Solar Thermal Array Improvements
Problem statement
The Farley Center is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting ecological sustainability, social justice and peace. It provides a wonderful benchmark for what it means to embody these morals while continually benefiting the greater Madison community. The main building within the Farley Center is heated by a solar thermal hot water system that was installed many years ago. The system is necessary to maintain this building, which is used to manage the entire site, however, as the site grows this system must also be improved to efficiently provide heat to the building. In order to cost evaluate potential design improvements to the array, our group must create an inexpensive data collection and monitoring system to determine which areas of the array are most in need of refinement. One example of a Data Acquisition System (DAS) that is currently on the market is the FieldLogger DAS that can be used to record field data on up to 128 different channels [1], however this DAS also costs $1377.00. We intend to create a DAS for our client that is more cost effective and focuses solely on the specific fields of data they would like to track. Ultimately, our solution will result in allowing the Farley Center to determine which areas of the array need immediate improvement so that they can cost evaluate future design improvements. [1] https://www.iothrifty.com/products/fieldlogger-industrial-multichannel-data-logger?variant=39373880164532&gclid=CjwKCAjwhNWZBhB_EiwAPzlhNjB1qPAgBdvW_rPnv5_Hbeepx1C8_A0WkUlMd_DP92acTqIkUphYYhoCjPAQAvD_BwE
Team members
Manas Phawde – leader
Cameron Knott – communicator
Alex Hubers – accountant
Riley Collins – admin
Client
Shedd Farley, Farley Center