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Renewable Energy for the Home

That old satellite dish

8 years ago

When we had our roof done, the workers tossed an old and unused DISH receiver in our yard. Rather than throw it away, I started thinking about making a parabolic solar heater. I've found lots of info on building one--that's no problem. Thing is, I haven't seen much on what to do with it, other than burn sticks and boil a pot of water. Seems to be mostly a novelty rather than something practical. So, can anybody throw out some practical uses for this? Any easy, low-cost way to use it for supplemental hot water or heating, or other ideas?

The runner-up idea for re-purposing the dish is to turn it on it's side and make it a bird bath...

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Comments (2)

capedude
8 years ago
Down south people used to have the big ones because there was no cable service and the small ones didn't exist before. After everything got tiny people took down the big ones, turned them upside-down, and built tiki-bars. Maybe you could build a little tiki-bar for squirrels.
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Springtime Builders
7 years ago
If you wanted to try using it for hot water, I'm sure you could point it south, run some coil tubing in it's center for your domestic hot water to detour through, much like I did with my compost water heater system. Lining the dish with aluminum foil or black paint would probably get it pretty hot and would get most benefit when using hot water with the sun out and winterizing for freezing weather.
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Oh my gosh I was just looking at the dish we junked up at our place. My husband hauls scrap iron, or at least he used to and we have a pretty good "junk" pile. Today he said, "let's go to the junk pile so I can find a piece of metal". I got very excited but didn't find anything but an old hinge and a bundt pan. hmmm? On the way out, I saw that satellite dish and was trying to think of what I could do with it. What materials do you use to affix the mosaics? I have some broken dishes that I got from ebay I could use. I didn't buy them broken, but 90% of them came that way. It was such a hassle to send them back and all that I asked the seller if I could just keep them. And now they have a purpose! :-)
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They are tearing down a hotel near where I work and there are some big satellite dishes on top of the hotel. I have been eyeing them up for weeks. Only problems are ... (1) I would have no way of getting one home - I'm too short to tie it to the roof of my van and (2) I have nowhere to put it at home! If I had a yard, I sure would ask about them. Robert, I'm like you, I think formal gardens are very pretty but just not for me. I'd probably fill the bottom with stones to make it look more natural and then have plants growing around it and in it.
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Is the dish itself 10' wide or in its slanted position, 10' tall from the ground? How high is the post? Can you change the dish position to parallel to the ground? Just thinking that in that position, you could plant underneath the dish and ,first cutting holes in the mesh, thread your vining plants or a couple of lady banks rose up through the holes to use the diameter of the dish as support for the canes. I've seen LBR grown on/over tall trellises like wisteria. You have to keep after clipping the lower branches(it has a tendency to sucker). But still, it's not entirely evergreen and a 10'wide planting you might not want or have the room for and the bloom period is short in early spring.
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You don't need to remove the crab grass. It will not grow through the landscape fabric. You can do it now and leave the planting beds for the spring. Might be a little late to plant and expect trees/shrubs to survive the winter.
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