HELP ASAP for solar furnace testing

[mucbug]

Hello, I am in desperate need of help/advise for my son. Last year he built a solar furnace that is 2 ft by 6 ft with and array of 1 inch mirrors for a science fair project. He was very successful with it to the point that he was able to heat up the water in out pool and the intensity of it was so high that he could melt wood, catch fire on it in 2 seconds, melt lead and zinc, burn a hole in an aluminum can as well as boil water. Well long story short he submitted a video to the Jimmy Fallon show for the possibility of it being on the falloninvetions segment and they responded asking questions.

They want to know if it would be possible to show it working in the studio, even one of the simplest things like catching paper on fire or melting lead). He knows that the sun generates about 1 kw ( 1000 watts) of power for every square meter and he calculated that since he is using 1 inch spare mirrors that is .6 watts per mirror or a total of ~780 watts for the solar furnace to be able to reflect (theoretically) obviously not all is utilized.

We are wondering if it would be possible to show it working with a commercial halide light, possible a 1000 W light. If so would it have to have a collector or some sort to focus the entire amount so that the area is funneled to the 2 ft by 6 ft array of mirrors. Do you know of such a light ??? We were looking at something like a 1400 Watt Double Bulb 2-N-1 Twin Head Telescoping Worklight that we can purchace at home depot, would that work ??? If not do you have a better suggestions ?

We need to know ASAP because they will be responding to our reply that we are looking into it very shortly. We also would be needing to test it in our home because he wants to make 100% sure that it will work before he commits to this. He doesn't want to be on TV and have it not work.

We appreciate any help you can give.

[donnahardy2]

Hi mucbug ,

Welcome to Science Buddies! I do apologize for the delay in responding to your inquiry; somehow we overlooked your inquiry. Your son's science project sounds like it is amazing.

Here is a response to your inquiry, if you still need it.

Natural sunlight provides 1000 W per square meter so a 400 Watt halide light should provide a similar amount of energy. The spectrum of light provided is similar to sunlight as well. Here is a website that is not a scientific source, but appears to be written by someone who did a lot of research on the topic.

http://www.builditsolar.com/Experimenta ... SunSim.htm

Please do let us know if you still need any additional information.


Donna Hardy