In recent progress to the Continuous Flow Hydro-Electric Energy Conversion System project (CFHEEC), the interns Carmen Riggs, Tyler Gilley, and James Laumeyer have made significant developmental steps. Firstly, the stand was built by James, using 4x4 blocks of wood in the highest structurally sound fashion. This stand was screwed together and has a combined weight tolerance of over 10,000 lbs. 

Additionally, Carmen designed their electrical design circuit for the two Bilge pumps of the system. This schematic seen below details how the power flows from the pump, is interrupted by a switch and then flows to the 12 V battery. Additionally, as also seen in the schematic, the ground flows directly from the pump to the battery. 

The reason why the power in interrupted flowing from the pump to the battery is because the power needed to be controlled. With the switch installed, the system has an on and off switch – ensuring that the bilge pumps don’t burn out from running constantly. 

From there, Tyler and Carmen designed the LED stand which the LED lightbulbs would be mounted on. It was decided that using a block of wood would create the most stable surface area to mount, and so Tyler drilled holes down the small edge of the plank to create areas to feed the wires into.

He did this by marking each hole ½ inch apart, evenly spaced across the middle of the plank before drilling. He needed to drill several times in order to find the correct hole diameter, however successfully fed the wires through. 

To see how we lifted the tank into the wodden stand check out this video here