|
A solar furnace is a useful component to understand when you
are looking at solar power in the home. If you know the
principles behind this technology, and if you know how a solar
furnace works, you can use it to help heat your home via
solar water heating,
cook food, or even create power.
A solar furnace works by focusing the energy from the sun into
a tightly controlled beam. This is done by using a system of
mirrors and lenses. You can think of it as a more sophisticated
version of the magnifying glass trick that little kids used to
do to burn ants or whatever. The magnifying glass takes a wide
range of sunlight and focuses it on one tight spot. This is the
same principle at work here, except a solar furnace can get hot
enough to melt metal, over 5000 degrees F in some cases!
In order to get to those levels or even to levels that will
give you enough heat to cook you will need several mirrors at
least, most likely at least 10. This is because the focus point
needs to have enough heat to be productive, meaning the heat
from the sun and 10 or more other mirrors focusing on it.
The heat of the focus point is dependant on not just the number
of mirrors but how accurately they can point to the source.
Industrial strength solar furnaces use computers to control
this.
The principles of how to make a solar collector are fairly
simple and lend themselves well to creating your own solar
project. Check our vendors below for more
information.
↑
Back to Top
|