⚡ Frank Villaro-Dixon's website

Energy related stuff

23 Jun 2024 finished

A ☀️ pyranometer to measure solar irradiance

Connecting a (good) Kipp&Zonen pyranometer to a Raspberry Pi using a simple ADC board

12 Feb 2021 postponed

Building a waterwheel for fun and dimes

Context There’s a stream running in my backyard. In french, it’s called a “torrent”: a mountain stream characterized by its irregular flow according to the seasons. The flow is small (~3 l/s). However, being a torrent, its slope is important and respectable water heights can be reached easily. I would like to build a waterwheel on the stream. Once I have the waterwheel, and can add a small generator and provide (some) electricity to my household.

12 Feb 2021 idea

Cost analysis of greywater heat recovery systems

Context While renovating our bathroom with my SO, we stumbled upon the concept of grey water heat recovery devices. Basically, the idea is that grey water (i.e. the waste water from a shower) is sometimes quite warm. These warm calories could be used to heat the incoming water to a shower. There are many different devices. Some are quite complicated (heat pumps) whereas others are quite simple (low-tech). To make it short, they consist of a tube within a tube.