Weekly Progress

Week Five:

1. Goals
1. Modify Final Design
2. Order Supplies
3. Begin Building Process
2. Modify Final Design
1. Change in design: switch from solar panels to
2. Parabolic Mirror
1. Design in Creo
2. Provides enough energy to boil water
3. Calculate focal point
3. Structure
1. Mirror maneuverability
2. Material
3. Condenser design  

Week Four:

1. Goals
1. Finish design of filtration system
1. Solar Panel or Concentrator
2. Research material
1. circuit theory and electrical component
3. Look up supplies
2. Design - Dave and Eric
1. Solar Panels
2. Base?
3. Condenser Design?
4. How would they fit together?
3. Research Material - Joe and Jesse
1. Electrical Circuits
2. Equations for Focal Point of a Mirror
4. Look up supplies - Allan and Kaan
1. Materials
2. Cost of materials
5. Next Week
1. Have materials ordered
2. Begin computer design of system

Week Three:

1. Continue Research
1. Dave + Kaan - source of heat
1. Solar panels
1. Power output
2. Efficiency
3. Practicality
2. Electric burner
1. Cost
2. Power consumption
2. Continue Research
1. Jesse + Joe - electricity and power portion of the project
1. Volts or Watts?
2. DC?
3. Current of Solar cell?
4. Series or Parallel circuit
5. Relationship between watts and volts

3. Begin Design of System
1. Eric - Creo design of stand and actual system
1. What are the dimensions of the entire system?
2. How will they interact with each other?
3. Aesthetics?
4. Research Cost of Materials
1. Allan
1. How much is needed?
2. Where can we find the cheapest solar cells?
3. Wholesale?
5. For Next Week:
1. Have a tentative design of the actual system
2. Have the materials ordered and shipped
3. Have a strong knowledge of circuit theory and how the electricity will be stored and used

Week Two:

1. Goals:
1. Modify Topic
2. Research Topic
3. Write Proposal
2. Modify Topic
1. Is it feasible to use mirrors or lenses?
2. How would we use this to boil water?
3. What are the costs associated with these materials?
3. Research Topic
1. What types of mirrors or lenses can we use?
2. Will solar panels generate enough energy to power a heating plate?
   
   

Week One

Goals: Establish a topic and brainstorm a general solution to that topic.

Today our group decided upon a topic of trying to solve the issue of unusable water in third work counties by creating a a device that uses solar power to power a filtration system. The system has two stages of filtration. One stage uses steam and the other use sand and gravel filters. The group then decided to look at the pros and cons of this idea to determine if this solution is a viable solution.

1. 2 stage process:
1. Water in silo equipped with either solar panels or mirrors which heat the water
2. Steam rises and moves to another silo with sand and gravel filters
3. Water moves down through the filtration system and is stored in lower compartment
   
   
   
   
   
   

   

   Not to Scale

   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Pros:
1. Cost Effective
1. filtration system is cheap - sand and rocks
2. Good Filtration
1. two step process ensures that the microbes will be killed and any large sediment will be removed
3. Cons:
1. May be difficult to heat that amount of water without much energy available
1. Solar panels produce a small amount of energy, may not be enough
2. Amount of water purified may be ineffective compared to the fuel needed