Abstract
The Lonely Protons' goal for this project was to provide Laurel Tree Charter School with an energy monitoring system that could show energy consumption in a way that was both interesting and understandable to students of all ages.
Introduction
The Lonely Protons are a group of two Humboldt State University Environmental Resource Engineering students in the ENGR 215 design class. Our design project is to create a way for the students and faculty of Laurel Tree Charter School to be able to visually see their energy consumption at the school in a way that was understandable to students of all ages (K-12.)
The solution decided upon by the Lonely Protons and Laurel Tree is to use a combination of arduinos and an intuitive optical colored display to express energy usage. Energy usage data will be obtained at the building source (break box) and sent to a micro-controller that will then use a color changing light source to illuminate a quartz crystal with colored light, thus indicating energy usage based on color. Additionally, the microcontroller will also export the data that it receives to a secondary controller that will produce a real time running graph on a small LCD screen.
Problem Statement and Criteria
The students of Laurel Tree Charter School had no clear means of monitoring their electrical usage.
Criteria | Weight | Description |
---|---|---|
Safety | 9.7 | The project will be in a school; it is of utmost importance that it is safe, and that malfunctions or general operation not be harmful to students or physical items. |
Show Energy in Interesting Way | 9.0 | It was determined that the project had to be visually interesting, or it wouldn't be utilized as much as desired. |
Understandable By All Ages | 8.3 | The project also had to indicate energy usage in a way that anyone of school age could understand. |
Achievable Within Allotted Time-frame | 7.7 | The alternative solutions developed showed The Lonely Protons that feasibility of the project was also important; if the project was not finish-able in the time frame allotted, the goal would not be met. |
Durability and Maintenance | 5.7 | The Lonely Protons want the project to last for at least five years, and for any general maintenance to be perform-able by anyone with general knowledge and ability to follow directions given by the Lonely Protons. |
Cost | 1.7 | Cost was listed as a low priority as The Lonely Protons could not exceed budget even if desired; however, time spent fundraising would distract from time spent on research and construction. |
Final Project
Costs
Material | Cost |
---|---|
Nanode v5 Kit | $40.00 |
emonTx 433Mhz kit | $47.00 |
CT Sensor | $19.50 |
JeeLabs RFM12B Board | $22.00 |
Crystal | Donated |
Fiber Optic Line | $26.00 |
Total | $154.50 |
How to Build
Discussion and Next Steps
The Lonely Protons
Team Members
Josiah Norton
Austin Chester