The majority of sensors were installed progressively, from mid July 2006 to December 2006 (Dewsbury, Nolan & Fay 2007). During this installation process, minor systemic or sensor problems were identified and rectified. Items rectified included: the earth cabling between the data-logger and channel expansion module, the care of cable connections or terminations,
Dewsbury
programming errors, span errors and the general testing and calibrating of equipment (Bowman & Lomas 1985; Strachan, PA 2008). The rectification of these errors often led to improvements in the programming and cabling systems, which were adopted during the monitoring period of this research. Each test cell had two data-loggers, comprising:
- Data-logger A: Primarily recorded the air temperatures of the pole sensors, electricity consumption and other temperature sensors in the subfloor and roof space
- Data-logger B: Recorded data from the remaining temperature sensors, air movement, relative humidity and solar radiation
The reasons for the prolonged installation process were the result of two key events as follows:
- Orders were placed for the majority of the equipment in November 2006, whilst the Best 5 Star and No Bills project was underway. When this project stalled, the existing orders were cancelled. By the time the Test Cell project was confirmed, new orders had to be placed with international providers and subsequent delays in supply occurred.
- International regulation requiring the elimination of lead from solder. This affected the manufacturing process of many of the small electrical components, which formed elements of the monitoring system. This delay in supply was experienced by many entities involved in the electrical component industry.
The table below provides a summary of the installation process. As much as these delays did affect the implementation process, the extra time allowed for a more thorough understanding the monitoring system and a more comprehensive approach to calibration and fault eradication.
Table A4.9 - Data-logger and Sensor Installation Summary
14 July 2006 1 x HOBO Installed in the centre of each test cell
20 to 26 July 2006 Preliminary data-logger with 1 unshielded AD592CN installed in the centre of each test cell
11 to 15 August 2006 Data-logger A installed in each test cell. Data-logger A recorded the data from the shielded temperature sensors on the room poles and test cell electricity use 16 to 24 August 2006 Data-logger B installed in each test cell
25 August 2006 to 25 September 2006
System fault removal and calibration
Data-logger programming revisions for Logger A & Logger B 26 September 2006 to
16 November 2006
System fault removal and calibration
Site Weather Station – Wind Speed & Direction 17 November 2006 to
20 December 2006
System fault removal and calibration
Site Weather Station – Temperature & Humidity 20 December 2006 Site Weather Station – Global & North Solar Irradiance 01 January 2007 to
23 June 2007
Period of this research September 2007 Carpet installed in test cells
February 2008 Shadow ring device for measurement of diffuse solar radiation (not included in this research)
Up till the end of August 2006, construction work was still underway, and there were extensive periods with erratic heater use and the test cell doors were open. During this period only a limited amount of data was collected and was not suitable for validation purposes. From August to December 2006, the measurement systems were still being implemented and improved, resulting in at times incorrect and incomplete data, rendering the data from this period unsuitable for validation purposes (Strachan, PA 2008). Further analysis of this earlier data is possible after appropriate annotation and cleaning, but not for empirical validation purposes. Similarly the data collected after June 23, 2007 is valid, but not suitable for empirical validation purposes.
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