The AntHeaters - Solar Powered Patio Heater

Background

With the effects of climate change and cost of living for California homeowners increasing, there has been an increase in interest to obtain a green,sustainable, and affordable home. An important aspect of maintaining such a home is utilizing renewable energy. Renewable energy such as wind and solar provide an alternative to our dependence on the electric and gas. Although current solutions include pumped hydro and battery systems, solar power has gained in popularity over its advantages. Antheaters are part of a project that aims to research, design and establish a manufacturing plan for a patio heater that uses solar energy as its main source of energy, which is then stored and released as hot air. The system shall store heat during the day and release it when the consumer deems it desired to heat up a small residential patio. By taking advantage of solar energy we hope to reduce the use of fossil fuels while providing a patio heating option to consumers that will reduce the cost of living expenses and making housing more affordable.

Goal and Objectives 

• Weeks 1-2: Team Organization and background research
• Weeks 3-4: generation of existing solutions and concept design. Determining requirements and attributes for team's prototype
• Weeks 5-6: Prototype Solid Modeling using CAD modeling and Possible Circuit Design for electronic components
• Week 7: Final Design and Creating Bill of Materials
• Weeks 8-10: Manufacturing Prototype and testing/Collecting Results.

Unique Design Element

The key design elements the team focused on was to have renewable and clean energy patio heater that uses solar energy in substitution to current patio heaters that use electricity or gas as its main power input. The abundance of free energy that the sun generates allows users to not only having a positive environmental impact, but a cost effective system to heat a patio. By harnessing the suns heat allows users to reduce housing heating cost which is on the rise every year. The main use of the patio heater will be used primarily in the southern California region.

Teams Contacts

Jimmy Scoggan: jscoggan@uci.edu

Gabriel Jorquera: gjorquer@uci.edu

Sammy Lee: sinml@uci.edu

Manishke Senanayake: nsenanay@uci.edu

Advisor/Sponsor

Dr. Mark Walter: m.walter@uci.edu

Presentation Link

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1SjQOBz_Ro3q67zpjesjD-EOd5uOF0RK7...