Page 14 - Fluke News

Running on Sunshine, continued from page 7 Increasing energy efficiency
The Kentucky team’s prize-winning application was
a project designed to increase the energy efficiency of their solar car–dubbed “Gato del Sol” in homage to the school’s Wildcat mascot. To optimize efficiency, the team designed and conducted live performance testing using wireless Fluke meters and the Fluke Connect App per- formed troubleshooting with an infrared camera.
The Fluke system helped them realize a 16 percent decrease in idle energy consumption and a 5.5 percent increase in dynamic energy efficiency.
“Because all the energy we use actually comes from our solar cell array, we have to be really careful about how we use that energy. We want to be very efficient so that we can drive farther and not waste the energy,” Josh Morgan, the Fluke Connect project lead, said.
So in an effort to meet the efficiency goal the students captured live data from a Fluke 3000FC digital mul- timeter connected to their solar car. At the same time students in a “chase car” recorded and shared voltage and current measurements over the phone with the Fluke Connect app.
“Being able to watch the data real time while we were driving in downtown Lexington was critical to help us better understand the car and drive it more effectively,” Morgan said.
That helped them find a more efficient cruising speed for the car.
The Fluke Connect kit sent to the students, which the school will get to keep along with another $1,000 worth of tools, also gave many of the students their first look at an infrared camera and the potential for thermal imaging technology.
Infrared camera spots trouble
The students also took infrared images inside the car’s battery box and were able to quickly identify bad electri- cal connections that were emitting heat rather than providing more energy to the car–an inefficiency that team members said would have taken them hours to identify without the Fluke Ti95 Infrared Camera.
“One of the most important things we found with (the camera) were relay problems,” Heintz said. “We had some very inefficient relays that were lighting up on the thermal camera, and we were able to find a circuit to replace those with much more efficient relays.”
The infrared camera was also used to find hot spots on the brake pads, which it was determined had rubbing issues that contributed to increased rolling resistance.
The Fluke Connect app allowed them to share those images and measurements with their large team scat- tered throughout campus with various schedules.
“We could all push our data to the Fluke server and we could look at it at our leisure,” Heintz said.
But according to the team members, the most surprising capability of the Connect system was how the Bluetooth radio was able to penetrate through a solid concrete ceiling above the garage where they keep their solar car. Typically a student had to stay in the garage with a meter to monitor battery charging in order to make sure the batteries would overcharge and create a fire hazard.
“Using Fluke Connect we were able to look at the data
on our cell phone while in our office on the second floor through the concrete floor,” Morgan said. “That saved us a lot of time because we were able to multitask and work on other projects while we were charging the car.” n
To reach this article online, visit Fluke.com/solarcar
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