Description
Our goal during this project was to make a solar water heater that was made of limited materials. My group used copper tubes, cotton balls, tinfoil, plastic wrap, and a shoe box. We lined the inside of the shoe box with tinfoil and taped it down. We took the top of the shoe box and positioned it so it reflected the sunlight into the box. The copper tubes were in an "S" pattern and were connected by plastic tubes. Unfortunately, the tubes were leaking the water in about four different places, so we attempted to plug them up with clay. Speaking of clay, we put a plug on the end of the tube so the water could sit in the tubes and heat up. After we made the heater, we designed a house that would use sunlight as the main light source. We made a sketch of what the house would look like and where all the different kinds of sources would. We also drew the overall layout of the house, how many lightbulbs were in each room, and how many hours a day the lightbulbs would be turned on. We also designed a ¨cold frame¨, which is a four-sided frame with glass, usually placed over plants for protective covering. We also had to design a reflector, which reflects sunlight through the glass of the cold frame onto the plants. We needed to make it efficient so it could reflect through the window when the sun is at any angle.
Reflection
Working with my group was actually very fun. I hadn't worked with any of them before and when we designed our house, we made the model and even included a basketball court. When designing the cold frame, part of the group worked on the cold frame and part of the group worked on the reflector design. I made the key features list of both the cold frame and reflector, and beautified the blueprints. I think this was a great project, and it took five weeks to finish a solar water heater, an energy efficient house, and a cold frame.
Engineering design cycle:
1. Cold Frame
2. Four-sided frame of boards with removable plastic or glass
3. Make blueprints
4. Select the most efficient design
5. Make a model
6. Observe and interact with model
7. Present
8. Redesign
9. Repeat
Our goal during this project was to make a solar water heater that was made of limited materials. My group used copper tubes, cotton balls, tinfoil, plastic wrap, and a shoe box. We lined the inside of the shoe box with tinfoil and taped it down. We took the top of the shoe box and positioned it so it reflected the sunlight into the box. The copper tubes were in an "S" pattern and were connected by plastic tubes. Unfortunately, the tubes were leaking the water in about four different places, so we attempted to plug them up with clay. Speaking of clay, we put a plug on the end of the tube so the water could sit in the tubes and heat up. After we made the heater, we designed a house that would use sunlight as the main light source. We made a sketch of what the house would look like and where all the different kinds of sources would. We also drew the overall layout of the house, how many lightbulbs were in each room, and how many hours a day the lightbulbs would be turned on. We also designed a ¨cold frame¨, which is a four-sided frame with glass, usually placed over plants for protective covering. We also had to design a reflector, which reflects sunlight through the glass of the cold frame onto the plants. We needed to make it efficient so it could reflect through the window when the sun is at any angle.
Reflection
Working with my group was actually very fun. I hadn't worked with any of them before and when we designed our house, we made the model and even included a basketball court. When designing the cold frame, part of the group worked on the cold frame and part of the group worked on the reflector design. I made the key features list of both the cold frame and reflector, and beautified the blueprints. I think this was a great project, and it took five weeks to finish a solar water heater, an energy efficient house, and a cold frame.
Engineering design cycle:
1. Cold Frame
2. Four-sided frame of boards with removable plastic or glass
3. Make blueprints
4. Select the most efficient design
5. Make a model
6. Observe and interact with model
7. Present
8. Redesign
9. Repeat