Mike said:
> I once saw an article in an old gleanings about
> a solar melter that rotated during the day...
Wow, that's getting fancy. Next thing you know,
someone will rig up a focused parabolic melter,
and not only vaporize wax in seconds, but cause
the frames to burst into flame! :)
Seriously, if anyone is not getting adequate performance
out of their solar wax melter, there are a few tricks
of the trade that can help. I've designed and built
several "solar enhanced" houses, so I've done the math
more than once:
1) DOUBLE GLAZING
Double glazing with a thin "dead air" layer
between can really help, as most of the heat
loss will be radiated through the glass.
Sometimes one can find existing double-gazed
window panes in metal frames, and they are
worth the kludging required to adapt them to
your melter.
2) ADD THERMAL MASS
Get some bricks, paint 'em black, put them
in the chamber. They will get hot, and
radiate heat, keeping the temperature higher
for longer.
3) CLEAN THE GLASS
I'm not kidding here. Squeaky clean glass
is important to getting a nice hot chamber.
4) ADD MORE INSULATION
Can't hurt. Just wrap the chamber in some
insulation batts. Extra credit for cutting
a larger box from the Styrofoam sheet material,
and gluing it to the surfaces of the box.
5) "SILVER" PAINT ON THE INSIDE OF THE BOX
Assuming that the sides of the box have little
thermal mass themselves, you want to reflect
the light around inside the box and get more of
it to hit (and warm) the combs. This may be
the most marginal of the improvements one can
make.
6) PARABOLICS
Never tried this with a solar wax melter, but
I did cover a 3-meter satellite dish with reflective
Mylar and melted aluminum cans at the focus to
make some castings once. Parabolics are scary, and
can generate temperatures that, even when off-focus,
require one to wear welder's gloves and goggles.
A "trough" type parabolic might be safer for melting
wax. You could fabricate one from roof flashing, but
it would take some math and woodworking skills. The
good news is that even a lousy parabolic will generate
very impressive heat with very little sun. But don't
blame me if you blind yourself and/or get nasty burns.
You have been warned - parabolics are "weapons grade"
solar collectors.
7) TRACK RACKS
Get an old satellite dish actuator (from the old days
when one pointed a C-band dish at different birds), and
hook up a 555 timer and a relay to "kick" the dish every
few minutes to track the sun (they run on 12 Volts DC, so
a car battery or a lawn light transformer can be used).
Manually adjust the height for the season with an "elevation"
bolt. Adjust the "return" microswitch in the actuator to
reverse the direction of movement during the night, so that
the dish ends up pointing back towards dawn at dawn.
This is clearly silly overkill, but who am I to limit your
aspirations?
jim (Hive yourself a happy Thanksgiving!)
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