Yu Lung Yeung

For the experiment brainstorming, we were trying to think of something that we can use the NXT machine but also, an experiment that we had not done before. Since we had been using the NXT machine from the beginning of the class, this experiment that we are doing will show that we had acknowledge this machine. So therefore, our team have came up with the “Coffee Cup Experiment”.

For the Coffee Cup Experiment, we will be needing three different types of materials of coffee cups with containers, NXT temperature sensor, the Labview software, and the LEGO MINDSTORMS education kit. The three type of materials could be plastic, glass, and styrofoam etc. This experiment mainly focuses on which type of material has the better quality on storing the heat. Also, this will help figure out which kind of cup insulates the best but with the lowest cost. However, this might sound easy to work on, but it’s just at the brainstorming stage, it might be tough when you start working on it.

According to Enernoc, demand response is the changes in electric usage by end-use customers from their normal consumption patterns in response to changes in the price of electricity over time, practically speaking, it’s the electricity that cannot be easily stored on a large scale.

As anyone that may not know, electricity isn’t stored in a tank, so when you needed, it’ll be transmitted by the power grid. The demand for electricity is typically much more higher in the afternoon and evenings, also during summer time when people turn on their air conditioners as well. When people are using their electrical appliances at the same time, it’s called “peak usage time”. This will have the possibility for the power to knock out because of everyone using the electricity at the same time. However, one way to decrease the load is by a concept called “demand response”. This program mainly focuses on residential, commercial and industrial consumers the ability to trim the electricity usage at specific time of the day. This will help the consumers to save the high electricity price, not mentioning the help of preventing a blackout.

According to USA Today, blackouts aren’t just inconvenient, it also cost a lot. It has been estimated the 2003 blackout in New York City has caused up to $750 million in lost revenue. That makes the demand response program much more important than it seems. For instance, the system could sense the demand problem and divert or reduce the power in strategic places. With the help of the program, it will increase the potential to help both the provides and consumers to save money.

Will a larger scale demand response systems be more reasonable? Different people have different point of views towards it, therefore, it really depends on the people. However, companies are now stepping in to reduce grid loads by collecting negawatts. A negawatt is the unit of power that is no longer needed and will be selled by the company to use them to reduce the load on the grid.

Another advantage for demand response is the “smart grid”. A smart grid is actually the same as the current grid we use, but it’s just a 21st century version. But comparing these two grids, the current grid has a better advantage. The previous grid is an one way use only grid. For instance, when you turn on the television, it then brings the power. However, for the smart gird, it will be a two-way communication system between provider and consumer. With the contact points, it would automate the flow of electricity it needs, practically speaking, the grid will detect how much power you are using.

Just with these advantages the demand response provides, it clearly shows it’s a more capable and reliable technology to use. Therefore, with the help of demand response, it will definitely help the society on saving the electricity.

 

References:

http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/demand-response.htm

http://www.enernoc.com/our-resources/term-pages/704-what-is-demand-response

http://www.ecsgrid.com/demand-response-programs/what-is-demand-response-and-how-does-it-work

Even though I was late and didn’t go to the museum with the class, I still manage to get to the museum and find the whole class. I believe this was my second time that went into the museum, however, everything is kind of different to what I remember. The main focus of coming to the science museum this time is to learn more about wind and solar energy. The first department we went to was the Museum of Wind Lab. 

As you may not know, the purpose of a turbine is to convert the air into electricity with it’s spinning blades. In this department, we notice that this is an laboratory that is for monitoring local wind conditions and the wind power generation datas. The lab also contained many historical informations, not to mention the wind turbines that people had made. An example would be the Swift Rooftop Wind Energy System. 

Later, we learned about storing energy, and the example that we used is the Beacon Power Corporation, located in Tyngsboro MA. The main purpose of this system is they can transform the electricity into mechanical energy, which in other word, making it much more easy to store it. We also learned that when the power plant produces more electricity than it asked for, the electricity that is left will make the flywheel spin faster. On the other hand, if the consumer requires more electricity, the motor will become an electrical generator.

In conclusion, going to the museum this time was a great experience since we are learning the similar things in class. This will help us have a better understanding because there’s an actual model that we can learn about it.

In this experiment we are trying to calculate how many voltage the solar panels are producing from the distance of the light. We will be needing a solar panel, a flashlight, few colored transparent paper, a ruler, and the usb to connect the panel to the computer. Same as any experiment, we will need to the help of Labview. After connecting the panel to the computer and opening Labview, we will first calculate what is the voltage when there is no light. We will do that by facing the panel to the table.  Later on we will do 4 more sets of calculations and each will have a different distance. The first set will be 0cm, then 10cm, 20cm, and the last will be 30 cm away from the panel. Each calculation will be recorded by Labview. After that, you will open Excel and open the file. You’ll then see the results for every calculation. As you see below, the closer the light is from the panel, the more voltage you’ll get.

