Do It Yourself Heat-Pipe Fabrication Using Simple Fabrication Methods Readily Available Materials

I have built a heat pipe, from scratch, to transfer captured Solar Energy out of my Evacuated (vacuum)Solar Thermal Energy Capture Tubes. I soldered a sealed tube with a condenser bulb (made from a standard inch copper Stub-Out fitting and a to inch reducer fitting) at the top and a 42 inch long X inch ID copper boiler tube that extended down the inside of the Evacuated Solar Thermal Energy Capture Tube. Before sealing the tube I had added 0.078 fluid ounces of acetone as a heat pipe heat transfer working fluid. The idea was to boil the acetone into acetone vapor, thereby cooling the inside of the Solar Thermal Energy Capture Tube by using the large heat-of-vaporization of the acetone working fluid. The design looks like this (NOTE: Selective Coating rendered transparent for clarity):

I wrapped two stretched out pads of Brawny Stainless Steel Pot Scrubbers (total cost$1.98) around the boiler tube, and inserted them into the bore of the Evacuated Solar Thermal Energy Capture Tube, so that the stainless Steel wool was in thermal contact with both the acetone heat pipe boiler tube and the solar heated inner wall of the energy collector tube. The purpose of the stainless steel wool, was to form a permanent, intamate heat transfer medium, that is both rugged, and cheaper than the brass or copper wools, that would not rust or corrode, at continuous high operating temperatures. Then, I placed the heat pipe Solar Thermal Energy in the sunlight, and slipped a piece of thermal foam pipe insulation, over the condenser bulb, and slipped a 60 250 F meat thermometer into the foam, along side the condenser bulb. After 15 to 20 minutes, I returned, and was stunned, to find that the thermometer read off-scale at 250 F, and the thermal foam had melted due to the very high temperatures being given off by the heat pipe condenser bulb, as the vaporized acetone condensed, and gave up is heat of condensation, to became a liquid once again, and was returned to the boiler, by gravity to re-vaporize again, and begin another rapid heat energy transfer cycle. Here is a picture of the heat pipe condenser after the thermal insulation foam was melted by the hot Solar Energy Capture Tube Heat Pipe Condenser Bulb!

this type of thermal pipe insulation foam is in common use, on hydronic (radiators or hot-water floor or baseboard) heating systems world-wide that operate continuously at 180-200F. So to melt such a high temperature foam, the condenser bulb had to be well above the 250 F scale limit on the meat thermometer. My home brew DIY heat pipe worked very well, the first time I tried it! The DIY heat pipe exceeded my initial expectations for both ease of fabrication, and long term operating performance. The fabrication was very simple and straightforward, and I plan to make a LOT more of these easy to assemble and use heat pipes, not only to use with my solar thermal energy collection tubes, but also, to modify some ammonia propane boilers in RV refrigerators, to operate on captured Solar Thermal Energy instead of a propane flame. Actually, when I think about it, the uses for inexpensive DIY heat-pipes, are almost unlimited! 2006 Patrick Ward 11 Dec. 2006 With Best regards FREE ENERGY Patrick Ward Richmond VA fossilfreedomATyahoo.com fossilfreedomATyahoogroups.com biogasolineATyahoo.com biogasolineATyahoogroups.com

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