The parabolic solar collector can be built at home, with ordinary off-the-shelf materials, using only a saw and a drill. Download the instructions: diy-en.pdf
Depending on how you buy the materials, the cost of a home built collector will go around 100€/m2. If used to heat water, this is almost 20 times cheaper than buying evacuated tube water heaters of the same capacity.
Pictures of home-built solar collectors: (click on an image to see a bigger one)
My own realisation: plastic box,
area 0.84m2, ratio 85.6 times, optical efficiency 70%,
collector heat loss <0.6W/K, total weight 13kg. Note: this one uses low-quality plates. |
To be continued: you can send me pictures of your realisations to be included here.
A discussion forum is here.
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