Solar Concentrator with energy storage in cooking salt

Cleaning Raffa
Insulation Carla Mason - Precharged Heat pump - Heat from dryer
Heat pump + solar panels - Heat pump + canadian well
Hot water from compost Jean Pain
Vertical growing vegetable Willem Van Cotthem
Others Super Solar Concentrators! Alexandr Sogokon - Ebrahim Hashemi

Français - last updated January 13Th 2019

Parabolic trough system to preheat tap water with a salt battery (be careful wear sunglasses)
>>Log experimentation

Video (1 minute): Solar Resistance - Very good way to collect and store solar energy
1 - This system is based on a central ball bearing disk which can support heavy load.
2 - The bill of materials is: 3/8'' diameter copper pipes (welded), 160' long (3 rolls) and a bending machine to roll them like coils - hollow aluminium bars, central beam, aluminium plates, glass cylinder , barbecue black paint (650 C resistant), nuts and bolts.
3 - The 2 axis solar tracker is from Heliotrack and control the 4 horizontal motors (12 volts) and 2 vertical motors (12 volts). At the end of the day automatically the solar concentrator comes back to the east. The 2 axis tracker has 16 parameters and one of them is 'dark return'.
4 - The parabolic trough turns around the collector. The collector does not move (fixed focus), this is why the system runs on 12 volts motors.

Solar energy storage in cooking salt using a 12 volts kit Resol to circulate cold oil
Vidéos: Vertical heat exchanger - Solar energy storage in salt

1- The purpose of a solar concentrator is to achieve high temperatures like a stove. Steam induces high pressure and explosion, so a solar concentrator should be used
to heat corn oil (smoke point 232C and freezing point around -20C).
2- Make a vertical heat exchanger with aluminium cooking baskets. In my test, in a polystyren container surrounded with salt, canola oil temperature drops from 220 C to 40 C in 5 minutes!. So 180 C of heat is transferred to the salt.
3- Get a 12 volts kit Resol to circulate cold oil from the bottom of the storage unit to the heat exchanger located at the back of the focal point (see picture 5 above).
It is working with delta temperature: at the bottom of the polystyren container oil is at 40 degrees C, at the back of the focal point of the solar concentrator 42 C. The 12 volts pump starts automatically via the Resol Kit when for example the delta is set to 2 C.
4- In the pictures above, the storage system is made of an insulated container filled up with regular kitchen salt. Heat from the corn or canola oil is transferred through a vertical heat exchanger made of cooking kitchen aluminium baskets to the salt around. If we repeat this operation we store heat into the salt. A black tube preheats the tap water for direct domestic use. It is a cooking salt rechargeable battery!.
5- Around the storage container a vaccuum should be done (best insulation), for example a water jet vaccuum pump could be used. In my test, I used a polystyren container. A freezer or cooler can also be used.