What to do with Satellite Dishes
Have you ever thought of what to do with your old out of service satellite dish?
Maybe you thought of decorating it. Here are some ideas that you could do as a
recycling project.
BTW, the old large satellite dishes were mostly made of fiberglass or mesh. The
new smaller ones are made of metal.
Mirror & stained glass can be used to create work of art, painting the dish with
murals, state flags, stars, etc.
Create a gazebo with the old one or make a lighted tree. I have even made a pond
with the fiberglass dish as there are no holes in it. Just dig a hole, place
the dish in it, plug the center hole with silicone, fill it up with water, put
some plants (water lilies) and taaadaaaa! Looks pretty good.
You could rig it up as a large outdoor shower head. Suspend the dish approximately
7 feet from the ground, feed a steady water supply into it which will gradually
drip through the tiny holes of the mesh dish.
Turn that post into a bird feeder, laundry hanging post, a dome for a
cattle feeder or even gold panning. Use it as saucer and slide down a snowy hill.
If you are not the artsy crafty type, just run the metal satellite dishes down to
the metal scrap yards and turn them in for cash!
Hint: Put a plastic baggie over the LNBs so it can still collect the signal from
the dish. This will protect the electronics from moisture buildup on rainy and
windy days. Works for me!
NOTE: DO NOT mess with your current dish in any way as it can ruin your viewing
pleasure, possibly burn up the LNB and/or interfere with the collection of the
signal. DO NOT spray PAM on the face of the dish as it interferes with the
collection of the signal. If you have a snow build up problem, use elbow grease
to remove the snow.
Tags: bird feeder, birds, cattle feeder, center hole, creating, currents, dish, dishes, elbow grease, es, feeders, fiber glass, goodness, hole place, ideas, lights, mesh dish, metal mirror, metal scrap, metals, moisture buildup, paint, paints, plants, plastic, plastic baggie, recycle, recycling, recycling project, satellite dish, scrap yards, service, snowy hill, spray pam, state flags, steady water supply, tiny holes, trees, view, water, water lilies, yard
September 9th, 2008 at 1:09 am
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September 9th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Hi Linda
thanks for the idea
i have one spare dish (metal one) which my 5 year nephew bend from one side. but none of you ideas can be applied on it as it lost shape and alignment, i think i’ll sell it for cash
September 9th, 2008 at 10:11 am
Hi Sunil … Sounds as if you have a plan!
February 28th, 2009 at 11:19 pm
>>>>>>>I STILL HAVE ONE OF THESE LARGE DISHES IN PLACE & PLAN TO USE IT TO MOUNT 4-8 SOLAR PANELS ONTO. WILL ONLY HAVE TO REMOVE THE LNB & 4 BRACES & FASTEN SOLAR PANEL FRAME TO OUTER EDGES. THE DISH IS AT A GOOD ANGLE & ALREADY LOOKING SOUTHWARD. I’LL LET YOU KNOW HOW THIS WORKS OUT. JOEL
JOELs last blog post..More Sections Added!
March 1st, 2009 at 11:07 am
Hi Joel … What a fantastic idea! Your frame is already set and a few changes makes a great stand for solar panels! Good Job!
March 2nd, 2009 at 4:15 am
Howdy Folks,
I like Joel’s idea of utilizing the dish frame-work to mount an array of solar photovoltaic (PV) modules so well…that I actually did that with my large dish system several years ago. Most of the quality large dish receiver systems were “DYNAMIC” as opposed to “Static” small direct dish systems that focus on a single geo-stationary satellite. I was able to utilize the existing system designed for tracking the various satellites… to track the sun. It was not perfect by any means, but was efficient enough to make a substantial difference in output of the system (cheaper than buying additional PV modules). I did have to tweek the program quite often; by tracking the program changes I could save the program for future years use. Every year of tweeking would increase accuracy. That was years ago and I have a background in electronics and earlier celestial navigation. So it was a hobby challenge to me. This day and age there are “off the shelf tracking systems” that could do the same job. Another application I thought of, was lining the dish with mirrors to build a Concentrated Solar Thermal (CST) closed loop system for heating and hot water. Either one would be easy to accomplish with access to cheap (free) large dish receivers.
Lissof