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Component 2: The Compressor
As a requirment for the system, a compressor needed to be used to drive the air. Calculations indicated that a mass flow rate of 40 CFM was required to increase the water temperature from 70 degrees to 130 degrees. The compressor was to be located between the exit of the solar collector and the entrance to the heat exchanger. This setup required only the heat exchanger be air tight.
Compressers as a whole use a large intake and so are not easily adapted to the system. A compressor capable of delivering the required 40 CFM also costs ~$2000; well outside of our budget. Instead, we chose a mattress pump with an adaptable inlet and outlet that was capable of delivering 10 CFM. While this is less than the required 40 CFM, it was the only pump we tested capable of overcoming the backpressure of the system.
 
Mattress Pump
In an attempt to connect a compressor to the system, a 2hp compressor was placed at the inlet of the solar collector. This experiment failed because the solar collector was not designed to be air tight. With the large influx of air, the glass lifted off the weather stripping (despite being strapped down) and escaped. Building an air tight solar collector would allow the whole system to be pressurized and should be looked into by a future class.
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