Stove Project

In order to begin the design process of the stove, our group brainstormed for about five minutes by drawing our ideas and explaining the key features of our designs. Here are some sketches from our brain storming session:

  
 
  
 

After moving through this process, we ruled out certain key features that would either make the product more expensive to make (e.i. amount of material needed), more difficult to use, or that weren't necessary. We considered making a stove with two burners; however, we decided that was unnecessary to the purpose of the project, and it would add on an extra expense with more material needs. Also, having one burner that produces a quality amount of heat would be a more valuable product than a stove with two burners with decent functionality. We also considered the idea of having a stove with an area for the pot to fit into, thinking that that pot could receive more direct heat from the fuel and be closer to the fuel source. However, we decided that this was a risky plan because we couldn't think of a way to adjust the size of the hole to ensure that different pot sizes would fit. Now thinking back to that problem, I think that an appropriate solution to the problem would be similar to the design of the stove created at Berkeley with different levels of sizes to fit different pot sizes. After ruling out those two key factors, we decided that a more conic shape would be more efficient. This way, less charcoal is burnt in a more condensed space, but the heat will rise and warm up the whole surface of the stove. Another key feature that we decided on was a chimney. Due to the harmful effects of smoke produced during cooking, we wanted to maximize ventilation in order to make a product that will increase the quality of life for those cooking indoors with charcoal. After going through this process, we designed a new sketch that would fit the key features that we had discussed. We also brainstormed extra materials that we would need to request. For the ease of use, we decided that a door would be a good idea to open and close for air flow, and for a door that could be easily closed and shut, we would need a hinge. We also initially planned to use giant screws as the grates of the top layer of the stove.

Working off of this sketch, we created a cardboard model. Our measurements were a bit off the first time, so we modified it to be a bit smaller and to make the top trapezoid shape have a steeper angle outwards. We also decided to put shelves for the fuel to rest on in order to adjust the heat of the stove. Something that we initially did not brainstorm was a method to adjust the heat of the stove. After building our model, we created a simple solution. We built shelves at different heights for low, medium, and high heat.
This is how it turned out:

 

 

Moving forward from the card board model, we made a few improvements. On the top left of the last four pictures, it's clear to see that there needed to be a better way to keep the door closed shut. We decided that magnets on for the door on the front and the door on the back would be an excellent way to keep the doors shut, yet they would be very easy to open and close. Also, with a tangible model, it was easier to visualize the process of constructing the stove out of sheet metal, and we sketched out a better way to assemble the sheet metal. This is what our sketch looked like:

 

This sketch is for the side of the stove            This sketch is for the front of the stove

*These sketches do not include the marks for the shelving, the design for the shelf, or the bottom of the stove. We make those without sketching the plans out first. We constructed the new shelving unit by assembling the four main pieces with rivets. Sometimes, the rivets would not work so we used the bolts and nuts to hold the pieces together.The front and back panels and the side panels. These pictures display the process of assembly:


a.) Here you can see how we folded the front and side pieces to fit together correspondingly

b.)  Next, we cut out the door for the front of the stove and attached it with a hinge. Then we attached the big door for the back with hinges.

c.) After that, we made a box/shelf for the coal to rest in, along with shelves to hold it up.  
 
d.) We also formed a chimney and a hole for the chimney.


e.) Getting closer to finishing, we began assembling all the the pieces by riveting or using nuts and bolts. And put chicken wire on the top surface of the stove.

f.)

In order for the smoke to only escape through the chimney and not the surface of the stove, we decided to put a layer of sheet metal in the surface, reinforced with thick bars to make a more durable and stable surface.      

 

Reflection:
Something pretty major that I learned from this process was that as we worked on the design, especially during the modeling process, we continued to brainstorm ways to improve the stove. Furthermore, I also personally experienced the process of trial and error. There were so many things wrong with our original design that we gradually began to improve while building, but sometimes the adaptions caused new problems. For example, when we transitioned from the cardboard model to the sheet metal stove, there was a problem with the shelving that we did not encounter before because we didn't use a hinge before. If we could do this project over, I would want to attach the hinge in a better way, allowing the shelving to function more smoothly. Apart from trial and error in the design process was the obvious indication of a need for improvement after we actually tested the stove.

