Zephyr A Thermal-Powered Fan Group members: Ting Chang, Wing Leung, Hilary Tsai Peiyi Chen · DES 001 · Fall 2015 · Section 3 · T 5-6 · Maizy
Table Of Contents I. Intro ○ What is Zephyr ○ The Visual
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II. Research ○ ○ ○ ○
Sponge Phase: Brainstorming & Interviews Emily Pilloton’s Design Revolution & Our Product Audience and Davis Creative Brief w/ research
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III. Design Process ○ Sketches ○ Working together & Rapid Prototype
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IV. Construction ○ Case Making ○ Fan Constructing & Working Prototype
V. Citation
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I. Intro | What is Zephyr Definition: zeph·yr /ˈzɛf ər/ noun 1. 2. 3.
a gentle, mild breeze. (initial capital letter) Literary. the west wind. any of various things of fine, light quality, as fabric, yarn, etc. [1]
Word origin: Zephyrus / zephyros, which is the name of the god of west wind in Greek mythology.
+ Images from iconarchive.com
Our Product:
Photo by Hilary Tsai
Naming after the god of west wind in Greek mythology, Zephyr aims to bring people soft breeze during those hot days in Davis. Zephyr is a thermal powered fan that sits on a desktop. Unlike other traditional fans that uses electricity, Zephyr is powered by a tea light underneath the fan. Our product would fit under the category of ENERGY in Emily Pilloton’s book, Design Revolution. The planet we live in has limited amount of certain common energy sources, such as gas, coal, water, we see the necessity of using a green energy source, thermal power.
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I. Intro | The Visual Color Scheme:
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Warm orange colors represent the thermal energy / heat from candles.
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Soft yellow and baby blue color represent the state of cooling down with Zephyr.
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Together, they become an interesting combination of two contrasting aspects. Distinct, but blendable. To some degree, the unity of the color scheme resonates with the idea of Gestalt.
(Adapted from www.colorcombos.com)
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II. Research | Sponge Phase - Brainstorming & Interviews Brainstorming - needs, opportunities, problems about energy Lack of gas, coal, water Solar power – clean energy Kinetic power – from dancing, moving, gym Compact energy generator? Pollution when using some energy, reduce the pollution Algae energy generator Solar powered portable charging battery Make good use of solar power because of global warming Energy saving AC/heater
Interview Summary I interviewed five of my classmates and friends. Most of them pointed out that we should make good use of green, renewable energy such as solar power. The one of the main problems they identified is that there are many people having limited access to energy because of the unequal distribution of energy sources and difficulty to afford energy. From the interviews, we decided to focus on improving energy efficiency as in using green energy source.
Product Inspiration Our group member, Wing, told us about her a-ha moment after interviewing Mr. Modera, which became our inspiration of the product.
Image from climatechange.lta.org
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“Yesterday when I spent an hour speaking to Mr. Modera about engineering concepts and also what designers should focus on, he made a very interesting point about "leftover energy". For example, a standard solar panel is only about 20% efficient because it absorbs light, but rarely utilizes the heat projected from the sun. From a design perspective, isn't it interesting to take two contrasting aspects and make use of them all at the same time? Like using heat...and making it help us cool down?”
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II. Research | Emily Pilloton’s Design Revolution & Our Product Our Product The idea of our thermal powered fan is adapted from Joohansson on instructables.com. [5] “Thermalelectric effect” [6] is the main principle of the fan. It says, the difference of temperature on each side of the peltier cooler will create a voltage. Connecting the peltier cooler to the motor with a fan attached, the fan will start moving.. Photo from miniwiz.com
Emily Pilloton’s Design Revolution
Photo by Joohansson
In Emily Pilloton’s Design Revolution, there are many amazing products in the energy section we got our inspirations from. Many of the products use solar power, like GROW, HYmini, SolarRolls. For example. HYmini is a compact charger that has the option to use either wind power or solar power. It is interesting that HYmini could be attached to a dog, so that the fan would generate wind power from the dog’s running. It can also be attached to a bike. [7] Unlike most of the traditional fan, our product does not use electricity, instead, it uses thermal power from a tea light. Although it does not look as high tech as other products, the energy source our product uses could be worth noting. 4
II. Research | Audience and Davis Image by UC Davis Student Housing
About Davis The weather is hot in Davis during or around summer. It becomes natural that people want to cool down, and cool-down products such as ACs and fans are highly demanded. Eco-friendly people might not want to use electricity or airconditioning all the time, and this fan could match their ideology. A lot of people on our campus are very ecofriendly, judging from so many zero-waste campaigns in the buildings and DCs.
After doing some research, I found that, UC Davis has a well-developed sustainability program called Sustainable 2nd Century. It aims to develop UC Davis to be a model sustainable campus. Its branches include: Green Buildings, Energy, Climate, Transportation, Waste, Dining, Water and Landscape. [3] UC Davis Housing also highly advocates for sustainability. Having lived in the dorms for a year, I have seen numerous signs and posters promoting sustainability. Some Student Housing practices include: ● ● ●
Image by UC Davis Student Housing
Solar hot water at Leach Hall, Cuarto DC, Tercero Phase II, and Solano Park Thermostat controls to allow user control in an efficient range Desk lamps with a compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) for all residents [4] We can see that making a eco-friendly product would meet many people’s needs in Davis.
