Ideas for old satellite dish

Piwoslaw · 03-30-11, 04:17 AM

We have two old sat dishes sitting in our backyard. Since they're not beautiful, I was just about to get rid of them, but suddenly realized that they could be used for some ecoproject. The first thing that came to mind was to glue aluminum foil to the dish and make a solar oven (that's why I posted in this sub-forum), but any other ideas are welcome. Has anyone had any experience with solar cooking?

The larger dish has a diameter of 87 cm, the other is a 56 x 62 cm oval.

Ryland · 03-30-11, 09:24 AM

This guy makes solar tracker chips that are made to work with satalite dish motors, if you have motors for moving the dish, he also has a bit of info on alot of options, I've met this fellow and one of his demonstrations is a very small dish with foil on it and you can burn soda cans with it, so moving in a bit closer and you could boil water or stay at the most concentrated point and keep the heat focused.

AC_Hacker · 03-30-11, 02:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Piwoslaw

We have two old sat dishes sitting in our backyard. Since they're not beautiful...[/IMG][/CENTER]

You can use the bigger one (if it has a KU-Band LNB) to get free programming (not hacked or stolen service).

You need the dish and a Free To Air Ku-Band reciever, which can be gotten pretty cheap from ebay or Craig's List (I got mine from Goodwill for $10).

The satellite of interest for you is Intelsat Americas 5, also known as "IA5 97W".

This gives you free 24-7 access to Al Jazeera, one of the best international news gathering organizations. You'll never be satisfied with network news again.

-AC_Hacker

Piwoslaw · 03-31-11, 02:52 AM

Searching the net shows a lot of sat dishes converted to solar concentrators, many of them are of much larger diameter. Two solar projects that we've been wanting to do are an oven and a food dryer, though the latter probably doesn't need concentrated sunlight. Since our property has lots of shade, there is only one spot that gets direct sunlight for more than 3 hours, and even that is sunny only until early afternoon, so it won't be easy to adjust our cooking schedule to that. But maybe it would be feasible to boil water and store it in a thermos until needed?

We already have sat TV, Al-Jazeera in more than one language included. But the TV is Dad-in-law's domain, the Wife and I are only interested in good movies and documentaries.

Or maybe I could talk with the astronauts? Or use the dishes as a radio telescope? Just joking

sputnik · 03-31-11, 09:44 AM

Years ago in Mother Earth News an article was printed showing a dish being covered in small mirrors with a small boiler where the lnb was mounted. The whole rig rotated in an arc to follow the sun using a dc motor controlled with a sensor and sun shading.
Seemed that depending on which part of the country you lived the water could get scalding hot.

03-30-11, 04:17 AM	#1
Piwoslaw Super Moderator Join Date: May 2009 Location: Warsaw, Poland Posts: 961 Thanks: 188 Thanked 110 Times in 86 Posts	Ideas for old satellite dish We have two old sat dishes sitting in our backyard. Since they're not beautiful, I was just about to get rid of them, but suddenly realized that they could be used for some ecoproject. The first thing that came to mind was to glue aluminum foil to the dish and make a solar oven (that's why I posted in this sub-forum), but any other ideas are welcome. Has anyone had any experience with solar cooking? The larger dish has a diameter of 87 cm, the other is a 56 x 62 cm oval. Attached Thumbnails __________________ Ecorenovation - the bottomless piggy bank that tries to tame the energy hog.

03-31-11, 02:52 AM	#4
Piwoslaw Super Moderator Join Date: May 2009 Location: Warsaw, Poland Posts: 961 Thanks: 188 Thanked 110 Times in 86 Posts	Searching the net shows a lot of sat dishes converted to solar concentrators, many of them are of much larger diameter. Two solar projects that we've been wanting to do are an oven and a food dryer, though the latter probably doesn't need concentrated sunlight. Since our property has lots of shade, there is only one spot that gets direct sunlight for more than 3 hours, and even that is sunny only until early afternoon, so it won't be easy to adjust our cooking schedule to that. But maybe it would be feasible to boil water and store it in a thermos until needed? We already have sat TV, Al-Jazeera in more than one language included. But the TV is Dad-in-law's domain, the Wife and I are only interested in good movies and documentaries. Or maybe I could talk with the astronauts? Or use the dishes as a radio telescope? Just joking __________________ Ecorenovation - the bottomless piggy bank that tries to tame the energy hog.

03-30-11, 09:24 AM	#2
Ryland Master EcoRenovator Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Western Wisconsin. Posts: 913 Thanks: 127 Thanked 82 Times in 71 Posts	This guy makes solar tracker chips that are made to work with satalite dish motors, if you have motors for moving the dish, he also has a bit of info on alot of options, I've met this fellow and one of his demonstrations is a very small dish with foil on it and you can burn soda cans with it, so moving in a bit closer and you could boil water or stay at the most concentrated point and keep the heat focused.

03-31-11, 09:44 AM	#5
sputnik Lurking Renovator Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Ontario Posts: 3 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Years ago in Mother Earth News an article was printed showing a dish being covered in small mirrors with a small boiler where the lnb was mounted. The whole rig rotated in an arc to follow the sun using a dc motor controlled with a sensor and sun shading. Seemed that depending on which part of the country you lived the water could get scalding hot.