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Description
The objective of the project is the development a new regenerator prototype for the market to improve the air quality in internal premises and to improve the health of the society.
Summary of project results
The main idea of the project was to develop a new, energy-efficient product that could improve indoor air quality and positively impact public health.
The last couple of years have shown that fresh air is crucial for human health and should be monitored and efficiently exchanged. Besides that, technologies are improving, forcing the review of national building regulations, which are requesting more efficient ventilation products.
Our product is a mix of current affairs: indoor air quality, green energy, and smart technologies. The company is also taking big steps to reduce overall carbon emissions.
The new product has solved fresh air issues in energy efficient way. The product’s innovation lies in its ability to operate autonomously, working off the grid without requiring user intervention. Everyone can find a suitable operating function according to the region where product installed or other user requirements. One of the biggest advantage’s is the possibility to install the product not only in residential houses and apartments (new, old, renovated), but also in summer houses or campsites located in the middle of nowhere. The company has experience in development of new products, it was easy identify all activities needed to be done. We knew that the longest activity in the project will be the control unit development, because our company do not have electronic and programming engineers, therefore we needed to outsource control unit developers and it is time-consuming process: prepare technical information -> receive offers -> evaluate offers -> select a partner and sign a contract -> control of the development. New control unit is heart and brain of the whole product as it controls ventilation fan, solar panel, battery controller and have operating algorithms.
The team started with writing a detailed technical task for control unit. Afterwards potential cooperation partners were sought and approached. Once partnership was established and first prototypes received lot of initial algorithms tests were done in our company to debug and improve algorithms.
Afterwards second prototypes were sent to third laboratories to do electromagnetic and safety testing to be sure that this product can be launched in the market and will be safe for non-commercial users. We can highlight the excellent work done by SIA LEITC and TUV NORD Baltic teams. In a short time, the necessary tests were carried out and reviews, a professional assessment, were provided so that we could continue the development of the product and comply with the requirements from the European Union in order to obtain the CE certificate.
The company''s team created several designs for the product. To satisfy as many customers as possible, we decided to introduce two designs as additional modifications. All designs are officially registered (intellectual property rights). One of the resource consuming activities was product assembling part (material) market analysis and sample ordering and testing. Some of the parts were replaced due to high prices (for example CO2 sensors), but some parts for instance solar panels was agreed to be purchased locally to avoid any issues with quality (CE certificate) and Natural Resources Tax.
The mechanical design of the product also was impacted after prototype testing and report analysis. One of the examples is battery pack location change from outer grill to indoor grill - after deep study of how Li-ION battery loses its capacity and how life cycle is impacted during storage and operating outside, when temperature below 0 degrees Celsius.
In the last stages of development, cooperation with scientific institution (Riga Technical University) was established to obtain an independent assessment by researchers. Riga Technical University team help us to choose between insulation materials and tested product idea and heat exchanger properties. This cooperation was very good for this project and will help with other projects. For the country to develop, such synergy between companies and scientific institutions is very necessary.
Consumers will receive a new decentralized recuperator powered by solar energy. The goal of the project is achieved, because product is powered 100% from solar panel. Product has aimed functionality and smart algorithms. One of the biggest advantage’s of the product is that user can define how product should work. It means we can cover a lot of regions and also consumers who would be interested in this product.
Battery can supply unit with enough charge to operate for 11 hours in regeneration mode and 24 hours in surveillance mode. It’s capacity is 6600 mAh. Battery size was one of the things we had to reduce after more careful project study. The reason is LI-ION capacity, maximum 100W/h, if it would be higher then we could not transport our products easily via planes.
The product can be controlled manually by buttons or remote control. The company plans to make an additional modification, with WIFI control via a mobile application available. At this stage, SIA Eiroplasts'' server infrastructure needs to be prepared.The product has received two certificates, which are needed for product CE marking:
LVD 2014/35/EU – Low voltage directiveLVD 2014/30/EU – Electromagnetic compatibility
The product has two intellectual property registrations for product designs.
This project was important for the company because it allowed it to continue overall development during challenging times, when the geopolitical situation is intense when credit rates are high, and material lead times are long. Without co-financing this project our company probably would not have been able to develop this product or at least postponed it until better economical overall situation comes. We can proudly acknowledge that with this project we are taking part in overall reducing carbon emissions and introduce our first green energy product.