Projects
for PHYS 331/580
Spring 2012 Semester
Robert Ehrlich
Last Modified 1/23/12
An approved project is required for all students
as described on the syllabus.
Funding of projects: A budget is available to pay for projects
costing less than $200 for supplies and materials. Be sure to save original receipts for all purchases. A number of possible
projects will require considerably more funds.
If you are potentially interested in working on a project that might
involve a significant amount of money (more than say $250), you are very
strongly urged to apply for funding through the Mason Sustainability Office,
which considers proposals for projects costing as much as $10,000 to $20,000
through their “Patriot
Green Fund.” In this case you are very strongly urged to
put in a two-page “preliminary proposal” as soon as possible (before the class
starts), and if they like it follow it up later with a complete proposal. Don’t worry about the listed deadlines for
proposals on their website. The form for
the proposal can be accessed by the link at the bottom of the web site for the “Patriot Green Fund.”
Some suggested
projects:
For specific ideas on
“do it yourself” projects, see this site
I – solar water
heater Build
a solar water heater for your roof using available plans on the web &
monitor its day-by-day performance so as to evaluate
its efficiency.
II – solar cooker Build a solar cooker using
available plans on the web & monitor its performance quantitatively.
III – Work with Prof. Douglas Mose
(dje42@aol.com)(Chemistry
Dept) at his Culpepper farm on either one of these
(a)
Wind turbine: Install and take data for a small wind turbine, and
monitor its performance.
(b)
Solar panels: Over the semester, at
several intervals, determine the capacity of the solar panel installation,
knowing that the advertisement for each panel says 60 watts. Compare this
to actual electrical production. Evaluate the effect of latitude of N VA,
inclination of the sun, loss via the system electronics, etc. ... Do
experiments with loads, to determine time of useful service using no batteries,
and some batteries (up to 8). .
IV – Solar cell simulation Develop a sophisticated
simulation giving a clear explanation of how PV cells work & how they
differ from batteries. Here is one
example of a very nice simulation on solar PV cells, but don’t merely copy it! http://org.ntnu.no/solarcells/applet/applet.php
V – Work with Dr. Len
Annetta (lannetta@gmu.edu) or Dr. Patricia Boudinot (pboudino@gmu.edu) in developing a sophisticated educational game relating to energy.
VI – Make a video to be posted on youtube. (Must be under 10 min in length) – see
guidelines below
Here are a few possible topics:
(1)
Interviews with random
Mason students to see what they know about renewable energy
(2) How to prepare for a career in renewable energy (interviews with
experts in industry & government)
(3) Explain
with the aid of animations some difficult-to-understand concept in the course.
(4) Make a
recruiting video that might attract prospective students to come to Mason to
study renewable energy
Here are some important guidelines on making a video.
(1)
Consult with a Mason
expert on how to conduct interviews & structure questions, such as Gary
Kreps, Melinda Villagran,
Jim McAuley, Carl Botan, Xiaomei
Cai, and Tim Gibson in the Communication Department.
(2)
Carefully prepare a list
of interview questions (with ideas for follow-up questions), and a subject
release form, and let me see them.
(3)
Prepare a list of people
to interview unless they are randomly selected students.
(4)
Practice the taping with
stand-ins just to see how it looks.
(5)
Be aware of the need to
make the final edited video no more than 10 min long.
VII – (a) LEED
software. Using the LEED
software design some energy efficient houses
(b)
Work with Homer Tool
software: The
HOMER energy modeling software
is a powerful tool for designing and analyzing hybrid power systems
VIII – develop JAVA
applets (suitable for a group)
Overall goal To develop an online (web-based) JAVA applet
that allows users to make a direct cost/feasibility comparison between
supplying a home with electric power based on (1) PV solar cells on the roof,
(2) a wind turbine, and (3) conventional electric power. The whole class will work on this project,
with different groups of individuals tackling different pieces of it. Who does which piece is up to you, but I will
want to see that each person is making a significant contribution. At the conclusion of the project class
members will also be asked to evaluate the contributions of both the individual
members and the sub-groups, and these evaluations will be combined with my
own. A beautiful example of such a
simulation that explains the operation of solar cells done by students at a
Norwegian l University can be found here.
A. Wind potential.
The
numbered tasks below might be suitable for individual subgroups.
(2)
Analyzing the wind data. Use day-by-day wind measurements on the web
for a nearby location, and the known
shape of the distribution of wind speeds (the Weibull distribution -- see text), use the “maximum likelihood”
method to obtain numerical values for the average wind speed, and the
uncertainty in the average value. (This
will require writing a computer program.)
Make an appropriate seasonal adjustment to get an annual average, and an
uncertainty in that value. (See web
for monthly variation of average wind speed.)
Compare your measured results with online resources that show the
average wind speed at the same location.
(3) Developing a JAVA
Applet. Develop a JAVA Applet modeled after the
“Small Wind Economic Model” EXCEL spreadsheet that yields the economic
feasibility for any particular site & model wind turbine (see the “cash
flow” graph in the spreadsheet.), and supply the Applet with the measured wind
probability distribution to see the curves that result. Be
sure to use a graphical interface so that each parameter can be varied using a
“slider,” which causes the graphs automatically redrawn instantly when the
various sliders are changed. Ownership
of the end product will be public, and be posted on
the web for anyone to use freely. All
class members and the instructor will be listed as being the developers.
B. Solar potential Using a graphical interface like that in http://www.roofray.com/
write a JAVA applet that allows the user to digitize the four corners of an
image of the roof of his house (using google earth), which then uses his
estimates of the angle of the roof, and the average amount of shading, and the
average daily insolation for this location in watts per m2 so as to
calculate the solar potential for this particular actual house. (Average solar insolation values for any
location can be found on the web.)
Develop
a JAVA applet similar to the one used to assess the
wind potential feasibility (see previous section) that yields the economic
feasibility of solar cells for this or any particular roof. The output of the Applet should be curves
like those shown here: http://www.solarbuzz.com/Consumer/Payback.htm
Be sure to use a graphical interface so that each
input parameter can be varied using a slider, and the graphs automatically
redrawn instantly. The input parameters
of the model include:
·
Installed
price of solar system in cents per watt
·
Discount
(interest) rate
·
Cost
of conventional electricity in cents per kw-hr
·
Size
and geometry of the roof – see first paragraph above
·
Average
solar insolation at this location – figure may need to be adjusted if the roof
is shielded by trees or other structures.
Ownership of the end product will be public, and be posted on the web for anyone to use
freely. All class members and the
instructor will be listed as being the developers.
