Free (0 $) mirrors for solar heaters Parabolic Trough : manufacturing and installation
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.พ. 2025
- They are made from free mirror strips which are garbage in various glass workshops.
These mirrors are free, and I will describe how they are manufactured and how they are installed in a solar concentrator.
These mirrors can be used for these various concentrators Parabolic trough.
My free mirrors are made from these strips which are scraps of large mirror sheets in a variety of glass workshops. In other words, these mirror strips are garbage, and they throw out these strips.
Thus, we need to give these mirror strips the right length, and I do it with a glass cutter. The result of these works is these sets for mirrors with different widths, and I made these sets from this heap of mirror strips from one small glass workshop, and this heap was collected during 6 months.
Now I am showing the manufacture of a mirror from one of those sets, and this is a sheet of expanded polystyrene with a thickness of 3 cm, and this is matches. We can see that the strips are put according to their width, starting from the widest and ending with the narrowest.
This is the tracks of polyurethane foam, and they are put with an interval of about 5 cm. Immediately thereafter, the strips are turned. After that, we put flat battens with loads on our mirror, and the surface of our table should also be flat as possible.
Then we remove the load and these matches. In addition, we can remove those pieces of hardened foam, and I have a hypothesis that these pieces will interfere with the focusing of the mirror. If we want the number of these pieces of the foam to be as small as possible, we must put those foam tracks in the form of such zigzags.
Now I show mirrors which has been operating during 8-9 years outdoors, in the cold, rain, snow, etc. We can see that the aging of the mirrors gave defects to their reflective layer, but these defects cover approximately 1% of the area of the mirrors. That is why I predict that the lifespan of these mirrors will be 15-20 years. However the lifespan can be reduced by hail, but these mirrors have already survived hail with a diameter of up to 10-15 mm in 2013 and 2021
I think that the main cause of these defects is some substances which are in the polyurethane foam, and they gradually destroy the reflective layer. In addition, perhaps the cause of these defects is moisture which is retained by those foam tracks.
Now I will show how to install this mirror on concentrator, and this requires 6 such points of polyurethane foam. You need to pay attention to this support of the mirror. This support is temporarily installed on the concentrator, and we can remove it in a few hours.
We must pay attention that more narrow strips of the mirrors should be placed here, on the periphery of the concentrator, and wider strips should be here, closer to the center of the concentrator.
We need to make the right width of the interval between the mirror and the concentrator, and these wedges are one of the possible methods. The upper edge of the mirror must also have the interval of the right width. Then we put the foam points at a depth of 20% of the height of the mirror.
I want to clarify that now we do not see those wedges, and this video is an example of another method of ensuring the right width of the interval, and now it is done by small flat pieces of wood which is not shown by this video, and we must remove those wooden pieces in a few hours. The upper part of the mirror also receives similar foam points.
Now we give the right width to the lower interval. The upper interval must also have the right width. Then, our polyurethane foam fixes the upper edge of the mirror and its lower edge, and it is obvious that we can remove these wedges in a few hours.
However we did all this, when we already knew the right widths of those intervals, and it is obvious that we must install our first mirrors in a different way, and I will describe it further, and one of our goals is to measure the right widths of the intervals.
You are the first person I have seen to insulate the entire collector except where the concentrated sunlight is hitting. I too believe that this is the best way to capitalize on solar heating for cooking and some other applications. Great job!!!
Your work is very inspiring. Thank you. I hope you and your loved ones are save.
Nice tips on the spacing of the strip of mirrors and how you get your parabolic focus.
Thank you, Sergiy. More creativity on your part. Good video.
Thank mirror damage is related to moisture because apparently a fungus is growing there, keep the good work!
Your work is amazing, Thanks a lot for sharing !! For the miror damages (and heat conservation..) , what about à transparent thing (recycled double glazed window ?) to keep out water from the parabole?
OMG keep it Coming
You are very interesting
Thumbs up my Friend
👀keep on top of it
;)
Thanks and great job
How you are well / surviving.. Best wishes from London.. Regards Bob
great work, can u plz share design link
Would there be an advantage to using a backing fabric, perhaps a geotextile, for durability and flexibility?
If you had a pump that sprayed water a couple of times a second inside the hot tubes would it create enough steam to power a generator.
how to build the receiver? or use the heat?
Sergiy, are you okay?
After so many years of experience in making these yourself, can you do a good video on (practical) safety?
I do not even want to place a flat mirror outside because I fear the reflection might be pointing at something/someone and start of a fire. I mean, we all know the buildings that caused cars to melt, and that was unintentionally concentrated.
Currently I am located more north than Ukraine, but in a few years I will move more south and also will have ground to do experiments. But I just don't want to start a forest fire or anything.
For example: if you have the parabolic mirror concentrating the beams on the heat exchanger, what will happen if they miss it. Yes, it will scatter again, but which area is save? I do think my future ground will not be that hazardous. But as long as I am not near, I don't want to hear my experimental mirror caused a fire when I was away.
The place where it concentrates is fixed so you will be fine. There is a concern of some foliage or some other thing flying in front of it and catching fire. To tackle this issue you can stretch a fine see-through net over the whole thing or cover in some transparent plastic that can handle a little heat.
What about solar water desalination is there any solution ?
yes just capture the water condensation
Hi Sergiy - I am writing on behalf of a company who would like to finance further R&D on your projects outside of Ukraine. This is a legitimate opportunity and not a bot/spam. Please let me know how to get in touch with you. Thanks, looking forward to hearing from you!!
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