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

A low cost multipoint, multipurpose 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 internally or externally powered and has a retrievable memory card module. The sensor’s response time was observed to be one minute leading to a time series analysis. It was observed from the graphical plots that the temperature patterns were in consonance with the solar radiation patterns. 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.sss