Investigation of the Effect of Awning using Sunlight Sensor to Reduce Cooling Load in the Room

Abstract

In this paper, the potential of a motorized awning, coupled with sunlight sensor, attached to the window, in reducing the cooling load of a wooden room is investigated experimentally. The wooden room was built with a scaled down dimension according to a classroom in UCSI College that has a window facing approximately true East, hence fully exposed to the morning sun. A Light Dependent Resistor (LDR) was installed at the bottom of the window to detect the presence of sunlight hitting the window. The LDR then gives a signal to the microcontroller Arduino Uno 3 which controls the servo motor to lift or lower down the awning to block sunlight. The constructed system is then able to change the angle of awning periodically to provide constant shading to the window. A manual mode was also constructed to allow users to override and control the awning with satisfaction and flexibility. An experiment was conducted on the wooden room on both cases with and without awning, from 9am to 3pm daily. The surrounding temperature measurements were taken with an anemometer while surface temperatures were taken with an Infrared thermometer. Results showed that a potential reduction of average temperature and cooling load of 0.47 ºC and 1.86 kW for the room with awning installed. Moreover, the projected monthly operation savings was RM 114 for 120 operation hours