Sustain-A-Thon first place: The Tree Skirt
By limiting evaporation and creating more efficient watering methods the Tree Skirt could save tremendous amounts of water in household outdoor irrigation.
Sustain-A-Thon first place: The Tree Skirt
By limiting evaporation and creating more efficient watering methods the Tree Skirt could save tremendous amounts of water in household outdoor irrigation.
Background:
The Tree Skirt was the result of a three-day engineering competition at UC San Diego. The theme was sustainability. My two group partners and I were able to pull through with a first place prize.
Data (1)
The average California family uses about 190 gallons of water outdoors per household per day.
*Source: California Single Family Use Efficiency Study
Data (2)
The average excess irrigation use for all single-family accounts is estimated at 26.2 kgal per year.
*Source: EPA WaterSense
The problem:
The price of water is projected to increase exponentially with the inevitability of climate change. How can we help preserve water usage?
Our goal:
Reduce household water usage by improving plant watering technology.
Inspirations and concept:
A pre-existing product, the Tree T-PEE consists of a plastic cone that traps evaporation off of tree roots. Agriculture research suggests the device can reduce water usage in irrigation.
Our Idea:
We aimed to create a Tree T-Pee for at-home use. Add an automatic watering feature to prevent over-watering and more convenient to use. Make it more attractive to be used at home and non-invasive to one’s lifestyle.
Logic:
Our code was comprised of a simple algorithm. If the humidity inside the tree skirt would be too low, it would water; else it would stay off to preserve water flow.
Features:
We also intend to change the presetting for humidity level based on the plant's requirements. The user would be able to select their plant and the Tree Skirt will take care of the rest.
Hardware Assembly:
During the weekend we were able to scrap together this working prototype which was able to stop our water flow as to our requirements. For our demonstration, we would blow air under the tree skirt and demonstrate the device stopping water flow.
Final prototype:
This is our final product. The Tree Skirt was able to stop its water flow when we introduced humidity under the skirt; Thus proving our concept of design. We were able to present it to the judges which included San Diego Water Authority members and Professors at UC San Diego. Our team won first place in the competition.
*Ideas for the future of the Tree Skirt
Areas of improvement:
Moving forward we would implement humidity requirements for different types of trees. It'd be as simple as the user selecting what type of tree they have and the device taking care of the rest. We'd include many sizes of tree skirts to expand the options to bushes and shrubs. Working on an attractive appearance for the device.
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