Finishing up

      Monday we didn't get to do anything, Tuesday there were only two of us. We got a lot done on Tuesday, though. We found out that the water would evaporate, but the wind would knock it down before it got to the plywood. We collected water from the bottom, and it was pretty clean. We are planning on doing other methods to completely purify the water (I shall tell you what those methods are later). On Wednesday, we worked on our final exam (I will show you that later as well) on a prezi. Thursday, there were only one of us missing, so we got more work done. We completley recovered the solar still with new plastic, tighter this time, more airtight.
     
     On Friday, we had a messed up schedule, but we still got a lot done in the hour we had. We originally had the exam on google docs, but didn't really like it, so we are changing it to a prezi (much easier). Also on Friday, something really exciting happened. We saw condensed water on the top of our project! A potential problem is that the water was also running down the side of the project. Water was also running down the top, though. This was really exciting for us! Over the weekend, we are going to work on converting the power point to a prezi. Hopefully, we will finish it all over the weekend, so we don't have as much to do on the Weekdays.

     I let you know that we may further purify the water. I read an article about a cheap and effective way to purify water. If you pour some salt in a water bottle (just a little) filled with unpure water, it will make the water clear. If you leave the clear water in the sun for six hours, it will be pure. We are taking care of this issue in many ways. For one, the water coming out is clean! The solar still is made with resources we can find anywhere. It is effective, it helps solve this problem. Build it larger scale, and it would pour out even more water. This works!

Last week of building

     Well, it is our final week before our presentations. We finished building, finally! We then had a problem. The tub was leaking. We had to take apart the side to get it out then replace it. We decided to have a flap. The flap goes in on the inside so the water won't evaporate out. Today, one of our group members (not saying names) ripped a hole in the flap (accidentally). We covered the flap and decided against another one. For our final exam, we are making a video and a prezi. I will later put in pictures, but not today.

      Monday night, it rained, but some the water level lowered. Wednesday it might've worked, but I don't know (long story). We are hoping that it will work. A modification that I forgot to mention is we taped the top of the PVC. We did this to prevent the water from evaporating up the pipe. Another benefit is that it may help get the dirtier stuff out of the water for a good start. I mentioned a prezi in the first paragraph. For those of you who don't know, a prezi is a presentation editor, that simply zooms in or out, and moves side to side. When we finish it, I will tell you what to look for.

      What I find most frustrating, though, is we don't know if this thing will work or not. We built it, and this morning I saw condensation running up the top. Our group mate in the other class said there was no water. I trust him, but an somewhat doubtful. This has been a great project, and I am glad to have done it. I will be very well pleased with the result, whether it works or not. The reasoning is, either way, it can be helpful, and people could make changes to make it work. It was an enjoyable project, and I was glad to do it. I am proud of every one of my group members.

Challenges and Changes

    It has finally happened. One of our group members has been taken out for ISS (in school suspension). We are still working well, and not giving up. We are doing great. We have been through some challenges, though. We were putting a PVC pipe, and needed to measure to keep it stuck. We figured it out though, measuring 1 and 7/8ths length and width. We came up with that number because that was the diameter of the PVC.  All we need to do now is put the plastic on! I am excited to test this out!

     Another small problem is one of our diagonal sides fell off because the screws were not long enough. I recommend four inch screws, except for the plywood and plastic, then use two inch. The beginning, we were going to use nails, but the wood kept splitting. I suppose you could use a hammer, but we used screws. I haven't gotten pictures yet, but I will show those eventually. They seem like small problems, but they can get complicated, especially if we don't see the obvious answer. In the military, they say KISS. You should know what that means, and that's what we need to do. Keep it simple

     A problem we may run into is evaporation alone may not be enough. We may need to put on a better filtration system, maybe cloth. This should get all the bad stuff out. This will really make a difference. People may still have to walk far for water, but now it can be clean. This may not help much, but it is useful. We are planning on testing it out next week, right after we put the plastic covering. Another problem is the heat may not be enough to purify it. Thank you for reading.

Week four

    This week was a little harder than all the others. We finally found the angles at which we should cut the diagonal part. The angles which we used are: Top left corner: 28 degrees. The bottom right corner: 152 degrees. We are planning on putting cinder blocks at the bottom of the Solar Still. The reasoning behind this is so we could put five gallon buckets underneath for the overfill pipe. If I haven't mentioned before, instead of plastic bags, we are using a thicker, clear sheet of plastic. They should both work, but the one we are using should work better.


         I haven't taken my own pictures, but some group members sent me some, so I will show those to you. Instead of a black bottom with a wall, we are using two black tubs. (also shown in the pictures) It was hard building this so far, but we're not done yet. Also, if you notice the plywood underneath the tub, that is a modification we made. We are still working hard, and none of us have been pulled. Tomorrow we are planning on making the angle on which the water will slide off the plywood. That's right, we are ditching the two tub idea, and having just one with water going down. I am excited for that


(May 3) Today we put on the plastic over the plywood, so it wouldn't get moldy. After that, we realized that we needed different staples. So, we took off the sheet, cut another one out, and put it on. After spraying it down (to test it), we noticed that some wood was wet. There were three holes in the plastic. We decided to ditch the plastic idea, for our unknowing if there were more holes in the other plastic, and used a tarp. That worked great! We drilled the plywood to the top of the solar still, under the wood if that makes any sense. If you don't get it, I will take pictures next week. Farewell

Our solar still

I have a picture of our solar still, and will take more!

 

 

we also added a diagonal piece of wood, and I will take a picture of that.