Focusing Solar Energy Collector
- A focusing solar energy collector on a mobile frame.
- Specially designed for educational use, the apparatus shows the principles, advantages and limits of this method of capturing solar energy.
- It is a highly-polished stainless steel parabolic reflector, supported on trunnion bearings on a turntable.
- By adjusting the horizontal and vertical position of the reflector, students focus solar energy onto an energy collector.
- The energy collector is a copper cylinder with an embedded thermocouple that measures the cylinder temperature.
- To enable students to compare different concentration ratios, supply four different sizes of energy collector.
- Attached to the reflector carrier is a solarimeter that measures the incident solar radiation.
- An extra thermocouple measures ambient temperature for reference.
- Also supplied is a removable transparent cover for the collector, so students can study the properties of shielded and unshielded collectors.