!±8± Solar Furnace

Brand : American Educational Products | Rate :

| Price :
Post Date : Oct 31, 2011 23:18:05 | Usually ships in 1-3 weeks

Solar Furnace

This 12" diameter, parabolic dish lets you safely and easily demonstrate the extraordinary power of the sun by concentrating solar energy. -- -- Using its reflective mirror, the furnace can generate extreme temperatures to heat materials placed in the attached copper receptacle. -- More on Solar Power -- We've used the Sun for drying clothes and food for thousands of years, but only recently have we been able to use it for generating power. -- The Sun is 150 million kilometers away, and amazingly powerful. The Solar Furnace is a great way to show this awesome power. -- Just the tiny fraction of the Sun's energy that hits the Earth (around a hundredth of a millionth of a percent) is enough to meet all our power needs many times over. -- In fact, every minute, enough energy arrives at the Earth to meet our demands for a whole year - if only we could harness it properly. -- Advantages -- **Solar energy is free - it needs no fuel and produces no waste or pollution. -- **In sunny countries, solar power can be used where there is no easy way to get electricity to a remote place. -- **Handy for low-power uses such as solar powered garden lights and battery chargers. -- Disadvantages -- -- **Doesn't work at night. -- **Very expensive to build solar power stations. Solar cells still cost a great deal compared to the amount of electricity they'll produce in their lifetime. -- **Can be unreliable unless you're in a very sunny climate. In the US, solar power isn't much use except for low-power applications, as you need a very large area of solar panels to get a decent amount of power. However, for these applications it's definitely worthwhile. -- Excellent for grades 3-12