Engineering Commons^™

2018 Fall Engr333 Project Final Report (Section B), Alexander Cooper, Katie Diekema, Grace Fasipe, Daniella Sugijanto, Alec Dejonge, Timothy Dykhuis, Breanna Kooiman, Samuel Olson, Brennan Boice, Tyler Gustman, Daniel Norton, Christopher Vanwhye, Robert Capozzoli, Jared Minderhoud, Clark Richeson, Nathan Schuyten

ENGR 333

What is the largest possible reduction in Calvin College’s annual energy costs from a $5M initial investment in renewable energy? Renewable energy systems are essential for Calvin College to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and achieve carbon neutrality to meet the Carbon Commitment that President Le Roy signed in December 2017. Also, a significant cost reduction could be a positive result of transitioning to renewable energy sources such as geothermal, wind, solar, and biomass. Four renewable energy sources were studied throughout the semester to determine a feasible renewable energy plan for Calvin with a $5M investment.

2018 Fall Engr333 Project Final Report (Section A), 2018 Fall Engr333 Section A

ENGR 333

Calvin College currently spends 2.35 million dollars on energy every year. Physical Plant is under pressure to reduce the amount of energy that Calvin purchases from the electrical grid since the college is facing many budget constraints. In addition, President Le Roy signed the President’s Carbon Commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2057. With this need to save money on energy and reduce the college’s carbon footprint, the objective of this project was to determine the largest possible reduction in Calvin’s annual energy costs given a five-million-dollar investment in renewable energy.

2018 Fall Engr333 Poster, Alexander Cooper, Katie Diekema, Grace Fasipe, Daniella Sugijanto, Alec Dejonge, Timothy Dykhuis, Breanna Kooiman, Samuel Olson, Brennan Boice, Tyler Gustman, Daniel Norton, Christopher Vanwhye, Robert Capozzoli, Jared Minderhoud, Clark Richeson, Nathan Schuyten, 2018 Fall Engr333 Section A

ENGR 333

• $158k initial investment in Geothermal systems for various Calvin-owned residential buildings
• $3.34M initial investment in solar panels for Calvin’s rooftops
• The overall savings would be $233,850 per year
• Emissions would be reduced by 864 tons of CO2 emissions per year
• The recommended investment would be fully paid back in 11-15 years

2018 Fall Engr333 Seminar Presentation, Rachel Evans, Alex Gross, Daniella Sugijanto, Jake Shaarda

ENGR 333

File for student presentation, given by students in the Fall 2018 class of ENGR333.

Open Source Low-Cost Power Monitoring System, Shane W. Oberloier, Joshua M. Pearce

Department of Materials Science and Engineering Publications

This study presents an entirely open-source, low-cost power monitoring system capable of many types of measurements including both loads and supplies such as solar photovoltaic systems. In addition, the system can be fabricated using only open source software and hardware. The design revolves around the Digital Universal Energy Logger (DUEL) Node, which is responsible for reading and properly scaling the voltage and current of a particular load, and then serializing it via an on-board ATTiny85 chip. The configuration of the DUEL node allows for custom sensitivity ranges, and can handle up to 50 A and 300 V. Up to 127 …

2018 Fall Engr333 Project Assignment, Matthew K. Heun

ENGR 333

The Fall 2018 ENGR333 project focused on renewable energy generation.

I asked the students “What is the largest possible reduction in Calvin’s annual energy costs from a $5M investment in renewable energy?”

Customer

The customer for this project was Russell Bray, Director of Calvin’s Physical Plant.