Solar cooker made from a satellite dish?

[. Raine]

Well it will help shine it up good, this could be better and cheaper Amazon product ASIN B00CYW3WCK

Those are glass, so I wouldn't be able to bend them to the form of the dish. But even if they were plastic, I'd probably get wrinkles, like we did with the mylar. One dish we did with a single piece and the other we did with small pieces. The one with a single piece wrinkled here and there, the one with the small pieces had lines/seams where we put the pieces together, so I'm thinking chrome and no wrinkles.

 

[N6BY]

I love this thread! I ordered some 2 mil mylar mirror film to experiment with.

Will give it a shot with my 8.5' dish and see what happens.

 

[. Raine]

I love this thread! I ordered some 2 mil mylar mirror film to experiment with.

Will give it a shot with my 8.5' dish and see what happens.

8.5'! That should produce some serious heat! Wear some sun glasses, or some sort of eye protection, it's very bright to look at when you're adjusting it to the focal point and I'm sure it could do some eye damage. We used welding goggles, which worked great. I put on one of my welding helmets just to see if it was bright enough to activate it and it was.

The guy at my work that gave me the mylar kidding around calls this project 'Haley's death ray' [Haley's my daughter's name] I'll have to tell him today that someone on here is going to try it with a 8.5' dish!

 

[FaT Air]

IIRR somewhere on the web is a project using a prime focus BUD converted to a furnace. Red Rock tracker and a coil of copper pipe at the focal point with fluid pumped thru it. Back to the house where a radiator let the heat out. Hey, you can see the focal point without welding glasses:

Some time ago, I also thought of making a furnace out of the BUD. Built a Red Rock tracker and all.
Then I found this website.

 

[. Raine]

IIRR somewhere on the web is a project using a prime focus BUD converted to a furnace. Red Rock tracker and a coil of copper pipe at the focal point with fluid pumped thru it. Back to the house where a radiator let the heat out. Hey, you can see the focal point without welding glasses:

Some time ago, I also thought of making a furnace out of the BUD. Built a Red Rock tracker and all.
Then I found this website.

That was cool, do you think spraying water into the focal point would work the same on the small dish?

 

[FaT Air]

I can't see 'why not'?? You can see in my pic

The corona(??) is actually below the pan.

 

[N6BY]

...
A couple of maybe's: http://www.mirrorsheeting.com/ http://shop.hobbylobby.com/products/printed-tissue-stripes/polka-694125/

I ordered from mirrorsheeting.com on 3/26 and got it today 3/30. It looks very good in case anyone else wants to order some from them.

The 8.5' dish will have 5.1 square meters of sun reflecting from the mirror sheeting. They were able to melt rock with only 2 square meters. Needless to say, I am very anxious to test it, but I am awaiting some hardware from Fastenal to repair the dish mount -- Thursday I hope. Will borrow my dad's welding goggles for this.

 

[FTA4PA]

The 8.5' dish will have 5.1 square meters of sun reflecting from the mirror sheeting. They were able to melt rock with only 2 square meters.

Don't get your hand in front of that thing or it'll slice it off like a Star Trek Phaser!

 

[Conky]

once you get the dish sorted out, you can start building the Stirling engine

 

[. Raine]

once you get the dish sorted out, you can start building the Stirling engine

With a 8.5', maybe even a steam engine? I always wanted to build a small Stirling myself, wish I had now. Definitely should be enough temp difference for one of them to run!

 

[(((Garyd)))]

With a 8.5', maybe even a steam engine? I always wanted to build a small Stirling myself, wish I had now. Definitely should be enough temp difference for one of them to run!

Of course there would be, if you added a tracking circuit you could follow the who ARC I do know someone here who has a ajax horizon to horizon mount for any size Orbitron satellite dish for sale very heavy duty and heavy I built custom built it to fit a orbitron dish it's heavy

 

[. Raine]

The thought of a tracking circuit had crossed my mind, especially since for a while now, even before starting this project, I've been tossing the idea around in my head and scribbling some notes for one, for a few of my small solar panels [2X80W] mounted on a old c band mount or Usals HH motor and controlled by a R-Pie A+ to track the sun. Virtually the same exact setup probably could be used for tracking on this and I have a few old C Band mounts here without dishes, a few unused HH Usals motors.

The hard part wouldn't be the actual tracking of the sun with the dish, I think, it'd be keeping the object to be heated in the focal point as the sun moves across the sky. Say, to heat water, mount something to the dish arm at the focal point and have flexible tubes running off of the thing for a supply of ethylene glycol connected to a heat exchanger, or a tube in a arc fixed throughout the focal point's arc throughout the day? I don't know for sure, yet, how to approach that. The sun is lower/higher different times of the year, so I'm thinking a Usals HH motor would be best to use and a reservoir on the dish arm with tubes running down through the LNB arm to swivel fittings then on to a heat exchanger. Also need to think on pressure release/safety valve of some sort, that type of stuff. Need to put more thought into it, once I finish up some of the seemingly hundred other projects that I have going on!

