June 1984 and it also describes important aspects of implementing both the Bubble Tech and Liquid Solar processes as well as disclosing the basic Wide Span concept for greenhouses and other building applications. The issue of my Replaceable Foam Insulation US Patent was granted (January 7, 1986) following some considerable discussion with the patent examiner concerning the prior art of Zelon and the same type of published public domain knowledge concerning the use of liquid foam insulation. My patent issued with 28 claims of novelty over the prior art. Among the most important improvements was the teaching of my patent of the benefit of the subdivision of roof and wall cavity spaces into duct like channels that provide for laminar flow of the bubbles into the cavity space. Together with the arrangement of the bubble generating system and the re-circulating pathway, a practical and technologically superior insulating process was thereby defined. At all times I restricted my interaction with other researchers working in this field of technology, since my purpose was to file for patents and it is desirable in such case to work independently. Another implication of such private research is the lack of publication on my part, which is normal since to publish before the issue of the patent is a bar to filing in many countries. I also consider the adaptation of Replaceable Foam Insulation to conventional polyethylene or glass greenhouse to be very difficult due to the constraints pre-existing in these conventional structural systems. The creation of new and appropriate structural designs, which would be suited to the use of Replaceable Foam Insulation is a large obstacle to the implementation of this new technology. In fact, the various public domain efforts in the United States clearly indicate that the implementation of this technology within the framework of conventional greenhouse design will not be easily achieved. (see notes of Nick Pine) and so this is the reason for my further development of the “Canopy System” design that is now referred to as the Wide Span. Many of these structures were built and if the area was totaled up it is about 5,000 square meters. I will document the Wide Span History? separately and it is uniquely associated with my own efforts, while the construction of Tunnel Greenhouses? and Double Tunnel Greenhouses? has been carried forward by other Pioneers. If liquid insulation systems are now brought to the forefront and various manufacturers seek to utilize the public domain knowledge to create improved greenhouse performance, it is certain that they would face a significant level of effort to "protect" such products. At the same time, they would be challenged not to infringe our existing patent claims. On the other hand we have a proven structural system which provides significant additional advantages. While others begin simply to come to grips with the insulation properties of liquid foam, the Sola Roof Community will be demonstrating the advanced use of liquid foam for dynamic heating and cooling. We use liquid foam in conjunction with the Solar Roof patent provides the complete Solar Controlled Environment process. It is very important to understand the fundamental and broad scope of the Bubble Tech and Liquid Solar technology and how these two systems are inter-woven in their function and produce results that will not be duplicated by conventional greenhouses even if they may be equipped with some primitive style of liquid foam insulation technology. I have had opportunities for extensive discussion with many Greenhouse Manufacturers? in Canada, including Harnois Industries?, and Hydro Nov? in Quebec and Westbrook Greenhouses?, Paul Beors and Growers Greenhouses?, in Ontario, and all have looked at the implementation of liquid foam technology alone, since they have little interest in the structural, glazing and controlled environment systems that I was concurrently developing. The reason is that the partial implementation of Thermactive technology may also have been related to competitive positioning that would be possible by using the public domain knowledge that Bob Quist and Bill Sturm? were discussing. Now that I am dedicated to development of Open Source technology there remains little reason why the greenhouse industry still is not moving ahead with adopting Sola Roof Tech methods. In such a scenario there is no need to license or create any direct association with existing greenhouse suppliers. All of them will be left to sort out for themselves how they will compete in an Open Source environment where our Sola Roof Members would have DIY access to the transparent solar structures based upon public domain technology and Contributed Intellectual Property? (some restrictions apply) that are the foundation of our Open Source knowledge base. Many of these greenhouse manufactures are very weak and operate on very thin margins of profit. They do not have reserves of capital to throw into a competitive research program. Also there are more than a dozen of these regional scale manufactures. I believe that the Sola Roof supply chain (the beginnings of the SE Net) will gradually establish a global supply network of cooperative enterprises and the existing greenhouse suppliers are certainly welcome to make a “fit” with the DIY and the commercial network. Text from: http://www.ibiblio.org/london/renewable-energy/solar/Nick.Pine/ Nick Pine nick@vu-vlsi.ee.vill.edu: Answers William R Stewart wstewart@patriot.net: Questions Bubblewalls are the subject of an old Swedish patent (I wish I had a copy.) The original application was storefront windows. They have been tried in this country over the years by people like John Groh, a New York grower (?) and Dr. Merrill Jenson at U Arizona and Dr. Otho Wells at U New Hampshire, who concluded in 1977 that bubblewalls were not practical night insulation for commercial plastic film greenhouses simply because those greenhouses need to be put together so roughly and quickly in the field by unskilled people (so as not to raise their basic cost of 50 cents per square foot :-) that leaks in such a system could not be avoided. Everyday leaks in plumbing, plastic film connections, etc. These are real problems, and I don't mean to minimize them, but they are also application-specific, and not hard to solve. Dr. Wells says that windows in solar houses may be a different situation, since they can be made more carefully... He also says he only got a US R-value of 1.5 or so out of his 3"-6" thick poly film pillows, so it seems we need to improve the bubbles themselves somehow, make them smaller and longer lasting, with thicker walls perhaps, or go work on something else. Dr. Aristid V. Gross of Temple U and the blind Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau (1801-1883) both made bubbles that lasted over a year... Dr. Wells was using an open system, more dustprone than a closed one, making bubbles at the top of a 25' x 196' double poly film greenhouse to fill the double poly film walls all round. He put slits in the plastic film, some with sewn-in zippers (he said sewing zippers into poly film isn't easy), to let some air out at the endwalls. He found he had to make more bubbles every 2-4 hours, to keep the walls full of bubbles. Dr. Jenson experimented with a photosensor to do this automatically, and also tried adding dyes to the bubble solution, which were diluted so much in bubble from that they had little effect. Another way to keep the glazing cavities full is to keep a layer of bubbles moving slowly from bottom to top in a continuous fashion. Another is to use temperature sensors to measure the R-value. Dr. Wells said the small bubbles tended to settle out quickly and become liquid again at the bottom... Another problem: Dr. Wells mentions that the bubble distribution was not uniform--big bubbles and open spots, thermal shunts with no bubbles, up to 1-2' in diameter would often develop. This might happen less if bubbles move continuously up from the bottom instead of intermittently down from the top of the cavity. Dr. Wells used a basic solution of 3% type E dust reduction foam (a better choice might have been firefighting foam) from Mine Safety Supply in Pittsburgh (now Mine Safety Appliances at (412) 776-7700?) with 1% propylene glycol as antifreeze, because when the bubbles freeze inside the outside layer of poly film, they break, and the R-value goes down and their friction against passing bubbles goes up, and he didn't want water frozen in pipes either. Can we make frozen bubbles that don't break? Yes. That's been done, often, in public at the San Francisco Exploratorium by Dr. Ilan Chabay, called "one of the world's foremost authorities on frozen bubbles," in John Cassidy's _Unbelievable Bubble Book_ for children (Klutz Press, 1987.) Has Dr. Wells ever talked with Dr. Chabray or Dr. Grosse? I don't think any physicist would call bubbles trivial physics. Child's play maybe, but not trivial :-) We need more child-like physicists. There is at lot of work to do in this alt.energy field, and a lot of it, like preventing leaks or finding the right soapy solution is not that technically difficult. There isn't a lot of funding, but there's a lot of work to do, a lot of opportunity for serious backyard builders and high school science fair students to do interesting things that may later become good, cost-effective, reliable, simple socially-useful techniques and products, given some common sense and education and patience and a lack of greed and shortsightedness." |
