An old water heater was donated to my high school's pre-engineering class. After watching an episode of "The Cosmos," in which a farm of parabolic solar concentrators were used to heat water in order to power a steam engine that irrigated water, I was inspired to recycle the old water heater and turn it into a concentrated solar water heater.
Project goal
Recycle an old household water heater and an old school chair and turn it into a solar water heater
Project steps:
- Research solar heater designs
- Model full scale design
- Model and build a 3-D printed small scale prototype
- Test effectiveness of design based on prototype
- Change design based on results
- Build full scale solar concentrator
Research
Before starting to design my concentrated solar water heater I researched what some other people hade made.
There were two main designs I found:
- Parabolic concentrator
- Commercially available parabolic concentrated solar food cooker for camping
- DIY parabolic concentrated solar water heater[1]
- Industrial parabolic concentrator farms to power steam engines (like the one I saw on "the Cosmos")
- Flat plate collector
- DIY flat plate solar collector [1]
- Commercially available flat plate solar collector for home use
Design
As part of my Pre-engineering class for final assignment we had come with a final design project. Which was My original plan was to cut the end off of the water heater and the cut it down its length opposite of a flat spot it had. Next I wanted to bend the now cut water heater into a parabolic curve. I then wanted to machine and weld a metal apparatus to hold the water heater concentrator, a glass tube to collect the concentrated light, and a coiled copper tube to house the water to be heated.
Prototype
Final Design
Describe your design here.
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Next level heading
You may need deeper level headings. Just keep adding equal signs to get that.
Costs
Item | Cost |
---|---|
plastic filament | free |
3" pvc pipe | free |
water heater | free |
chair legs | free |
smaller glass tube | $7.20 |
larger glass tube | $8.30 |
reflective mylar film | $11.00 |
Results and Discussion
Your discussion.
Next steps
The next steps.