Abstract:
This project is a component of the Cornell University Solar Decathlon which is dedicated to building
a solar powered house to collect and save as much energy as possible using various methods including
solar hot water collection. In the alternative system this project focuses on, solar hot water is
collected in the copper coil under the corrugated steel peripheral of the house. The goal is to
design a control system using microcontroller to control the pump and the valves connected to the
coil based on the temperature of the coils and the hot/cold water tanks monitored using digital
temperature sensors. There is a computer interface for users to setup desired threshold temperature,
and control the pump and valves either automatically or manually. Atmel ATmega644 microcontroller was
used as the control unit for the project.
Full report (pdf)
AVR Studio Source code (zip)