The Death Star

[errantember]

So there has been a solar cooking thread going on in on the Austin Permaculture list, and one of the designs that's popular is to use a parabolic satellite dish. Most of the discussion mentions using smaller dishes, a meter in diameter or less, and several people have mentioned being able to boil water in 5-10 minutes using one. I'd love to be able to do solar cooking, and it would also be nice to use it to heat water.

Enter the Death Star:

I have one of those Old Skool satellite dishes, like 6 or 7 feet across, that's been uselessly attached to my shed since I moved in. If you can boil gallons of water with a 1 meter dish, imagine what you could do with a 2 meter dish! Solar power is proportional to surface area.

surface area of a 1 meter dish = 56 sq. ft.
surface arfe of a 2 meter dish = 266 sq. ft.

Vehicular Flambe, anyone?

Comments

[goudananda.livejournal.com]

Could you generate enough steam to power a turbine for electricity? :P

[errantember.livejournal.com]

I'm sure I could. My brain is stewing with possibilities. And maple syrup.

sterling engine

[hobgadling.livejournal.com]

Could it power a stirling engine ? :)

Re: sterling engine

[errantember.livejournal.com]

I think it could power a Chevy 405 small block.

I haven't had time to look into various heat-to-power technologies yet, but I'm looking forward to it.