Solar Energy – Intensive Learning @ MFS

Solar Energy: A Visit with Dr. Eric Teitelbaum ’08

March 28, 2024March 28, 2024Solar Energy

Today we took a trip to AIL Research and Princeton University to visit Dr. Eric Teitelbaum MFS class of 2008 and learn about his research on radiant heating, cooling, and heat pumps. He showed us a model of a heat pump system (shown above) and discussed how it works. The electronics in the system...

Solar Energy: Building a Solar Charging Circuit and a Parabolic Mirror Dish

March 27, 2024March 27, 2024Solar Energy

Today we built the solar charging circuit by connecting the solar panels in parallel so that the amperage output would increase. We then soldered the wires together and connected them to a buck converter. The buck converter will take the energy coming out of the solar panels and make sure it outputs to only...

Solar Energy: Creating a Parabolic Mirror

March 26, 2024March 26, 2024Solar Energy

Today we spent the first 30 minutes doing math to calculate the equation of a parabola so that its focus would be 18 inches above its vertex. We then spent four hours building a physical parabola one foot wide and almost six feet long out of plywood, 2 x 4s and mirror tiles. The...

Constructing Solar Box Ovens

March 25, 2024March 26, 2024Solar Energy

Construction continued on the solar box ovens. Once they were complete, we learned about Arduino microprocessors. We are using the Arduinos to make a thermocouple circuit so we know the temperature inside our ovens. After a lot of difficulty trying to connect the Arduinos to a Windows computer, a Mac, and a Chromebook, the...

Solar Energy Day One: Ohm’s Law, Circuits, Solar Cells, and Solar Ovens

March 22, 2024March 22, 2024Solar Energy

During our first full day we got a basic understanding of Ohm’s Law and the relationship between voltage, current, and resistance. We built and explored wired breadboards and series and parallel circuits with resistors and light emitting diodes (LEDs). We learned how to solder wired circuits together as well as PCBs (printed circuit boards)....

Solar Energy, Day Six — Assembling our Solar Parabolic Oven

April 3, 2023April 3, 2023Solar Energy

On our last day of Solar Energy IL we assembled all 18 petals of the Solar Parabolic Oven together. It was difficult trying to get the shape of the parabola just right. We then constructed the cradle out of 2×4 boards and positioned the completed parabolic oven into it. We were unable to test...

Solar Energy, Day Five — Building our parabolic oven, and a visit from first grade

March 31, 2023March 31, 2023Solar Energy

Today, we used our petal template to make 18 cardboard petals with sides 20 degrees apart and curved to match our parabolic equation. This took all morning without a break so we took a long lunch. After lunch we were visited by the first grade classes to talk about robots and our Solar Energy...

Solar Energy, Day Four

March 30, 2023March 30, 2023Solar Energy

Today, we programmed our Arduino boards further, and we built them to record temperature using a temperature sensor. Then, we took our solar ovens outside when it was sunny so that they could heat up. We used the Arduino boards to measure their internal temperature. We baked cookies with our solar ovens for a...

Solar Energy, Day Three — Constructing solar ovens (and Oreo update)

March 29, 2023March 29, 2023Solar Energy

Today we spent four hours constructing our solar ovens with cardboard, styrofoam insulation, and aluminum foil. Unfortunately there wasn’t much sun today, so we couldn’t test them. We cut pieces of plexiglass using a score knife and broke them to the proper size to put on top of our solar ovens to prevent heat...

Solar Energy, Day Two — Creating solar circuits and planning our Solar Box Ovens (plus an Oreo update)

March 27, 2023March 29, 2023Solar Energy

Today we learned how to solder components onto a printed circuit board (PCB). These skills and the skills learned on Friday were used to connect the solar panels to each other in parallel. This way the electricity generated would double the amperage of the circuit’s output but keep the voltage at about 9 volts....

Solar Energy, Day One — Soldering (and Oreos)

March 24, 2023March 25, 2023Solar Energy

Today we learned the basics of electrity, electronics and soldering. We built series and parallel circuits with both batteries and resistors. Learning how to solder without burning ourselves, that was pretty cool. After lunch we learned how to breadboard and build LED circuits. All in all a very fun and interesting learning experience of...