After working on it without any borders, we will then try 3 more sets with 3 different color sheets, which include red, pink, and green. In this part, we will just one distance and see what the difference is between different colors. As you can see from the graph below, pink has the greater voltage because out of the 3 colors, pink is the one with the lightest one.

In this experiment, I learned that the further away the light is the less voltage it creates. It is the same meaning on how “shine” the sun is. For instance, if today is a bright day and the sun is really strong, the panel will absorb more energy from the sun and create more voltage. But if it’s a cozy day and the sun is blocked by the clouds or it doesn’t “shine” that much, then therefore, it wouldn’t absorb that much energy and will eventually not creating that much voltage.

Although I was sick and didn’t have the chance to go to class and listen to Tom Vales presentation about the various engines and machines, but one of my friend is still nice enough to explain to me what has happened in that class. The first thing he showed us was the stirling engine. The engine was invented by Robert Stirling back in 1816, making the engine has about 200 years of history. As he describes, the engine we use is still the same today, however, the engine is still 80% effective, and it runs at the bottom of the machine by heat. This engine is still used nowadays, such as in submarines, to keep it quiet and power the generator. Tom later on placed the engine on top of the warm cup of water, so that the heat the warm water releases will be absorbed by the engine, and therefore, making the machine work. 

The next thing he showed use was the Peltier Junction. The Peltier Function has uses the copper and metal to generate a electric current. In the experiment, he used two coffee cups, one containing hot water, and the other cup containing cold water. Tom then puts one junction in the hot water and while the other one in the cold. The function will then generate a type of energy, and the energy could be used to run the motor. However, as he describes, the function is inefficient.

The third thing that he showed us was the Mendocino Motor. Saying its a motor, this motor doesn’t create any energy, but it is sure a good teaching tool. The rotor on the machine is floating on a magnetic fields, and when the light shines on the rotor, the rotor will then eventually spins. Therefore, the sun could be a source replacing the light to making to rotor to move.

Due to fever, I didn’t go to class and can’t see the presentation with my own eyes, however, when my friend describe it to me, it still fascinates me! It was amazing how even using hot water and cold water can also generate energy.

The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster happened in March 11, 2011. What happened in this incident is that a 14 meter high tsunami has hit the northeastern part of Japan. The earthquake itself has disabled 3 of the nuclear planet’s air conditioner system, which is also called the AC power. With many efforts by the workers, the cooling system still can’t be fixed, making the power plant leaking the radioactive material.

With the devastating incident occurred in Fukushima, the members of the Radiation Safety Council at Hirosaki University convened a meeting to discuss the response to this accident on March 13. Later on, the Japanese government has decided to dispatch the university staff members to Fukushima to support the people living there. The team was sent there 2 days later, on March 15. To solve this problem, the Japanese government has decided by end of this year, they will begin removing the fueling system from the reactor and placing them near cool pools so that the nuclear could cool down and stop leaking out the radioactive materials.

I still remember when this incident occurred, I was in Hong Kong. This breaking news just suddenly happened and every news channels were just reporting this accident. I don’t remember how many days it happened, but nearly for a week, everyday the news was reporting the process in Fukushima and everyone was just worrying about what will happen to the people there. From that day on, people are just afraid of traveling to Japan, due to the leak of the radioactive material and scared it will contaminate the sea creatures and the air that they breathe in.

 

References:

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Safety-and-Security/Safety-of-Plants/Fukushima-Accident-2011/#.UTlnhdEjrZc

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3246178/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_Daiichi_nuclear_disaster

What is solyndra scandal? Solyndra is a corporation that manufactures cylindrical panels of copper indium gallium selenide thin film solar cells. What it does is it can be used as a component to generate and supply electricity/energy for the commercial and residential environment. Solyndra manufacturer’s solar panels is capable on large, low slope commercial rooftops, which in other words, it’s not suitable for residential use. The modules they created are designed to last for or over 25 years because of the kind of material they used. They used the material “copper indum gallium selenide”, which is also called CIGS, to prevent any possibilities of cell degradation due to moisture. The company was founded in 2005 by Dr. Christian Gronet, but is shut down 6 years later, in 2011.

On August 31st 2011, Solyndra has announced shutting down the corporation and stopping all operation and manufacturing process, making 1,100 employees being laid off. The company notified to their employees that the company was losing money and they must shut down the corporation. However, in March 2009, the Energy Secretary, Steven Chu has announced a $535 million conditional loan guarantee to Solyndra. Even with the loan, the corporation itself is already in trouble. Later on the years, DOE has learned that Solyndra has difficulty making the loan payment, therefore, violating the “federal loan deal”. In the beginning of 2011, family funds that is connected to Obama fundraising bundler, George Kaiser, has provide another $75 million more in financing. However, even with the the large amount of money that they loan, Solyndra has still shut down. In August 2011, the company has filed for bankruptcy.

