Inspiration
Heating and cooling costs can make up as much as 40% of energy consumption in residential homes. From my own experimentation, I’ve found that by opening and closing blinds at the right time of day, I only need to run heat or AC for a few weeks out of every year.
What it does
The goal is to reduce the environmental impact of residential homes. It is designed to be a cheap, retrofittable device that attaches to the open/close rod of blinds. The device features a motor to operate the blinds, as well as a temperature and light sensor.
The system is designed for the following behavior:
- light and high temp -> close upwards (maximum light blockage)
- light and low temp -> open (solar heating is desired)
- dark and high temp -> close downwards (helps to let cold air in)
- dark and low temp -> close upwards (helps block cold air)
How we built it
It is built with an Arduino Mega 2560, as well as a stepper motor and a basic analog light sensor and temperature sensor.
Challenges we ran into
It was tough to make sure that both sensors had properly implemented deadzones. I eventually solved it by fully expanding and implementing all possible cases for it. Additionally, I wanted the microcontroller to be power efficient and sleep most of the time, but I needed a user interface button that was still responsive. I eventually managed to implement a rising edge interrupt for the button, which works well. Additionally, I've had some problems with the consistency of the analog temperature sensor. I plan to swap it out for a digital one in the future for more accurate readings.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
I am on a team by myself, so I'm proud of myself for managing to submit something.
What we learned
I learned a lot about how to control stepper motor drivers, as well as how to implement interrupts in Arduino.
What's next for Cool Windows!
Later, I'm hoping to scale it down to a smaller and cheaper processor, as well as finding a way to drive it with a DC motor and an encoder. Custom PCBs would also greatly help to shrink the form factor. Eventually, I think that it could be a good idea to make it solar powered since it will have constant exposure to the sun.
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