THE RETURN OF THE SOLAR CAT BOOK
BY: Jim Augustyn, with illustrations by: Hildy Paige Burns
THE RETURN OF THE SOLAR CAT BOOK – Mixing Cat Wisdom with Science and Solar Politics
BY: Jim Augustyn, with illustrations by: Hildy Paige Burns
The following blog is a collection of notes taken from my first read of January 2024, a delightful book all about solar in a fun and relatable way by using cats to refer to. I would highly suggest this book to everyone young or old, it is educational and entertaining at the same time!
To find out more about the origins of the book and information from Jim Augustyn on the development of The Solar Cat books, please visit:
https://solarcat.com/About.html
The Return of the Solar Cat book can be purchased online and at various used book stores. I would love if Jim could do another updated addition for 2024 as it would be the 20th anniversary of the book!
Below are a collection of notes I took to share with you from the book, to get all the goodies then you must read THE RETURN OF THE SOLAR CAT BOOK!
Please note images are of kittens/cats I have taken photos of!
FARA’S NOTES ON – THE RETURN OF THE SOLAR CAT BOOK
CATS AND THE SUN:
Cats love the sun.
Spooky chasing his shadow in the sunlight
HISTORY:
Cats were worshipped in ancient Egypt. The Egyptians recognized how perfectly cats interact with their environment and glorified them appropriately.
In ancient Egyptian art the goddess Bast represented the life-giving heat of the sun and was portrayed with the head of a cat.
Egyptian Cat Goddess Bast
During this epoch cats discovered thermal mass.
Starting with President Carter’s strong commitment to fund alternative energy research and development in the late 1970’s, an unbroken string of U.S. presidents have conducted a relentless campaign in support of solar energy development.
President Ronald Reagan redefined the energy crisis as nothing but another regulatory fiasco, while appearing to do nothing to support solar energy.
President George H. Bush appeared to subvert Carter’s famous phrase by insisting that the 1991 Gulf War was about freedom, while he actually raised renewable energy research to a national laboratory status.
Cats know a lot more about solar energy than people do. This sizeable knowledge gap will narrow as more and more people come to realize that the sun is their best friend and is really the ultimate energy source, and begin to devise ever more ingenious ways of using it to their own advantage.
1980, as the shock of the 1st “energy crisis” took hold, people began to try very hard to learn about solar energy, though they were very far behind cats.
Today cats can be seen routinely using the sun to meet their energy needs. How common is the sight of a cat curled up in a patch of sunlight.
Benji basking in the sunlight
THE STATE OF THE ART
Cats’ affinity for sunlight on chilly afternoons.
When it is cold, it makes perfect sense to expose one’s fur to the sun.
Cas not only use the sun in their everyday lives, they also work hard to improve and perfect ways to use solar energy.
It is simple to see how cats get warm by exposure to sunlight; when it hits them, they heat up!
Cats know a good thing when they see one, be it a fresh, juicy fish or an efficient energy source.
SOLAR THERMAL CATS
Solar thermal cats convert sunlight into heat and are similar in many ways to peoples’ solar thermal systems.
PASSIVE CATS
There are two kinds of solar thermal cats: passive cats and active cats. Passive cats sit around all day often in windowsills, absorbing sun and later letting it go.
ACTIVE CATS
Active cats on the other hand, get up and go after the sun. They then bring it back inside where it will do some good.
Solar thermal systems designed by people are much the same but are unable to change from active to passive (or vice versa) as cats are known to do.
Peoples’ systems have 4 basic parts:
1. collector
2. storage
3. heat transfer mechanism
4. and control
Collector: All solar thermal systems collect energy during the day, heating the home or office as necessary. In passive systems, collectors take the form of windows, skylights, and greenhouses. In active systems common flat plate collectors are used.
Storage: Once daytime heating needs are met, additional energy is stored for use at night. Such storage can be in tanks of water, piles of rock or dirt, or almost anything else that can hold heat. In passive systems, heat storage often occurs in the building structure itself, as in concrete or tile floors, thick plaster or wallboard walls, or even stone or cast metal furniture.
Heat Transfer Mechanism: In addition to collector and storage, solar thermal systems must have some way to transfer heat from the collector to the point of use. In active systems, pumps, fans, and a “heat transfer fluid” are used. In passive designs, the heat flows all by itself, such as when warm air rises or hear seeps through a wall.
Control: In active systems, electronic controls tell pumps and fans to run in order to collect, store and distribute energy. In passive systems this control function occurs automatically, though it is sometimes necessary for a person to open and close windows, curtains or other such controls.
With cats, all system functions are combined into a single, nearly flawless component:
In a solar thermal cat, the cat serves as a collector, storage, heat transfer mechanism as well as the system controller. In addition, cats make good use of catabolic heat generation, an aspect entirely missing from peoples’ systems.
Balou collecting heat from the window
CATS AS COLLECTORS
Cats have several inherent features which allow them to function as highly efficient, aesthetic solar collectors.
“Heat trap” characteristic of cat fur and their unique self-cleaning characteristic.
When cat fur is properly oriented, squiggly heat rays from the sun neatly slip between the fur to strike the cat skin underneath.
Since cat fur prevents wind from getting near the heated cat skin, solar energy striking the cat body is trapped.
Catacombs: Since fur orientation is critical to solar cat collection efficiency, methods to ensure proper orientation are extremely important.
CATS AS THERMAL STORAGE
There are two kinds of thermal storage: “sensible” and “latent”. Cats can store heat in both ways, whereas peoples’ solar thermal systems use only one or the other.
