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Prof. MacCarley's
web site for BRAE
470 and 471,
Fall Quarter 2015
This is
a course about the
engineering, design and installation of solar photovoltaic systems for
residential, commercial and rural applications. Topics range
from
the theory of photovoltaic energy conversion to the practical skills
required for home solar installation.
Welcome! The site contains
all lecture notes, homework, and project-related material,
solutions, tutorials, supplemental materials, and course/lab
announcements.
Announcements
This
course does not use Polylearn. All course materials can
be downloaded from this site.
Schedule
Fall Quarter
2015
BRAE 470-1 Lecture, MWF 8:10 AM – 9:00 AM, Bldg 8a
Lab 3
BRAE 471-1 Laboratory, F
12:10 AM-1:00 PM, Bldg
8a Lab 3
Course
Policies
Prerequisites:
A
student is expected to have upper division engineering knowledge of
physics (electricity, power, energy) and a course in basic electonics
(e.g., EE 201/251 or equivalent). Practical skills with tools and
common sense will be needed to allow them to work on the the lab
project(s). Please check with me if you are concerned about your
preperation for the course.
Lecture:
The lecture will consist
of formal class room presentations and discussion, by the course
instructor(2) and guest lecturers in selected topic areas.
Textbook and Course Materials:
No
textbook. Course is based on distributed course notes and online
materials. There will be no cost for these. For exam
purposes, the course content is defined by the material that we discuss
in lecture or cover in the homework or (if any) project presentations.
Preparation for lecture:
I will post copies of all my presentation notes that you may download and keep.
Exams:
For
the lecture, there will be one midterm exam that will occur during the
sixth week of instruction. Please plan accordingly, since no
individual alternative times will be arranged. The final exam
will be offered only once at the University-designated time. You
will be required to sign an honor code statement on each exam.
All exams are open-book, open-notes, and any hard copy references
allowed; calculators are OK but no notebook or tablet computers or cell
phones. Exam questions will emphasize applications of the
analysis and design tools rather than memorization of facts or formulas.
Homework:
Homework
assignments will be distributed on this web site usually on a weekly
basis. I will go over the homework solutions on the day the HW is
due, and will post solutions on this web site.
Lab Project:
The
laboratory component of the course is actually a quarter-long team
hands-on project involving the planning, design and installation of a
solar photvoltaic system.
Lecture Grade:
The lecture grade
will consist of a weighted average: 50% final exam, 30% midterm, 20%
out-of-class assignements. Exam weightings will approximately reflect
the time allowed for each; if included, the project weight will account
for approximately 10% of the total. Like most professors, I use a
combination of absolute and relative expectations to translate the
numeric total into a letter grade. I do not use +/- grading; I
assign only A,B,C,D or F grades.
Lab Grade:
A lab project
grade will be assigned to each entire team, generally based on the
successful delivery of a quality result. A more specific project grade
rubric will be discussed in the first few lab meetings.
Feedback:
I
want to make this as valuable experience as possible. Please give
me feedback on how I might improve the course. Thanks!
How to reach me?
Office hours to be announced in class. Email: “amaccarl at calpoly dot edu”. Phone: 756-2317 |
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Solar Photovoltaic
System Engineering
