Temperature telemetric transmitter Patent

Temperature telemetric transmitter with frequency determining tank circuit for short range transmissio

Pressure variable capacitor

Fabrication of pressure-telemetry transducer

Life cycle energy and carbon analysis of domestic combined heat and power generators

Micro Combined Heat and Power (micro-CHP) generators combine the benefits of the high-efficiency cogeneration technology and microgeneration and is being promoted as a means of lowering greenhouse gas emissions by decentralizing the power network. Life Cycle Assessment of energy systems is becoming a part of decision making in the energy industry, helping manufacturers promote their low carbon devices, and consumers choose the most environmentally friendly options. This report summarizes a preliminary life-cycle energy and carbon analysis of a wall-hung gas-powered domestic micro-CHP device that is commercially available across Europe. Combining a very efficient condensing boiler with a Stirling engine, the device can deliver enough heat to cover the needs of a typical household (up to 24kW) while generating power (up to 1kW) that can be used locally or sold to the grid. Assuming an annual heat production of 20 MWh, the study has calculated the total embodied energy and carbon emissions over a 15 years operational lifetime at 1606 GJ and 90 tonnes of CO2 respectively. Assuming that such a micro CHP device replaces the most efficient gas-powered condensing boiler for domestic heat production, and the power generated substitutes electricity from the grid, the potential energy and carbon savings are around 5000 MJ/year and 530 kg CO2/year respectively. This implies a payback period of the embodied energy and carbon at 1.32 - 2.32 and 0.75 - 1.35 years respectively. Apart from the embodied energy and carbon and the respective savings, additional key outcomes of the study are the evaluation of the energy intensive phases of the device’s life cycle and the exploration of potential improvements

You Tube if you want to – a Web 2.0 approach to staff development in web conferencing

How can we identify and make best use of potential resources in a staff development programme promoting web conferencing? What are the resources we should use? This paper regards web conferencing as a potentially powerful tool at the disposal of an institution intent on exploring new models of blended and online learning appropriate to the changing needs of 21st-century learners. It presents web conferencing in the user-centric context of Web 2.0 – the social web technologies whose educational impact is to empower online communication, collaboration, participation and sharing of resources. Based on findings from an 18-month period of evaluation and initial implementation at Leeds Met, it outlines practical staff development approaches in the related areas of user-created content and community involvement that could promote a more efficient and focused dissemination of the insights and experiences of a local, national and world-wide user group

A thermally stable tension meter for atmospheric soundings using kites

Kites offer considerable potential as wind speed sensors—a role distinct from their traditional use as instrument-carrying platforms. In the sensor role, wind speed is measured by kite-line tension. A kite tether line tension meter is described here, using strain gauges mounted on an aluminum ring in a Wheatstone bridge electronic circuit. It exhibits a linear response to tension 19.5 mV N−1 with good thermal stability mean drift of −0.18 N °C−1 over 5–45 °C temperature range and a rapid time response 0.2 s or better. Field comparisons of tether line tension for a Rokkaku kite with a fixed tower sonic anemometer show an approximately linear tension-wind speed relationship over the range 1–6 ms−1. © 2010 American Institute of Physics. doi:10.1063/1.346556

Miniature capacitive accelerometer is especially applicable to telemetry

Capacitive accelerometer design enables the construction of highly miniaturized instruments having full-scale ranges from 1 g to several hundred g. This accelerometer is applicable to telemetry and can be tailored to cover any of a large number of acceleration ranges and frequency responses

Experimental determination of layer cloud edge charging from cosmic ray ionisation

The cloud-air transition zone at stratiform cloud edges is an electrically active region where droplet charging has been predicted. Cloud edge droplet charging is expected from vertical flow of cosmic ray generated atmospheric ions in the global electric circuit. Experimental confirmation of stratiform cloud edge electrification is presented here, through charge and droplet measurements made within an extensive layer of supercooled stratiform cloud, using a specially designed electrostatic sensor. Negative space charge up to 35 pC m−3 was found in a thin (<100 m) layer at the lower cloud boundary associated with the clear air-cloud conductivity gradient, agreeing closely with space charge predicted from the measured droplet concentration using ion-aerosol theory. Such charge levels carried by droplets are sufficient to influence collision processes between cloud droplets