References:

http://www.solyndra.com/technology-products/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/solyndra-scandal-timeline/#document/p1/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/solyndra–explained/2012/06/01/gJQAig2g6U_blog.html

 

For this experiment, all the students in the course should have the same results. Due to technical problem, the professor have sent us the results, which includes how much the mass is, the power of each trial, and the time that used for each trial etc. However, even we have the results for every trial, we will still have to calculate what the power=mgh/t (W) and mgh (J) is. For mgh (J), we will calculate and get the results by multiplying mass(kg), h (m), and g (m/s^2) together. For power=mgh/t (W), we just need to divide mgh (J) with the time (s), and we will eventually get the result.

After getting results for everything, we will be working on the graphs. We will have to create 4 graphs, which include “Battery Discharge vs Mass”, “Acceleration vs Mass”, “Acceleration vs Force”, and “Power=mgh/t (W) vs Power Level”.

Below is the graph of Battery Discharge vs Mass.

Below is the graph of Acceleration vs Mass

Below is the graph of Acceleration vs Force

 

Below is the graph of Power=mgh/t (W) vs Power Level

 

In this experiment, the main thing we have to have is a flashlight and Labview, the program. What we have to do was connect the flashlight with the wires that are on the NXT machine. After everything is prepared, the true experiment will start.

In this experiment, we will be testing it 4 times, and each time the shake time will either increase or decrease. In Labview, each test will take 30 seconds to record and get the result. For our first shake, the professor requested to start it slow first. So in 30 seconds, we recorded 32 shakes, and the results that appeared has showed that in 32 shakes, we create 12 voltage. After done recording the first trial, we did the second one. In the second trial, we start increasing the speed, and it end up of having 35 shakes in 30 seconds. In this trial, we created 77 voltage. Keep on going, we recorded 46 shakes in the third trial, and has created 89 voltage. In the fourth trial, we are increasing the speed more, and it end up of having 98 shakes. Surprisingly, the voltage that we created in this trial is lower than the previous one, which is 80.

In conclusion, I believe this experiment has told us that the faster and stronger you shake, the more voltage that you will create because when you shake up and down, the magnet inside the flashlight will move up and down as well. Therefore, the flashlight will create more voltage when you shake more. However, if your shakes only have speed and not power, the voltage that is create will not as being as much, for instance the fourth trial comparing with the third trial.

(Below is the chart of the number of shakes vs the voltage.)

To begin with the experiment, we have the pulley, the weights, which includes 50, 20’s, 10’s, and 5’s, and the robot itself. What we are trying to do in this experiment is to find out what’s the different about the speed, time, and battery discharge when we have the same mass but different speed and same speed but different mass. Before really starting at the experiment, we have the make sure that the USB is plug in to both the computer and the robot, as well as “port A” itself. After you’re done, the experiment will begin. For the first section, same mass but different speed, we kept the mass at 200 grams, equaling 0.2kg. Well definitely, in order to succeed in this experiment, you will have to use Labview to calculate the numbers. So for the first trial, we plugged in 50 for the power and 0.2 for the mass(kg). Later on the second trial, we kept the mass(kg) the same, and change the power to 75. Last but not least, for the third trial, we increased the speed more to 100. The result has proven us that the more power you use for the same mass(kg), the speed and acceleration will definitely be faster and more efficient. But on the other hand, the battery discharge is much higher than the one with less power. (Below is the results.)

Power	Mass(kg)	Battery Discharge (mV)	Speed (RPM)	Acceleration (RPM/s)	Time(s)
50	0.2	42	57.1077	12.7644	4.474
75	0.2	97	91.5583	35.0261	2.614
100	0.2	111	125.687	82.8521	1.517

On the other section, we will be having same power but different mass(kg). On the first trial, our power is 75 and mass(kg) is 0.25. Then on the second trial, we kept the same power and decreased the mass to o.15(kg). Last but not least, our last trial is decreasing the mass more and only weighing 0.1(kg). In the section, we found out the result are different as well. Having the same power, the battery discharge will be much higher when the mass weighs higher, and the acceleration will be lower when the mass weighs higher too. (Below is the results.)

Power	Mass(kg)	Battery Discharge (mV)	Speed (RPM)	Acceleration (RPM/s)	Time(s)
75	0.1	28	94.2305	44.8076	2.103
75	0.15	55	90.7568	41.4604	2.189
75	0.25	-14	87.5508	32.3424	2.707