@CuivTheLazyGeek
Amazing stuff! I'm an amateur astrophotographer - a lot of the problems you solve are already solved in the hobby! - Want to track the sun? There are open source algorithms that are plug and play for an Alt-Az mount (which is what you use ) and should run on arduino. You just need to input your location, time, and rotation per stepper step in there. Although Iove your solution! - Want to have a laser unfocused? Attach a Barlow lens to it (we use that to collimate Newtonians telescopes), although you ended up reinventing this! - want awesome mirrors? Create the parabolic blanks and have them coated with aluminum - want wind resistance? Well, that plagues us too, no good solution :) Amazing results though!
@Starvexx
~700 W/m² is not bad. considering the the energy arriving from the sun is ~1300 W/m². Your setup has an energy conversion efficiency of roughly 50%.
@highlander723
I just recently discovered your channel and the fact that you are willing to take advice from your audience and improve upon your design is a very pillar of creative engineering You've earned yourself a subscriber sir
@JimMcD7
I would love to see this project completed with proper mirrors and turned into something practical that you could gain from permanently. The results so far are astounding. But I think you owe it to yourself to fully complete it.
@wayneobrien3332
I just stumbled on this video having never watched anything from you. I’ve gotta say, you’re a good story teller. You share with humour, a bit of self deprecation and really explain things in a way that almost anyone can understand. You’ve got a new subscriber here! I’m very much looking forward to your next video and will now go back through the videos you’ve already done.
@ThomasToSpace
Time to built a huge version! For this one: Was the waterline insulated from the wind? If it's not, you likely lost a ton of energy there and the final output can be even crazier.
@паша-н3у5н
9:16 you should have really pointed out that those 900w was thermal energy. Converting that to electricity creates huge losses, if we assume you can get 200c steam, carnot efficiency is only 40%, and that's before other losses.
@blue_boy8621
I did something similar in highschool as a thesis project, shrink the focal point! Insulate everything, the water tank included! A true parabolic mirror works best of course! Maybe try to find a proper circular satalite disc? Orher then that, you needs to remember that the sun sets and you might need a home position😅
@scottgoldfarb95
Bro, using a projector onto your bench is an AMAZING idea! Great production!
@Bitdog4U
Lay out 300' of 3/4 inch poly tube from farmer's co-op on hot black asphalt so the coils don't put shade on the other coils. Then cover it with clear vis queen to keep the cold air off it and keep the heat in next to the coils. On a 100f degree day, it would probably make steam. Put it on your roof facing south and get free hot water every day 10 am to 5 pm, May to September. It lasts for years, and puts out 5 gallons of hot water every 20 minutes. Low tech has nothing to break, fix, or replace. It doesn't need the vis queen, but for steam it would.
@dsacton
Great work! (FYI, I was on the team that aligned the Webb mirrors after launch.)
@Atom224
As I commented on the previous video: When manufacturing the new mirrors I would put the mirror foil on the smooth side of the plexiglass (the one that isn't in contact with the 3D-Printed mold) AFTER the molding phase, so to not wrinkle it. And you have to keep in mind that the plexiglass contracts after cooling (substantially enough to mess up your focal length by meters), so idealy you would need to run some test batches with different shaped molds to see which one get's you the best focal length.
@ellentau427
It amazes me every time I watch how ingenious people are ! I'm not one of them so almost everything I'm watching you do feels like magic 🤗
@lordcarloshere
I have seen a few similar projects who tried the automated tracking. But I would do it all in software. You know where you are, you know the time, then you also know where the sun is after a single alignment.
N/A
Years ago I built a low tech version solar water heater for a friends above ground swimming pool. I built a 2 x 6 x 4 foot wooden "X" frame. I then coiled 1" Black PVC Pipe around the wooden frame. It ended up being about 8 feet in diameter. I don't recall the total length of pipe in the 8 foot coil. Then we mounted it on the South Facing side of his house's roof. I installed a 1/3rd HP Jet Pump near the pool and used it to move water from the pool to the roof coil and back to the pool. I do not recall the GPM flow rate of the pump, but on a sunny day the water from the coil came back to the Pool at about 120 degrees F. The cost to heat the pool was almost zero. After a couple of weeks of use, my friend started to complain because he had to add more chemicals to the water to fight off algae growing in the pool. The pool was at a nice 75 F temp all day!! Heat from the Attic also helped!!
@robertbeltowski2819
Nice job, Thank you for making the video. I made some thing like this in 1975. I used 100, 12" X 12" mirror. Each mirror increased the temperature by 5 degrees. Giving me 500 degrees plus the outside temperature, ending up with around 560 degrees at the focal point 10' away from all the mirrors. They were installed on a flat surface that could move with the sun. At the focal point I had a car radiator and ran water in a closed loop to my second radiator in my house furnace with a fan blowing over it. This would heat my house in the winter. To track the sun I used a simple photo eye (only one) with a curved 1'' wide piece of aluminum making a curve over top of the photo eye. As the sun moved it would expose the photo eye to the sun causing the electric motor to rotate the flat surface holding the mirrors until the photo eye was covered by the shadow from the 1'' piece of arched aluminum. This process keep the mirrors always aligned with the sun all day. In the morning the sun would hit the photo eye and cause the entire system to realign and start the whole process over again. Keep up the great work it is a fun project and will work great after you get all the bugs worked out.
@rgoodsan
I’ve been using similar technology for making steamed buns. Cuts operating costs for the kitchen over the long term.
@nicole46980
8:47 you probably should have compared the water temperature with an identical container not hooked up to your mirrors
@ChickensAndGardening
Wow, this is quite an impressive use of technology, and I especially love the use of 3D printing, a game changer for this type of DIY project. When I was in high school (before 3D printers existed), I built a solar stove from plywood, cardboard, and aluminum foil and it was able to fry a hamburger in about 10-15 minutes. My family was very impressed.
@MikeRees