Hello all,
I am an Electrical Engineering Co-op working with a renewable energy company this quarter. The company has tasked me with determining the actual amount of energy that the two wood pellet stoves are producing. I have been searching all over the internet to no avail as to how to come about this number. If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions on where I should begin it would be greatly appreciated.
Some thoughts I have had...
1) Weighing the pellets and knowing the exact change in weight would tell us the flow rate, and knowing the BTU rating of the pellets that we are burning could give us the amount of BTUh. This would be assuming thought, that the pellets actually burn at the rated BTU (highly doubtful). This wouldn't be viable because of the tedious task of weighing the amount of pellets for the coarse amount of data that I would like to have (approximately every 15 minutes).
2) The stoves have a three fan speed variable, and through the work day are always on. The building I work in is currently striving to be one of the first Net Zero Energy buildings in Ohio, so the thermostat is kept a couple degrees slightly below average to try to accomplish this. The second thought that I had would be to put a temperature sensor on the stove which could calculate a temperature differential. Somehow deriving the information I need from this...
Thanks in advance.
Whitsett
I am an Electrical Engineering Co-op working with a renewable energy company this quarter. The company has tasked me with determining the actual amount of energy that the two wood pellet stoves are producing. I have been searching all over the internet to no avail as to how to come about this number. If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions on where I should begin it would be greatly appreciated.
Some thoughts I have had...
1) Weighing the pellets and knowing the exact change in weight would tell us the flow rate, and knowing the BTU rating of the pellets that we are burning could give us the amount of BTUh. This would be assuming thought, that the pellets actually burn at the rated BTU (highly doubtful). This wouldn't be viable because of the tedious task of weighing the amount of pellets for the coarse amount of data that I would like to have (approximately every 15 minutes).
2) The stoves have a three fan speed variable, and through the work day are always on. The building I work in is currently striving to be one of the first Net Zero Energy buildings in Ohio, so the thermostat is kept a couple degrees slightly below average to try to accomplish this. The second thought that I had would be to put a temperature sensor on the stove which could calculate a temperature differential. Somehow deriving the information I need from this...
Thanks in advance.
Whitsett