 

RESULTS:

After testing our stove, it was clear that many improvements needed to be made. For one, it took about an hour for the water to warm up to a notable difference, and even then, the temperature of the water was not nearly high enough. We needed the water to get up to 100 C° to boil, and it barely got a little over half of that amount at a whopping 53 C°. Another improvement that we could make to the next design would be to make the shelf go higher up, and with a decreased distance between the fuel and the stove top, the stove would be a lot hotter. Although it did not work as well as we had hoped, I still like that our stove has a versatility of temperature capabilities. Yet another improvement to be made would be to make the base a bit more sturdy, because it was quite wobbly.

Energy Usage Monday-Wednesday

In order to determine my energy usage, I first recorded the hours of use for various electric objects throughout the day. I made lights a general because there are lights on where ever I go throughout the day with the exception of my cross country practice from 4 to 6 everyday when I'm outside. After recording the hours, I can use my previous predictions of power usage to determine the amount of joules used for each activity knowing the time. Power= Joules/ Second, thus I can multiply the amount of power by the amount of time (in seconds) to determine the amount of joules used for each activity.

The objects that I used that require energy were:

computer: 70 Watts

lights: 60 Watts x average 5 bulbs per room= 300 Watts

phone: 4-6 Watts= avg of 5 Watts

hair straightener: 206 Watts

Monday

computer-3 hrs (10800 sec) x 70 watts = 756000 Joules

lights- 7:30 wakeup- 11:30 sleep minus 2 hrs practice time- 14 hrs (50400 sec) x 300 Watts =15120000 joules

phone charge-1 hr (3600 sec) x 5 watts= 18000 joules

subtotal: 15,894,000 Joules

Tuesday

hair straightener -20 mins (1200 sec) x 206 watts= 247200 Joules

phone charge- 1 hr (3600 sec) x 5 watts =18000 Joules

lights -14 hrs (50400 sec) x 300 watts= 15120000 Joules

computer-4 hours (14400 sec) x 70 watts= 100080000 Joules

subtotal: 16,393,200 Joules

Wednesday

phone charge -1 hr (3600 sec) x 5 watts= 18000 Joules

lights -14 hrs (50400 sec) x 300 watts= 15120000 Joules

computer-2 hours (7200 sec) x 70 watts= 504000 Joules

subtotal: 15,642,000 Joules

TOTAL AMOUNT OF ENERGY USED FOR THREE DAYS: 47,929,200 Joules ≅ 5 x 10^7 Joules

15,894,000

+16,393,200

+15,642,000

47,929,200 Joules

Power Required for Typical Objects

Light

In order to estimate this value, I looked at the light bulb in my bedside lamp, that has a 60 Watt bulb inside of it. I'm pretty sure that this is the standard Wattage of a bulb, so I just estimated that a light needs 60 Watts.

TV

For the TV estimation, I researched how HD TVs work. I did not look up how much energy they use. So when I looked up how they work, the website said that the perimeter of the TV has LED lights. I decided to use the LED lights that we used in my estimation, so with 3.2 V x 0.02 A for the power of each bulb x 1200 bulbs in a 2 x 3 ft tv screen = approximately 80 Watts.  

Computer

For the computer, I looked at the bottom of my laptop which shows the voltage and current of my laptop. It said 19.5 v and 3.2 A, so I multiplied those together to find the power, P=IV which turned out to be about 70 Watts.


Car

For the car, I thought of the average horsepower of a car and then looked up the conversion of horsepower to watts. I figured an average car has around 250 horsepower, and the conversion is 1 hp = 746 Watts, so I multiplied 250 hp x 746 to get about 90,000 Watts.

Motorcycle

Here, my process was the same, but I estimated the average motorcycle to use 50 hp x 746 to get about 40,000 Watts.

Fridge

My process for the fridge is a bit iffy, but it was the best I could think of. So, the specific heat of air is about 1, so I knew that it took 1 joule to heat 1 gram of air 1 degree Celsius, so I figured that it would take the same amount of energy to decrease temperature, which I'm not sure if that even works. But I figured that I could think of the amount of air in the fridge in liters to figure out the grams of air in the fridge. Also I figured the difference in energy is about 16 degrees Celsius, bringing the room temperature of 21 to 4.4. So I figured that there was about 50 liters of air in the fridge. 16 x 50 = 800 Watts.
 

Oven

I used the same kind of process, but this time 10 liters of air x 150 degrees Celsius which is approximately 2,000 Watts.

Radio

For the radio, I looked at the bottom of it. It said 9 Volts and 2.5 amps, so I multiplied those two and got about 20 Watts.

