Solar Facts

Solar Furnace

Monday, 19 December 2005
Came across this guide (which can now be found on our site) on how to build a solar furnace at home. Reasonably simple and can be very powerful. It's amazing what can be done by using a few mirrors to concentrate the sun. For rather cheap you can build a furnace that will melt metal in a number of seconds and cause wood to burst into flame almost instantly. You can also build a system that doesn't require the actual furnace tracking the sun. Instead, a large flat mirror reflects sunlight on the furnace. This mirror (known as a heliostat) tracks the sun, allowing the furnace to be fixed in place. Here is an animation to show the basics. This one in Odeillo, France is huge. Fresnal lenses can also be used for the same effect. A decent guide can be found here. I'm planning to build one of these over the near future and hope to document the whole thing, including pictures of construction and it in action. Warning: These devices are not toys. They can easily be made to melt metal - they will do much worse to your body if you enter the focal point. You should always keep the mirror array covered when not actively in use, and cover if you are removing or placing something in the focal point.
Last Updated ( Sunday, 18 December 2005 )

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