Solar Heat Exchanger - Heat Transfer Tube

Solar Heat Exchanger - Heat Transfer Tube

A few weeks ago I built a solar parabolic trough that was able to produce in excess of 350 degrees.
This week I'll be trying to harness this heat to make it do something productive.
This is my first Instructable and I apologize in advance for not having enough time to write it up or document it properly.

This portion of the project required:
2" wide copper pipe 5' long (not cheap!) these cost almost $125 at home depot.
10' spool of 3/8 copper tube
4' of 1/2 copper pipe
a handful of 3/8 copper 90 degree fittings
2 2" copper pipe ends

Tools:

Drill
pipe cutter or hacksaw
mapp gas torch
solder
flux
1" diameter pipe to wrap the 3/8' copper around.
bag of sand or salt (to pour into the tube to keep it from bending while you wrap it around the 1' pipe.

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Step 1Fill the copper tube fine sand or salt.

1. Use a pair of pliers to crimp the last 1/2'" of the copper tube.
2. Use a funnel to pour sand or salt into the copper tube.
3. tap the tube on the ground or tap it as you are pouring in the sand or salt to make sure you have it well packed. When you have the tube 100% full crimp the top end of the tube.

You should now have a copper tube crimped on both ends and full of sand or salt.

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3 comments	Add Comment

Sep 1, 2009. 12:04 PM

admin says:

Hey, this is a great instructable and is very informative. Just one thing is missing... pictures! It really helps a lot when trying to follow directions so you should consider taking some photographs. Once you do that and leave me a message when you have so that we can publish your work. Thanks! Thanks for the cool instructable and we hope to publish this soon!