Concentrated Solar Power - Started - Lesson 1

On the left is food wrap and right is a
paper food cover (Chappati) which is laminated.

So as mentioned already, I have successfully started backyard experiments on using Concentrated Solar Power.  At present my activities are confined to my balcony (5 feet by 5 feet space available with limited subshine where i live).  Neverthless this is good enough for my experiments.

food wrapper pasted on dish antenna - ready

1) Last week I made a paraboloid reflector using old Dish Antenna purchased from the cable TV technician.  On that I tried different materials like

a) Food wrap aluminium foil.   Struggled with this stuff for long time and gave up. It is wrinkling very much with every treatment. Tried to use iron box to remove wrinkles, lo !! you are gifted with more wrinkles.

b) Luckily when looking for shiny adhesive tape with smooth reflective surface in stationery store, I chanced upon the food cover. This is used to pack chappattis. It cost Rs. 3/- per bag. I brought 20 Nos.

After making the reflector, I had burned some cotton and paper boards, shot the video and posted in youtube.  the link is found here.  Before that I wanted to educate myself and others on how to draw a parabola shape using simple things.  This shape is required for future construction of large reflectors to concentrate energy.

1) How to draw a Parabola using string.
2) How to make a Solar Reflector using household things.

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