April 19, 2009
I had the distinct pleasure of working with a freshmen engineering course at University of Dayton this past semester. When Dr. Margaret Pinnell – the professor for the course as well as one of Salud del Sol’s most involved mentors – approached me about ideas for a project for the course, I was quick to suggest a solar tracking device. Thus, I mentored the class and their group projects over the course of the semester, and was very pleased with the results. Because of Salud del Sol’s infatuation with sustainability and appropriate technologies, I asked the students to write an article for the site describing their projects. Their articles are posted below:
K(A)BEBS – Sean Drennan, Katlyn Lopus, Emily Getter, and Becky Herrman
Redirecting the Sun
During the second semester of the first year at the University of Dayton, the Engineering Innovations class was presented the challenge of building a prototype of a device that could be used in developing countries to track the sun throughout the day. This device would be used to maximize the amount of sunlight directed onto a solar panel to capitalize on the efficiency of the energy. The class was divided into groups and each group had a $50 budget to work with.
K(A)BEBS was formed by four, first-year engineering students. These four students all were taking similar classes, but all brought their own ideas to the group. During the design stage, design ideas varied greatly between group members, which allowed the group as a whole to think outside the box. The students used their knowledge from high school and the knowledge from their math and science courses this year to design and build a prototype that would complete the task at hand.
The design team decided on a design that was much different from the rest of the groups in the class. A device that would remain stationary and be constructed using reflective newspaper tin would be built around the solar panel and redirect the sun onto the panel. The sunlight would enter through the top of the device and would reflect off the panels, which would be at carefully calculated angles. The design team tried to design the device so that no matter where the sun would be in the sky, its’ rays would be directed onto the solar panel after being reflected off the newspaper tin. The team had reasonable results and found that the idea did work but more calculations and testing would need to be done in order to correctly position the reflective panels for use throughout the day. Overall, the design team was happy with their final project and excited to see what could become of their idea on a bigger scale.
Solar Tracking Device Project – Alex Jules, James Lab, Jim Razzante, Alex Reed
In the class Engineering Innovations this semester at the University of Dayton, our team was presented with the project of designing an automated (hands free) and sustainable(reusable) solar tracking device. What the device needed to do was move a solar panel throughout the day so it faced the sun at all times. This would result in increasing the efficiency of the solar panel by forty percent.
We first began by creating several sketches that depicted different ideas that could be used to achieve the desired effect. What we came up with was a system that would use a bucket suspended in a tub of water. The bucket was attached to a pivoting piece of wood which had the solar panel attached to it. Several two liter bottles were cut and placed together which created a source of water that would drip at a constant rate into the suspended bucket. As the day would go on, the dripping water would fall into the suspended bucket and cause it to sink and pull on the rotating piece of wood. This motion would cause the solar panel to be facing the sun the entire day.
When the day came to actually test our design, our team saw great success. Our simple design worked well, although we did encounter some problems. Interference with the weather caused some issues as clouds blocked the sun and a strong wind moved our rotating piece of wood. Our group was able to come up with propositions to create a better device in the future.
Overall, this project was a great introduction to the design process and gave us hope for our futures in engineering.
Again, as their student teacher who is heavily involved in projects like this, I was impressed with the results and proud of the work they had done. Our only hope now is that they will take away what they have learned about appropriate technologies and solar trackers and spread the word. They have a great opportunity to see some change in the world. Once again, comments and suggestions are always appreciated!
Many thanks and peace always,
Daniel J. Hensel
Director of Product Research
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