Results

We have completed our experiment and to prove that the results meet out research specifications, we did the following experiments.

3.1 Experiment 1 (Light)

We tested the light system by increasing and decreasing the light intensity outside the house to simulate the different light intensities in the real world situations. The light dependant resistor will activate or deactivate the relay depending on the light intensity. When the light is bright, the bulb will turn off and when the light is dark, the bulb will turn on. This would allow us to see if the light systems work. We carried out this experiment and found out that it works. When the light intensity is bright enough, the light bulb will turn off. The light intensity is intentionally set slightly lower so that the bulb will turn off when it is darker to save more energy.

3.2 Experiment 2.1 (Fan-powered Sponge air-conditioner)

We tested out the fan cooling system by allowing the temperature to increase slowly in the house up to the set temperature when the fans will automatically turn on and then cool down slowly until the temperature cools down to a set temperature when the fans automatically turn off. We also tested out the rain sensor which works when the circuit is closed and a bulb lights up, the light dependant resistor (LDR) inside will detect that there is rain. When the temperature hits 24.71ºC (as seen in the arduino output) and above, arduino will check whether the LDR is on. If it is, the fan will still be off. If it is not, the fan will be turned on.
When temperature cools down to 22.75ºC (as seen in the arduino output) and below, the fans will turn off. The arduino will not check the rain sensor LDR as either ways, the fans will turn off. The temperatures are carefully calibrated to minimise the discrepancies and to be as efficient as possible. This would allow us to simulate a real world situation, when the fans would be activated during high temperature and deactivated during low temperature.
When the temperature is between 22.76ºC (as seen in the arduino output) and 24.70ºC (as seen in the arduino output), arduino will check if the LDR is on. If it is, the fans will turn off. If it is not, nothing will happen.

3.3 Experiment 2.2 (Window)

We glued a servo to the side of the wall right above the window and glued a long acrylic piece to the window to hold it in place on top. We then glued the acrylic piece to the servo. We tested the servo using the servo tester and we have found out that our servo works. We then proceeded to allow the temperature to increase to the set temperature 24.71ºC (as seen in the arduino output) and above when the fan will turn on and the servo will close the window. We also checked to make sure that the servo remains closed and that the fans turn off when the rain sensor LDR is on.
After confirming that the servo closes the window properly, we allowed the fan to slowly cool down the air to a temperature of 22.75ºC (as seen in the Arduino output) or below for the fans to turn off and the window to open. We also checked to make sure that the servo closes instead and that the fans turn off when the rain sensor LDR is on. The window opens and closes as expected and we confirmed that it was working properly and fully functional.