Go on...post them here. I haven't had thermodynamics yet so probably wont be much help, but that doesn't mean I don't want to see the problems and formulas. Plus there might be somebody else out there interested in the same problem you have and would benefit from your submission.

Drew

If this is still the snow melt project, does this help?

(Sorry not interactive, just a snapshot of the excel file.)

P.S. The energy needed to heat the aluminum is trivial. Don't worry about it.

I'd check the thermal properties that are being used as well as verify any conversions that are done. Without seeing the inputs and equations, a factor of 4 is very close to the ratio of the specific heats between water and air.

In any case, heaters are generally very efficient at converting energy to heat. The energy input and the heat output should be fairly close.

If there is a phase change involved, did you account for the energy required to raise/lower the fluid to the melting / evaporation point? And then the energy to do the melting / evaporation?

Hey guys,

Thanks for the tips, I actually found my own error yesterday while writing it out to post!

The area I was dealing with was 2' by 2' but for whatever reason, I converted that to be 48" by 48" thus quadrupling my area un-intentionally. Luckily after finding this, I quickly realized why I would have 4 times the necessary energy!! All calculations worked out to within 1W of the competition!

I'm new to this, but Researchers are among the luckiest people in the world. I am blessed to be able to join such a field! Regardless of how bad your day is, find comfort in what you do, it truly is a special career.

Excellent! I have made similar mistakes myself, went over a simple problem several times and never saw that I put the square root of 9 as 6 instead of 3.

Drew