During Week 8, we took apart some of the exhaust system of the fuel cell to troubleshoot why this portion of the cooling system does not work. After electrically testing the exhaust fan, we found that the fan works but the potentiometer does not work. We have designed a solar panel array structure and are awaiting confirmation with our advisor so that we can be sure that this structure will work before we order the parts. We need to ensure that the awning on which we want to mount the solar panels will be able to support all the weight we are planning to use.

During Week 9, we finalized our poster design. After meeting with Terry to review our draft, we realized that our poster needed some visual changes. Our main diagram was not in the center of our poster and our colors were uncoordinated. After much work, we came up with a poster that we will all be proud to stand in front of at the Fall Design Review on December 2nd. We believe the connections on the potentiometer were faulty so we will solder them and see if this fixes the problem. Our modeling team is working on calculating the economic viability of using solar panels to power a 6 kW data center. We are using average costs of solar panel installation to find the payback period. This week we are also continuing to search for more finding and will apply to UC Irvine’s Green Initiative Fund.