Water Challenge

           When we first learned what the Water Challenge was, I was a little bit confused by what lesson could be learned from obtaining water from outside of the dorm. My first thought was that this would not help conserve our water consumption; however, upon beginning the challenge, and after personally experiencing the labor in class of carrying water via different methods of transport, it became clear to me that this was a very meaningful assignment. I am not sure why I did not originally realize the intent of the assignment, but now I completely see why we were challenged with this task. It seems ridiculous to me that this challenged me so much because I think about how much more difficult it is for the children and women who have to walk on average 5.6 km a day to get clean drinking water. The nearest bathroom from my dorm is approximately 0.1 km away, yet on some nights I could not get myself to go that far when I really had to go to the bathroom, or if I was too busy or too tired to walk all the way over to the bathroom,

really only adding on five minutes to my daily schedule. As we discussed in class, when we grow up so accustomed to having water right at our fingertips, it becomes incredibly easy to be spoiled and lazy without even thinking about it. Looking back at the nights where I would opt out of walking to Caz to take a shower, I am a little bit ashamed of feeling like I didn't have enough time to go out of my way to do that. Even though I came back from cross country practice feeling exhausted and overwhelmed with my homework load, it does not come close to the hours that children and women in third world countries exhaust from their days from collecting water. If anything, this assignment has brought more prospective on how fortunate I am to have the time to go to school and be lucky enough to obtain water so quickly and easily, by simply twisting a faucet.

          In addition to realizing how lucky I am to have the time to go to school, this challenge made me realize how lucky I am that I don't have the physical burden of carrying water for a long distance. As I mentioned before, I come back some days from cross country completely worn out, and the last thing that I want to do is walk down three flights of stairs, walk across the Quad, and walk back,

only to come back up the same three flights of stairs. Also, coming back from the shower shivering with wet hair in the cold weather. Like I said before, looking back to my complaints or burdens seems completely insignificant compared to the problems that women and children face every day in third world countries. A 5.6 km walk is exhausting enough, especially without proper footwear and clothing to stay warm or cool enough depending on the surrounding environment, but then you can consider the weight of 3-5 gallons of water. After carrying the weight of the water in class on Tuesday, I personally experienced the struggle for hardly a full three minute walk. These women and children are malnourished, yet they do this every day without a complaint. I lift weights twice a week and compete in cross country on the college level, and I get more than enough to eat, and there I was on Tuesday, struggling and complaining about the weight of the water. Also, the only water that I carted around with me was a water bottle that I could fill up at any dining hall (aside from Pom) or any drinking fountain. This bulk of water really was not noticeable, and didn't put really any burden on me unless it was first thing in the morning, and I had run out of water and needed to take my morning vitamins, or if it was really late at night, and I had run out of water and needed to brush my teeth. During the challenge, I would put off taking my vitamins, but on the occasion that it was late, and I was out of water, I would use the faucet to brush my teeth. This also leads into the next major thing that I became more aware of and feel fortunate for.
     I am an extremely hygienic person, and for me, I really need to wash my hands regularly, brush my teeth twice a day, wash my face twice a day, wash my running clothes, and shower once a day because I'm always sweaty from XC practice. Washing my hands wasn't a big issue for the challenge since I could wash them in the bathroom of the dining hall before meals, and I opted not to use the bucket to flush the toilet, so I would just wash my hands in whatever bathroom I visited outside of my dorm. However, as I mentioned before, I cheated a few times brushing my teeth because I feel a strong need to brush my teeth before bed, and sometimes my water bottle would run out, and it was too late for me to mentally allow myself to walk the entire 0.1 km including the three flights of stairs to go to Caz to brush my teeth. Luckily, I had makeup

remover wipes that I could use to wash my face; however, the residue left on my face still felt sticky, and my face didn't feel fully clean... like I said, I'm weirdly hygienic. Washing my running clothes luckily is taken care of outside of my hands. One of the perks of running cross country is that the KSC does our laundry during the week. However, showering was a difficult thing for me to get used to. Lugging around all of my slippery shower supplies was more difficult than I imagined, while also trying to carry my dirty clothes (which I dropped on the ground a few times) became really annoying, especially when my wet hair made me extra cold and the three flights of stairs back at my dorm. I realize that I sound extremely spoiled, but it was a hard thing for me to do, and it led me to shower in my dorm a few times more than I am proud of. This really made me realize how my hygienic preferences have caused me to live an incredibly clean water- dependent and wasteful lifestyle. I definitely don't think I could cut out the showers, but I did begins to make my showers shorter out of guilt for using water from my dorm. I became curious and did some research to see how much water can be used per minute in the shower. I'm guessing that Beebe Hall's showers aren't incredibly efficient since the building is very old. Older shower heads use up to 5 gallons of water per minute! This made me feel really motivated to change my lifestyle a little bit, and take quick showers. Cutting down the shower time by 3-5 mins could save 15-25 gallons of water! This assignment made me think a lot about my usage and made me really realize just how lucky I am to have water so easily accessible.  