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II. Research | Creative Brief I. PROJECT SUMMARY: People want to cool down when it gets hot. Our project is to create a thermal powered fan to help people cool down. We believe that it is interesting to utilize two contrasting aspects, heat and cool, to improve energy efficiency and meet people’s physiological needs of cooling down. Each group member is in charge of buying parts of the fan. We work together to put the fan together, including constructing the fan and making the case.
II. AUDIENCE: The primary audience would be people who do not have access to electricity or air conditioning. They might live in poor areas and cannot afford electricity. The secondary audience would be people who are eco-friendly and care about the environment around us. They might have access to electricity, however, they would rather find a way to conserve energy and use less electricity.
III. PERCEPTION: The design using heat as energy source conveys the experience of unity and variety to audiences. While most of the fans in the market use electricity, our thermal powered fan Zephyr uses the heat from tealight. This uncommon but green energy source would contribute to the variety of energy sources in home appliances. It is easy to understand the primary purpose of the design since it is straightforward -- cooling down. Moreover, as people see how this fan does not use any expensive and unsustainable sources such as electricity and battery, they would understand the other idea we are trying to convey – being ecofriendly and aware of the environment around us.
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II. Research | Creative Brief Continued... IV. NEEDS: During summer or around summer, the weather gets very hot in Davis. A lot of people cannot stand the heat outdoor and have to stay in door to cool down. However, many people in Davis are eco-friendly and would rather not use too much electricity. Zephyr uses a green energy source and suits people’s needs of conserving energy and being eco-friendly. Zephyr also addresses people’s physiological needs to cool down in a hot weather. Abraham Maslow, a psychologist, came up with Human Hierarchy of Needs, a pyramid with many levels identifying human’s needs. The base of the pyramid represents what we need the most, and the base is “physiological needs.” Physiological needs include breathing, eating, resting, etc.[2] When the weather is hot, it is essential to people that they are able to cool down, just so their basic physiological needs are met.
Image from teacherspayteachers.com
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II. Research | Creative Brief Continued... V. MATERIALS, TOOLS & EQUIPMENT: To construct the fan, we will need a fan blade, two heat sinks, a thermal paste, a hobby motor, a peltier cooler, and a tea light. We are using Chinese wooden chess pieces for the legs in order to make it stand. To make casing, we will need a milk gallon and acrylic paint.
VI. TIMELINE: As of October 31st, we have already planned out the materials that we need to buy. We expect that the materials would be shipped from November 5-10th. Since the due date for our project is December 3rd, we have a matter of 20-22 days to work out assembling our prototype. 11/10: Process Book will be worked in progress. Prototypes will be tested. 11/24: Working prototype will be finished. 12/1: We will bring the prototype for inclass critique. 12/3: The project is due on this date, including the process book.
Peltier cooler, hobby motor, heat sink Photo by author
Peltier cooler w/ hand to scale Photo by author
Wooden chess pieces
Heat sinks glued together Photo by Hilary Tsai
Thermal paste Photo by author
Fan blades made out of water bottle Photo by Hilary Tsai
Heat sink w/ hand to scale Photo by Amazon seller
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III. Design Process | Sketches VARIOUS BASES cylindrical base
Ideas for the Case 9
III. Design Process | Working Together & Rapid Prototype Gathered together and made our rapid prototype with papers! Parts: Base, tealight, fan, heat sink
Front view of the fan with a cubic base
Wing, Peiyi, and Ting’s sketch Front view of the fan with a cylindrical base
Side view
Photos by Hilary Tsai
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IV. Construction | Case Making Cutting a milk gallon into our case Painting the case
Photos by Ting Chang
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IV. Construction | Fan Constructing & Working Prototype
Glue peltier cooler and heat sink
Put heat sink and hobby motor together
Heat sink and legs
Put fan blade on motor, and assemble everything. FINISHED DESIGN!
What is looks like with the case
Because of safety reason, we are not allowed to use fire to light the tea light, but the fan works perfectly with the heat from hair dryer!
Top row photos by author Bottom row photos by Hilary Tsai
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V. Citation 1.
Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com. Web. 1 Dec. 2015. <http://dictionary.reference. com/browse/zephyr>.
2.
Wikipedia contributors. "Maslow's hierarchy of needs." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 15 Sep. 2015. Web. 1 Dec. 2015.
3.
Sustainable 2nd Century. Web. 1 Dec. 2015. <http://sustainability.ucdavis.edu/>.
4.
"Energy." UC Davis Student Housing. Web. 1 Dec. 2015. <http://housing.ucdavis. edu/sustainability/energy.asp>.
5.
"Thermoelectric Fan Powered by a Candle."Instructables.com. Web. 1 Dec. 2015. <http://www. instructables.com/id/Thermoelectric-Fan-Driven-by-a-Candle/>.
6.
Wikipedia contributors. "Thermoelectric effect." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 24 Nov. 2015. Web. 1 Dec. 2015. <https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index. php?title=Special:aCiteThisPage&page=Thermoelectric_effect&id=692255883>
7.
Pilloton, Emily. "Energy." Design Revolution: 100 Products That Empower People. New York, NY: Metropolis, 2009. 139. Print.
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