Development of a Twenty-Two-Point Multichannel Temperature Data Logger Specially Customized and Coupled to a 160Wpeak Hybrid Photovoltaic/Thermal (PV/T) Flat Plate Solar Air Heater †

Abstract

A low cost multichannel temperature data logger was designed and fabricated in this study. The design was done using Max6675 temperature sensors and linear monolithic (LMs) temperature sensors. This data logger is an electronic device that records data over time based on microcontroller. The utilization of data logger in this work is to accomplish the task of monitoring the temperature measurement of the 160Wpeak hybrid photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) flat plate solar air heater. This data logger is just customized for this equipment—the hybrid photovoltaic/thermal solar air heater. The developed prototype was powered both internally and externally. It equally has a retrievable memory card module. The time series of the sensor was set at one minute interval. The trend of the temperature flow pattern measured from the hybrid photovoltaic/thermal (PV/T) flat plate solar air heater was in consonance with the solar radiation flow pattern. This indicates that the peaks of the temperature plots fall at the peaks of the plots of solar radiation.