Question:
Went to the library and was suprised they had Mother Earth News in stock back twenty years. Never know what you’ll find till you look. Plumbing the Solar Furnace was ok. One can build such a device for a pittence. Get about 4-6 kW thermal apparently from 100 sqft reflective. Not too shabby. Very vague reference to "building the steam engine will be in future issues". Does anyone know if that ever happened??? Build a Solar Tracker was excellento. $65 or less to build one for this heliostat. I definately plan to utilyze somewhat this design. Don’t have to design one myself, pretty much… One person said they built one, and ran a converted air compressor/ generator to get 4 kWe. Does ANYBODY have any information on how to do this conversion or another type…? Check out my site at http://www.chatlink.com/~soltherm/ I’m doing inexpensive solar thermal electric systems, except using solar troughs.. cheers, dsg
Response:
> >Went to the library and was suprised they had Mother Earth News in >stock back twenty years. Never know what you’ll find till you look. >Plumbing the Solar Furnace was ok. One can build such a device >for a pittence. Get about 4-6 kW thermal apparently from 100 sqft >reflective. Not too shabby. Very vague reference to "building the >steam engine will be in future issues". Does anyone know if that ever >happened??? >Build a Solar Tracker was excellento. $65 or less to build one >for this heliostat.
The articles in Mother Earth News are not describing "Heliostats". They are describing concentrating solar collectors. The 100 square foot of mirrors reflect light to a receiver that is directly inline with the mirrors and the sun. Heliostat collector systems can reflect light to receivers that are not inline with the sun. The main advantage of the heliostat collectors is the receiver can be placed in almost any location even locations quite remote from the location of the mirrors. With this ability to reflect light to remote locations there is a price to pay. The tracker for heliostats is considerably more complicated than the simple tracker used for normal concentrating collectors even if you track in two axis. >I definately plan to utilyze somewhat this design. >Don’t have to design one myself, pretty much…
I think this design is one of the best I have ever seen. It is easy to build. It uses mirrors that are inexpensive (less than $1.00). The design is highly scaleable. The mirrors are easily adjustable individually using the special tool that is described. The adjustment tool and the mirror stalk is elegant in its simplisity. This design was the one that got me started in high performance solar collector systems. >One person said they built one, and ran a converted air compressor/ >generator to get 4 kWe. Does ANYBODY have any information >on how to do this conversion or another type…? >Check out my site at http://www.chatlink.com/~soltherm/ >I’m doing inexpensive solar thermal electric systems, except using >solar troughs.. >cheers, >dsg > All plans are contained in issues 55,56 and 57. First article was in > issue 52.
– CUL8ER Duane C. Johnson WA0VBE Red Rock Energy 1825 Florence St. White Bear Lake, MN, USA 55110-3364 http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/3027/
Response:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text ->Went to the library and was suprised they had Mother Earth News in >stock back twenty years. Never know what you’ll find till you look. >Plumbing the Solar Furnace was ok. One can build such a device >for a pittence. Get about 4-6 kW thermal apparently from 100 sqft >reflective. Not too shabby. Very vague reference to "building the >steam engine will be in future issues". Does anyone know if that ever >happened??? >Build a Solar Tracker was excellento. $65 or less to build one >for this heliostat. I definately plan to utilyze somewhat this design. >Don’t have to design one myself, pretty much… >One person said they built one, and ran a converted air compressor/ >generator to get 4 kWe. Does ANYBODY have any information >on how to do this conversion or another type…? >Check out my site at http://www.chatlink.com/~soltherm/ >I’m doing inexpensive solar thermal electric systems, except using >solar troughs.. >cheers, >dsg > All plans are contained in issues 55,56 and 57. First article was in > issue 52.
– CUL8ER Duane C. Johnson WA0VBE Red Rock Energy 1825 Florence St. White Bear Lake, MN, USA 55110-3364 http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/3027/
Response:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text – >Went to the library and was suprised they had Mother Earth News in >stock back twenty years. Never know what you’ll find till you look. >Plumbing the Solar Furnace was ok. One can build such a device >for a pittence. Get about 4-6 kW thermal apparently from 100 sqft >reflective. Not too shabby. Very vague reference to "building the >steam engine will be in future issues". Does anyone know if that ever >happened??? >Build a Solar Tracker was excellento. $65 or less to build one >for this heliostat. I definately plan to utilyze somewhat this design. >Don’t have to design one myself, pretty much… >One person said they built one, and ran a converted air compressor/ >generator to get 4 kWe. Does ANYBODY have any information >on how to do this conversion or another type…? >Check out my site at http://www.chatlink.com/~soltherm/ >I’m doing inexpensive solar thermal electric systems, except using >solar troughs.. >cheers, >dsg
All plans are contained in issues 55,56 and 57. First article was in issue 52.
Response:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text ->One person said they built one, and ran a converted air compressor/ >generator to get 4 kWe. Does ANYBODY have any information >on how to do this conversion or another type…? > Lindsay had a book regarding conversions of compressors and engines > to steam, don’t know if the still do though. > I have a catalog from > Steam Power Products > P.O. Box 5982 > Tallahassee, FL 32301 > They did produce three models of steam turbines > 1 3/4 hp 295.00 > 5 hp 495.00 > 10 hp 695.00 > The postmark is 1986, so don’t know if they’re still around, but it’s > worth a shot, also might try<snip>
They are not listed in the current Tallahassee phone book….I never even knew they were here ! — Ron Thompson http://mailer.fsu.edu/~rthompso/ron-page.html Psychology Dept. | Voice 904-644-4718 fax 904-644-7739 Florida State University | Amateur Radio N4FHO Tallahassee, FL 32306-1051 | member Florida Flywheelers
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