Sensible Heat Storage: “Sensible” because it is easily sensed. Whenever something stores sensible heat its temperature increases. Heavy things store more of it than light weight things with the same temperature rise and size of thing.
Latent Heat Storage: The temperature of the object (or cat) does not change or latent heat is stored or removed. With cat’s latent heat is not so tricky. It takes place in the formation of purrs.
The Insulating Value of Fur: A common fault of many peoples’ solar thermal systems is that their storage tanks are not well insulated. This is usually not the case with cats; cat fur is widely recognized as perhaps the ultimate insulating material. It adjusts its insulating value to follow changing seasonal conditions (as in shedding), and grows back to repair shaved or damaged areas.
CATS AS A HEAT TRANSFER MECHANISM
Cats are always in control. They know exactly what to do and when to do it.
Peoples’ solar system controls are not nearly as complicated or socially significant. Active systems are relatively simple electronic control units. They sense temperatures in various places and tell other electronic components what to do at the proper time. Passive systems are either self-regulating by their very design, or require people to do things like adjust shades, or open or close windows.
CATABOLISM
Catabolism is the part of the body’s metabolism in which heat energy is released. The catabolic heat generation rate of a cat depends on its state of activity.
SOLAR THERMAL APPLICATIONS
The normal function of solar thermal cats is to keep cats warm. However, they can be used by people in a variety of ways.
Spooky as a wee little kitten!
Residential: Solar thermal cats are best at space heating but can heat domestic water.
Passive space heating systems are much more practical than active ones, since they cost much less and work much better.
Industry: People have been slow to adopt solar thermal systems in the industry. This is partly because the relatively low cost of industrial energy fostered great waste.
THE IMPORTANCE OF ELECTRICITY
People can barely conceive of life without electricity. Today electricity is as commonplace as background radiation and is used in virtually every aspect of modern life.
WIND ELECTRIC GENERATORS
Cats usually do not like wind because it messes up their fur and makes it difficult for them to hear birds and approaching dogs. However, they do agree that wind carries a great deal of energy and would surely harness it if their electrical needs were greater.
Windmills have been used throughout the world for centuries, for milling food and pumping water.
More recently, people have found wind electric generating machines to be the easiest way to convert solar energy into electricity.
…giant wind “farms” have been built all over the world, and wind power has become as inexpensive as conventional fossil fueled power plants in many places.
Harm to bird life has also been cited as a serious consequence of wind turbine operation.
The power in the wind: One of the more interesting things about wind is that the power in it increases very rapidly with its speed.
PARABOLIC TROUGH SOLAR THERMAL POWER PLANTS
Solar electric technology people have developed is called the “parabolic trough solar power plant. Such plants consist of long rows of mirrors curved in the shape of parabolas, which bounce and focus sunlight onto insulated pipes heating a fluid to make steam and drive a turbine just like a good old fossil fuel burning power plant.
This technology works best in nice hot places with lots of sunlight.
POWER TOWER SOLAR ELECTRIC PLANTS
Another largescale technology called “Power Tower” plants have been the focus of much government attention.
These plants have acres of computer-controlled mirrors, each which bounce sunlight onto a small receiver atop a tall central power.
A great amount of sunlight can then be concentrated, producing very high temperatures to make steam and electricity with conventional turbine generators.
The research projects have been very costly, never approaching the simplicity and effectiveness of parabolic trough plants.
THE SOLAR CHIMNEY
“Solar Chimney” its primary European proponents hope to build really big chimneys in deserts which would produce electricity by making an artificial wind of rising hot air and turn it into electricity.
PHOTOVOLTAICS
Photovoltaic cells convert sunlight directly into electricity with only subatomic moving parts. Their inner workings can be explained quite simply by imagining that sunlight comes in very small, separate and discreet units called “pho-toms”. Each pho-tom which hits the surface of the cell completely vanishes upon impact, but leaves behind a tiny ‘hole’ into which nearby electrons fall. The movement of these electrons creates an electric current which is then channeled to an external circuit.
“Photovoltaic” essentially means turning pho-toms into volts, or sunlight into electricity. Photovoltaic cells produce “direct” current which is charged into “alternating” current.
Photovoltaic cells can be hooked together to form bigger units called modules. Modules can in turn be hooked together to form arrays, which are normally the major and most visible part of a photovoltaic system.
Hydrogen is a fantastic fuel. When it burns it makes just heat and water and none of those pesky polluting byproducts of fossil or even bio-fuels.
The only trouble about oxygen is that it does not exist by itself in nature. It is very plentiful, but just about all hydrogen is locked up in chemical bonds with other elements as in water, for instance, where it is combined with oxygen.
It takes energy to extract the hydrogen from water or anything else.
Solar energy is valuable. The first step toward recognizing how valuable it actually is – especially compared to other things – is to know the difference between energy and power.
Energy is how much work can be done. Power is how fast that work can be done.
Power is often measured in kilowatts, and electric energy in kilowatt-hours.
The rate at which solar energy hits anything is less in the morning and afternoon, and is much less at night.
How much solar energy is there?
There is a lot of solar energy. About 1,600 kilo-watt hours of solar energy fall on a typical, horizontal square meter of absolutely average America each year.
Measuring Sunlight: Cats have no need to measure the strength of sunlight. They are born knowing that kind of thing.
THE TOOLS OF ECONOMICS
Income Cats Deductions, Credits and Cuts
Some governments use tax laws or even rebates to increase solar energy use when a solar system is installed, income taxes are reduced or rebates are paid to the buyer.
