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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 Resources 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.)

Figure 1: Illumination of quartz crystal with red LEDs by Josiah Norton of The Lonely Protons.

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.

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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

Figure 2: A Google SketchUp visualization of the final product.

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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

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How to Do Something


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Discussion and Next Steps

The Lonely Protons

File:IMAGE

Team Members

Josiah Norton

Austin Chester


References

  1. Norton, Josiah. (2012) “Red Quartz Crystal.jpg” Nov. 12, 2012.
  2. Norton, Josiah. (2012) “JosiahNortonACAD4.png” Nov. 12, 2012.
  3. Norton, Josiah. (2012) “Arduino Soldering Timelapse” Nov 12, 2012. [1]

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