[Mnr45701]

I hope this is the correct forum. I also posted in Solar Energy forum.

I found a TV satellite dish antenna and experimented with it by gluing 1/4" square glass mirrors over the entire surface. I used marine epoxy adhesive. Not every square sat nice and flat so I had to polish the surfaces otherwise the reflected light looked more like a disco ball's pattern. When I was finished I had a very concentrated point of reflected light at 15" from the dish's center. That light heats a litre of fresh water enough to generate no-pressure steam in a lab flask with rubber stopper. The vapour condenses in a short distillery tube inserted into the stopper on one end and drips into a collection jar on the other end. The next step is to mix up a strong saline solution and generate clean water from that. It's raining here for the next few days.

Hope this info is useful.
Oh, I bought the mirrors on eBay in bags of 500 for $8 +shipping. It required about 2,000 tiles to cover the dish surface.

 

[MichaelK]

How much did the glue cost? Epoxy cures at different rates, depending on the formulation. How did you go about glueing the individual tiles on?

Will this be a cooking aid, or are you going to use if for distillery? How are you planning on changing the angle of the unit as the seasons change?

 

[IamZeke]

Way too much work. Gluing on little mirrors and ensuring they all get aimed properly at the focal point would take forever to do it right.

A roll of mirror tape is under $20 and you can be done in 20 minutes.

Here is the instruction on doing it right.