 

[FaT Air]

I modified (quite extensively) the Red Rock Solar LED3. Left with only 2 LED's and a couple of transistors. Outputs went to the E and W buttons on a old potentiometer actuator power supply. Stayed dead on the suns azimuth all day long. (til it hit the west limit on the actuator) Then in the am would swing over and grab it again and do it over. Think the parts added up to around 2 bucks.
Build 2, one on Az, and the other on El. (replace the elevation screw on a polar mount with another actuator.
Think you'd have to do that with an HtoH mount also, as the sun tracks higher and lower seasonally.
Pressure release? Naw, just need a vented reservoir and it being the highest point in the system. Near empty when cold and able to accept any expansion. (that's what I had planned anyway) Put in the cold side of the system.

 

[. Raine]

Quite extensively is right, if all you were left with was a few LED's and transistors! Just looked at the schematic for the LED3 and I should've looked at it when you'd mentioned it before, that does look good. Good idea on the second actuator too, replacing the elevation screw. I'd prefer to use a polar mount and that makes it workable, thanks!

 

[(((Garyd)))]

The thought of a tracking circuit had crossed my mind, especially since for a while now, even before starting this project, I've been tossing the idea around in my head and scribbling some notes for one, for a few of my small solar panels [2X80W] mounted on a old c band mount or Usals HH motor and controlled by a R-Pie A+ to track the sun. Virtually the same exact setup probably could be used for tracking on this and I have a few old C Band mounts here without dishes, a few unused HH Usals motors.

The hard part wouldn't be the actual tracking of the sun with the dish, I think, it'd be keeping the object to be heated in the focal point as the sun moves across the sky. Say, to heat water, mount something to the dish arm at the focal point and have flexible tubes running off of the thing for a supply of ethylene glycol connected to a heat exchanger, or a tube in a arc fixed throughout the focal point's arc throughout the day? I don't know for sure, yet, how to approach that. The sun is lower/higher different times of the year, so I'm thinking a Usals HH motor would be best to use and a reservoir on the dish arm with tubes running down through the LNB arm to swivel fittings then on to a heat exchanger. Also need to think on pressure release/safety valve of some sort, that type of stuff. Need to put more thought into it, once I finish up some of the seemingly hundred other projects that I have going on!

Yes, you need a heat ex-changer to make it work right, up and down should be adjusted for max heat at the sink, or feed whatever they call it now, If I didn't have a A-hole living behind me I would do it with a 12 foot dish but I do, and he would bitch seeing the sun reflect off of it, plus I would need more trees cut down that are not mine

 

[. Raine]

Yes, you need a heat ex-changer to make it work right, up and down should be adjusted for max heat at the sink, or feed whatever they call it now, If I didn't have a A-hole living behind me I would do it with a 12 foot dish but I do, and he would bitch seeing the sun reflect off of it, plus I would need more trees cut down that are not mine

That's actually something I hadn't even thought of, the reflection off of the dish itself, that's something I'll have to take into careful consideration, for sure. I'm not thinking a huge dish, maybe a 1m or so, but it'd still reflect a lot. My neighbors probably wouldn't complain, they're actually very used to me doing what they consider odd things and I get along with them all well. But there is a highway on the south side of my land, my land drops off on a small cliff in that direction and then there's the highway. It's quite a ways down, but that might be a problem and I'll have to check that out real well. Wouldn't want to be blinding people driving up/down the highway! My 9' and one of the 30'' dishes are visible from the highway, I was thinking where the 9' is now would be a good spot but that spot definitely wouldn't be good, reflection-wise.

Maybe a passive heating system tracking the sun might actually be better, a black box with tubes in it, rather than a reflective dish focusing the sun.

 

[FaT Air]

Hey, it's still related to dishes, it incorporates the parabola.
A vertically aligned solar parabolic trough would not reflect anything towards the horizon, unless the sun is near it. Pipe along the focus painted flat black. Still would have to track at least azimuth. ( manual weekly elevation adjustment???)
10ft dish area = approx 78.5 sq ft. 3 section Solar trough, each 2 ft wide x 6 ft tall = 36 sq ft. (Side by side=6 ft x 6 ft) (3 ft wide troughs 9 ft tall (9 x 9) = 81 Sq ft)
Vertical arraignment would enable it to be self powered - no pumps, if you can place the heat exchanger above the collectors.
I'm seeing a 'lazy susan' type arraignment for the azimuth.. allows it to be closer to the ground and simpler/lighter construction.

 

[fred555]

me doing what they consider odd things

Sounds like me.

 

[(((Garyd)))]

I have a 4 foot Cassegrain satellite dish, wonder if I could use that for solar?

 

[(((Garyd)))]

It's STILL UP THERE