Today is our first and last day testing. All 4 of us took turns to sit with our prototype and watch how it turns out.
We started at 10:55 AM, after trying to get someone to open the room door for us. And the starting temperature was 68.8 F.
We ran 21.12 watts through the system, adjusting for the use of a 20-30% efficient 100 W solar panel.
With about 4 to 6 good hours of sunlight in Ghana, we decided that would be the appropriate length of time to test.
We also decided to check the temperature every 30 minutes.
After we started, we noticed that the temperature started nearing room temperature. Maybe the TEC plates are not strong enough?
2 hours later, we realized a bag of water was leaking, so we decided to remove that bag to prevent any damage.
The bottom of the prototype neared 100 F, so we decided to run a fan towards the heat sink to see if this will help with the cooling process.
During our 3rd hour, we decided to increase the wattage to 33 watts and see if the temperature changes.
Although we wanted to go a full 6 hours, we did not want to continue wasting electricity if the prototype just follows the room temperature. So we stopped the testing at 4 hours.
We have compiled of list of what we have failed on and what we would have done differently.
All in all, we are glad we tried and failed. We had so much fun with this project! We wish the class was longer and we could see improvements in our prototype.
