Matching Items (4)
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- All Subjects: Solar water heaters
- Creators: Kannan, Arunachala
- Creators: Reddy, Agami
Description
Improving the conditions of schools in many parts of the world is gradually acquiring importance. The Green School movement is an integral part of this effort since it aims at improving indoor environmental conditions. This would in turn, enhance student- learning while minimizing adverse environmental impact through energy efficiency of comfort-related HVAC and lighting systems. This research, which is a part of a larger research project, aims at evaluating different school building designs in Albania in terms of energy use and indoor thermal comfort, and identify energy efficient options of existing schools. We start by identifying three different climate zones in Albania; Coastal (Durres), Hill/Pre-mountainous (Tirana), mountainous (Korca). Next, two prototypical school building designs are identified from the existing stock. Numerous scenarios are then identified for analysis which consists of combinations of climate zone, building type, building orientation, building upgrade levels, presence of renewable energy systems (solar photovoltaic and solar water heater). The existing building layouts, initially outlined in CAD software and then imported into a detailed building energy software program (eQuest) to perform annual simulations for all scenarios. The research also predicted indoor thermal comfort conditions of the various scenarios on the premise that windows could be opened to provide natural ventilation cooling when appropriate. This study also estimated the energy generated from solar photovoltaic systems and solar water heater systems when placed on the available roof area to determine the extent to which they are able to meet the required electric loads (plug and lights) and building heating loads respectively.
The results showed that there is adequate indoor comfort without the need for mechanical cooling for the three climate zones, and that only heating is needed during the winter months.
The results showed that there is adequate indoor comfort without the need for mechanical cooling for the three climate zones, and that only heating is needed during the winter months.
ContributorsDalvi, Ambalika Rajendra (Author) / Reddy, Agami (Thesis advisor) / Bryan, Harvey (Committee member) / Addison, Marlin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Testing was conducted for a solar assisted water heater and conventional all electric water heater for the purpose of investigating the advantages of utilizing solar energy to heat up water. The testing conducted simulated a four person household living in the Phoenix, Arizona region. With sensors and a weather station, data was gathered and analyzed for the water heaters. Performance patterns were observed that correlated to ambient conditions and functionality of the solar assisted water heater. This helped better understand how the solar water heater functioned and how it may continue to function. The testing for the solar assisted water heater was replicated with the all-electric water heater. One to one analyzes was conducted for comparison. The efficiency and advantages were displayed by the solar assisted water heater having a 61% efficiency. Performance parameters were calculated for the solar assisted water heater and it showed how accurate certified standards are. The results showed 8% difference in performance, but differed in energy savings. This further displayed the effects of uncontrollable ambient conditions and the effects of different testing conditions.
ContributorsMartínez, Luis, active 1995 (Author) / Rajadas, John (Thesis advisor) / Kannan, Arunachala (Committee member) / Rogers, Bradley (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
With the need to address the world's growing energy demand, many new
alternative and renewable energy sources are being researched and developed. Many
of these technologies are in their infancy, still being too inefficient or too costly to
implement on a large scale. This list of alternative energies include biofuels,
geothermal power, solar energy, wind energy and hydroelectric power. This thesis
focuses on developing a concentrating solar thermal energy unit for the application
of an on-demand hot water system with phase change material. This system already
has a prototype constructed and needs refinement in several areas in order to
increase its efficiency to determine if the system could ever reach a point of
feasibility in a residential application. Having put additional control refining
systems on the solar water heat collector, it can be deduced that the efficiency has
increased. However, due to limited testing and analysis it is undetermined just how
much the efficiency of the system has increased. At minimum, the capabilities of the
research platform have dramatically increased, allowing future research to more
accurately study the dynamics of the system as well as conduct studies in more
targeted areas of engineering. In this aspect, the thesis was successful.
alternative and renewable energy sources are being researched and developed. Many
of these technologies are in their infancy, still being too inefficient or too costly to
implement on a large scale. This list of alternative energies include biofuels,
geothermal power, solar energy, wind energy and hydroelectric power. This thesis
focuses on developing a concentrating solar thermal energy unit for the application
of an on-demand hot water system with phase change material. This system already
has a prototype constructed and needs refinement in several areas in order to
increase its efficiency to determine if the system could ever reach a point of
feasibility in a residential application. Having put additional control refining
systems on the solar water heat collector, it can be deduced that the efficiency has
increased. However, due to limited testing and analysis it is undetermined just how
much the efficiency of the system has increased. At minimum, the capabilities of the
research platform have dramatically increased, allowing future research to more
accurately study the dynamics of the system as well as conduct studies in more
targeted areas of engineering. In this aspect, the thesis was successful.
ContributorsDonovan, Benjamin (Author) / Rajadas, John (Thesis advisor) / Kannan, Arunachala (Committee member) / Rogers, Bradley (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
Lithium ion batteries prepared with a ceramic separator, have proven to possess improved safety, reliability as well as performance characteristics when compared to those with polymer separators which are prone to thermal runaway. Purely inorganic separators are highly brittle and expensive. The electrode-supported ceramic separator permits thinner separators which are a lot more flexible in comparison. In this work, it was observed that not any α-alumina could be used by the blade coating process to get a good quality separator on Li4Ti5O12 (LTO) electrode. In this work specifically, the effect of particle size of α-alumina, on processability of slurry was investigated. The effect of the particle size variations on quality of separator formation was also studied. Most importantly, the effect of alumina particle size and its distribution on the performance of LTO/Li half cells is examined in detail. Large-sized particles were found to severely limit the ability to fabricate such separators. The α-alumina slurry was coated onto electrode substrate, leading to possible interaction between α-alumina and LTO substrate. The interaction between submicron sized particles of α-alumina with the substrate electrode pores, was found to affect the performance and the stability of the separator. Utilizing a bimodal distribution of submicron sized particles with micron sized particles of α-alumina to prepare the separator, improved cell performance was observed. Yet only a specific ratio of bimodal distribution achieved good results both in terms of separator formation and resulting cell performance. The interaction of α-alumina and binder in the separator, and its effect on the performance of substrate electrode was investigated, to understand the need for bimodal distribution of powder forming the separator.
ContributorsKanhere, Narayan Vishnu (Author) / Lin, Jerry Y. S. (Thesis advisor) / Kannan, Arunachala (Committee member) / Chan, Candace (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017