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Concentrating solar collectors use shaped mirrors or lens to provide higher temperatures that flat plate collectors.
Heliostats are tracking mirrors that reflect solar energy onto a fixed target.
This page "concentrates" on providing links, information and plans for Build It Yourself solar concentrators.
See also the Solar Cooking section for more concentrating designs ...
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| Concentrating Collectors | |
| RedRok
Duane Johnson
|
 Duane's
RedRok site is information central for DIY Heliostats and
concentrating solar collectors. There are good designs here that can
be built on a budget and without exceptional mechanical skills.
The site can be a bit of a challenge to find stuff on, but its worth the
effort. |
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The Aquaflector
|
 This
is a new and very interesting design for a simple and potentially large area
concentrating collector. Potential applications include generating
steam, or concentrating PV cells.
Looks like a very simple, buildable, well thought out design. |
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Solar Fire Project http://www.solarfireproject.com/
|
 Solar
Fire provides detailed plans and how-to instructions for building three
different sizes of concentrating solar collectors.The materials are easily obtainable and the design is simple and straight forward -- the concentrators can be made with readily available materials and simple tools. The Helios collector provides about 3 KW output and temperatures up to 950C. Several potential applications are discussed. |
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HELIOTRACK.COM
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 A
very good website on building heliostats and concentrating solar collectors.Good practical design and experimental data and even some kits to help with the tracking. |
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How to Build a Heliostat for Solar Heating and Lighting, Rob, www.IWillTry.org
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Rob's heliostat -- reflects solar light and heat into a window in your
house. |
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Inflatable Heliostat Download full report pdf (3.5 mb) Mithra and Gary
Mithra (the inventor's) website: |
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| Roasting Coffee on Sunshine |
 Issue 105 Home Power MagazineHow to build a 1200F solar coffee bean roaster. Certainly one of the highest and best uses for solar power! |
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A concentrating Collector made from 116 mirrors of 1 sqft each
http://www.ida.net/users/tetonsl/solar/page_iii.htm
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 "Teton Engineering's Tracking Solar Concentrator is an array of 116 mirrors, one square foot each mounted on a framework and arranged to reflect sunlight on a "collector", figure 1. The concentrated sunlight can raise the collector temperature to about 1200F" A very detailed set of plans are included -- !! be careful !! |
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Understanding Solar Concentrators VITA paper on concentrating solar collectors
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 VITA
paper provides a good deal of information on how a wide variety of
concentrating solar collectors work. |
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SunSpot -- Fresnel Mirror Concentrator
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 A
concentrating Fresnel mirror.Used as a solar cooker here, but might be used for other concentrating applications. |
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Scheffler Concentrators -- Large, Concentrating Cooking
Collector with Storage Barli Development Institute http://www.geocities.com Another Version in Nepal Good description of Scheffler Reflector Design: David Delaney article on the Scheffler heliostat cooker design |
 These Scheffler heliostats concentrate the sun onto a fixed cooking vessel, or
onto a heat storage device that provides for cooking after sunset.This type of concentrator can be built with common materials and ordinary skills. The daily tracking can be by a simple clockwork mechanism, and seasonal tracking can be manual. |
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The Ultimate Solar Cooker
How it works:
|
 Solar
cooking on a large scale. 84 parabolic concentrators of 9.2 sq meters
each. Capable of cooking 20 to 40 thousand meals a day!This type of concentrator can be built with common materials and ordinary skills. |
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Solar Sphere -- Concentrating Solar Power http://www.seao2.com/solarsphere/csp.htm
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 An
interesting collection of concentrating solar collectors. |
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Parabola Drawing Tool
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 An
easy to make tool for drawing parabolas as used in concentrating collectors. |
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Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector A concentrating scheme using flat or nearly flat mirrors Full size prototype test (pdf) Several papers from Ausra -- a commercial developer of the concept: |
 An
approach that maintains some of the advantages of trough collectors without
the need for hard to form parabolic mirrors. |
An
experimental, low-cost heliostat design that uses air pressure to focus and
support the mirror.