Nov
10
46″ PARABOLIC MIRROR STEAM BOILER SOLAR POWER
By
This is a big 46″ parabolic mirror with a 1M focal length. The lens can reach about 2700F max collection. Not 100% sure about those figures yet as a mount is still needed and the mirror flexes a bit. TRUE MIRROR, NOT MYLAR.
25 Comments
November 10th, 2009 at 1:08 pm
Glass radiates heat faster than copper, heats up faster and cools faster. You could incorporate a steel boiler with thick glass lenses? Have multiple parabolic mirrors pointed at one boiler, bottom to top. I like the steal wool idea. Bring it a step further and put metal shavings in the boiler that could be reused, self circulating from the boiling water.
November 10th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
the metal inside should be black
November 10th, 2009 at 1:56 pm
how was the frame of the mirror made??
November 10th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
what if you used a chrome spray paint on one side of the bottle to reflect the light that passes through the bottle back after it passes through the water
November 10th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
Black, Green, Blue. The key is concentrations of dye, clear water is best in this boiler and any dark object will work.
Dan
November 10th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Would colored water heat up faster?
November 10th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
Make a cup of tea..
November 10th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
Pretty smart idea! Not sure what it could be good for.. But I like them!
November 10th, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Can you use the moonlight too to make something hot?
November 10th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Great bit of ‘Lateral Thinking’ incorporating stainless steel wool in the water. It is also possible to make a reasonably good mirror, from just clay. (mud) you just line it with old CDs. which you focus individually, covering the others till the whole surface is covered in CDs. honeycomb style. The mirror can be a square block of wet clay/mud. set in a wooden frame/box.
November 10th, 2009 at 5:21 pm
what if that thing accidently shoot at ur penis?
November 10th, 2009 at 6:11 pm
does any low cost machine exist that you could mount a solar panel onto and it automatically track the sun all day? something like that would be great , we could harvest so much power from the sun
November 10th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
About 1300 watts per square meter hit the earth, about 1000 watts make it through the atmosphere. This mirror bisects an area of about 1.07 meters, so just about 1 kilowatt of solar energy would be focused by it.
November 10th, 2009 at 7:11 pm
About how many Snapple bottles will power a typical 1,200 – 1,500 sf house? I’m assuming that you’re going to use the steam to power a car alternator, yes? What do you do when there’s no sun?
November 10th, 2009 at 7:29 pm
OK, so you can boil about a pint of water with a 46 inch mirror. Do we just multiply 46 by 8, to find out how big a mirror we need to boil up a gallon? Or maybe it doesn’t work that way
November 10th, 2009 at 8:08 pm
Interessante , portare in ebolizione un litro d’acqua con posizionamento manuale della parabola e facile ma riscaldare molti litri e con inseguimento automatico le cose si complicano. Marco.Italia.
November 10th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
but i didnt get it yet abt the sun when its change position,may be its center point remain stable or wot? plz
November 10th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
Sorry, did you say you made this? I’d love to see how. I saw your other smaller concave dish fabrication, but this is much larger.
November 10th, 2009 at 9:18 pm
Love the banjo! Can’t be anything but happy with a banjo for accompaniment.
I have an idea that has floated around in my head, but i do not have the means to accomplish it. What about using pyroelectric crystals at the focal point to generate electricity?
November 10th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
You can’t hate it that much jamescatania – you’re subscribed to the channel.
November 10th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
csreeves, a youtube user named “chezgreens” has an interesting new design of steam engine that may suit your needs.
I believe the simplest way would be to couple it with a trough type solar concentrator to create steam.
It’s of course easiest to do anything if you have near limitless space – to make up for any inefficiencies any “home made” setup would no doubt suffer from.
November 10th, 2009 at 10:36 pm
Shoot a video of that, please! I’d love to see it.
I sketched a water clock/heliostat that might work with a float raised by water dripping into a bucket, but never built it. A ratcheted gear might help, but big mirrors also catch a lot of wind. Any green & simple mechanics will also have to be sturdy.
Another way that has been used to get around the heliostat issue is a long pipe at the focus of a “trough” reflector.
November 10th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
Dan, – your channel collector isnt a parabola – you’ve messed up the shape.
Yet another point – I recently built a passive heliostat that works by a bungee cord pulling one side of a collector down, offset by a bucket on the other side dripping water out over a day. It travels 180 degrees over the day. The next morning, I go feed the dog and tip the water from the lower bucket into the top and it starts again. Maybe mechatronic controls arent as cool as some of the old school ones. Keep going!
November 10th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Dan – keep going, don’t listen to the trolls.
Theres some points that come to midn though. You have some great proofs of concepts of components. Time maybe to stop maybe changing projects and chain a few together to get (dish+tesla turbine+generator = power) or (fresnel+steam engine+generator = power). Then you’ll silence the critics.
November 10th, 2009 at 11:24 pm
hi Dan, i just want to ask you about your Stirling engine project. Is it abandoned? You promised to share some experiences on building one but it has been a while now
Have you thought of trying Tesla turbine powered by steam, they seem to be pretty effective, much more then steam engines. How about put one under the ‘Rojas’ hard testing? 
You`r doing great job, greetings from Europe.