Water Backpack

After our activity in class on Monday when we personally experienced carrying water using different methods, it was very apparent that certain technologies are more efficient or simply put less strain on the person moving the water. Considering the challenge of designing methods to transport water, the WaterWear pack does a good job of carrying the water in a hygienic way that also may be used on any kind of terrain. It was developed by a partnership between Grief and Impact Economics. This product is an adjustable backpack made of a light weight yet durable material that has a protected spout and is easily able to be cleaned. The benefits of this backpack is that it may be worn two ways, either on the back or balanced on the head. A potential downside to the backpack is that it does not eliminate the burden as much as placing the weight on the head.  This pack is preferable to the traditional method of using any available container and placing it on the head because it may be fastened shut, unlike pots that do not have lids. Also, this option is very hygienic due to the fact that it is easy to clean, and it has a protected spout that cannot get dirt in it during the time that it is being transported. Furthermore, the design allows the person carrying it to walk across any kind of terrain, which is a major down set of the Hipporoller, which also would accumulate more dirt because it is dragged across the ground. I imagine that the specially woven material the the backpack is made of is not cheap'however, I imagine that it is more cost effective than the melting process that the Hipporoller requires. If I had $10,000 to spend to address water issues, I would possibly combine the idea of a backpack and the strap that rests on the top of the head to ease the strain of the load. That way, the back and shoulders would not experience the typical brunt of heavy weight of a backpack, which is another downside to this technology. 

Gravity Lamp

After reading about this gravity lamp, I am very excited to see that there is new technology that is so incredibly renewable and uses clean energy. This product appears to be incredibly viable, and I am very excited about this new type of renewable energy. The simple technology converts the potential energy of an object into useful energy that may be used for electricity. In order to approximate the weight needed to power the lamp for 30 minutes, I used the equation for potential energy, which may be seen in my work below.
            Energy= mass x gravity x height.
This formula was the basis of my approximation of the objects mass, and ultimately its weight. In order to use this equation, I had to approximate the energy needed to power the object for 30 minutes, or 1800 seconds. To do this, I considered power, because that is the energy needed over a period of time. I was able to calculate power using the formula P=IV, and I approximated the values of the voltage and current, which are listed below under the assumptions. After finding the energy needed in joules, I plugged it into the potential energy formula and approximated the height that the weight would descend from, which is also listed below in the assumptions. From my calculations, I found that the weight would be approximately 20 lbs.

Water Readings

  

     I was shocked after reading that clean water and access to sanitation has the potential to prevent 2 million deaths over the next decade. Ever since I was a child, access to water was never an issue. In fact, the ability to turn on a faucet at whim gave me the lasting impression that water was an never-ending source. Obviously, as I have grown older, I recognize the fortune that I have this access, yet I do not consciously acknowledge what this truly means. Learning the vast numbers of people without improved water sources was incredible to me. Improved encompasses three dimensions of water security: quality, proximity and quantity. I also never thought of the children missing out on education opportunities because they have to walk long distances to fetch water, or when they get sick from drinking tainted water.  There is a large disparity of opportunity for children worldwide, and I truly believe that equality of opportunity is a vital piece of human rights. Once provided with the basic means, children are closer to reaching a more full development  Going off of that, I found it troubling that the poor have to pay more for water than the rich do. For example, a person living in a slum pays more than somebody living in London.  Something as simple as clean water can save lives for those who are less fortunate. When we have water so easily accessible, it is very easy to forget just how crucial it is to life. The poor need to be provided with water for free, and this must be done with the help of public financing. Once clean water methods are set in place, there will be room for more improvement, and money will be saved in the long run. For example, something as simple as  reduced diarrhea would cause 3.2 billion working days to be gained for people ages 15–59. Furthermore,  universal access to water and sanitation would save health systems in developing countries about 1.6 billion US dollars a year. Those savings really add up. I think that prioritization of issues is key, and clean water and sanitation need to be at the top of the list. I was frankly a bit repulsed by the fact that the governments of the world spend 10 billion dollars on military hardware every eight days. This money could be used for something so much more important and rewarding. It seems selfish and immoral to me to use money that could be spend on saving lives for weapons that take lives.