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Measure and control power consumption in private h..
Measure and control power consumption in private household
Start date: Sep 1, 2015,
End date: Aug 31, 2017
PROJECT
FINISHED
The project deals with the measurement and controlling of power consumption in private households.The European Community has been giving more and more importance to the "Energetic Issue" and with The Treaty of Lisbon places energy at the heart of European activity. In December 2008 the EU adopted a series of measures with the objective of reducing the EU’s contribution to global warming and guaranteeing energy supply, and the aims of the policy are supported by market-based tools (mainly taxes, subsidies and the CO2 emissions trading scheme), by developing energy technologies (especially technologies for energy efficiency and renewable or low-carbon energy) and by community financial instruments in this project the students learn about the ethical, environmental and technological aspects of their topic, the reduction of power consumption in private households.
The objectives of the project are to plan and set-up a microcontroller board, to study sensors with various chacteristics, to create a circuit board and to establish remote controlled applications to meausure and control energy consumption.
The students who participate are between 16 and 18 years old. They attend the 4th year of the Electronics/Electrotechnic branch. Each year 30 to 40 students take part.
To achieve the objective of the project they produce papers, presentations and video clips of different sensor-equipped circuit boards (measuring luminosity, temperature, humidity, pressure, electric current).
In the transnational learning activities they set up microcontroller boards with transistors, diodes, resistors, capacitors, piezo-actuators.
In this phase new technologies play an important part. Students are introduced to various skills of Electrical Engineering (soldering, layout of components), to Mechanics (photo-etching, drilling) and to Informatics (programming the applications).
The methods and approaches used in the whole project are integrated learning (several subjects participate), holistic learning (to see the problem in all its perspectives and contexts - technical, social, political) and self organised (the students work in groups which solve the clearly defined task individually according to their own planning and production).
The results - the papers, presentations, video clips and the circuit boards with the applications - will be exhibited in various dissemination events at both schools (OpenDay, special events) or outside the schools (visiting firms or other schools).
The impact of the project is that students experience new forms of learning, develop a better understanding of their European partner, become aware that technology is not an end in itself, is not only a question of know-how, but is always dependent on social and political aspects which have to be considered and evaluated. This should prepare them better for their future careers in a technical field. The long term benefit for the school is the improvement of teaching quality standards, the implementation of a European curriculum and a permanent cooperation with European partners, because the challenges we face can only be solved collectively.