Development of Automatic Solar Power Kitchen Air Ventilator Junny M. Gozo.--

Bachelor's thesis

College of Industrial Technology.-- Bachelor of Technology major in Power Plant Engineering Technology Technological University of the Philippines 2024.

Includes bibliographic references and index.

In this research study, the design of an automatic solar-powered kitchen air ventilator
aimed to achieve optimal thermal conditions in the kitchen and ensure people's comfort in
accordance with established thermal comfort principles. The design is configured to utilize
two primary power sources, avoiding operational disruption: solar energy as the main
power source and the grid power supply as the secondary. It is equipped with a
microcontroller that uses an Arduino UNO, temperature, distance, and voltage sensors as
a central component of the system's functionality, and it has full control over the program's
performance. Three major system functionality verifications were conducted: firstly, the
temperature sensor function was verified by simulating kitchen temperatures. The air
ventilator is powered on when the kitchen temperature reaches above 30 °C as a maximum
temperature threshold setpoint for the program. Secondly, it operated the air ventilator for
a cycle of 60 minutes during the pick harvest, which resulted in a battery discharge of only
0.37%. Within 4 minutes, the battery fully recovered its charge. Thirdly, a dry run test was
performed at midnight for 45 minutes, testing all three sensors. The distance sensor was
configured to a specific distance of 150 cm, and once the sensor's sensing activities fall
below the setpoint, the air ventilator automatically powers on. The voltage sensor is set to
10.7V, and it provides data to the microcontroller, triggering an automatic switch to a
secondary power source. This secondary power source inverts the main grid's 220V power
through a power inverter, resulting in an output power of 12V. Power switching happen
when the voltage drops below 10.7 volts. The review of the 30 respondents resulted in an
overall weighted mean of 4.58, which is classified as "excellent."

Keywords: air ventilator, kitchen, solar, thermal comfort