Going Undercover to Save a Precious Resource

Overview

Objectives The problem I researched was water evaporation in uncovered finished water reservoirs. My goal was to determine which cover prevents the most water evaporation: white shade balls, black shade balls or a Hypalon cover. Methods A secure room and area so that all four containers received the same conditions, four 24.6L plastic boxes filled with 7000 ml water, measuring cup, plastic syringe, wooden rulers, black and white ping pong balls, three sheets of Hypalon, air thermometer, SteriPEN. Measured water volume at Day 0 and again at Day 21. Also measured water height during experiment as a control measurement. Measured air temperature and humidity levels every day. All materials purchased at store or Amazon.com except for SteriPEN which came from a mentor. Results The data showed the best way to reduce water evaporation was using the Hypalon cover as that reservoir lost only 3.24% water volume over the 21 days. The white shade balls had the second least amount of water loss at 7.5%. The black shade balls had the most water loss among the covered containers at 17.3%. The control pan had no cover and had the most evaporation loss at 27.6%. Conclusions From my experiment it was clear that any kind of cover reduces water evaporation. My results demonstrated a solid cover was better at reducing water evaporation than shade balls. But because of expense and large sizes of some water reservoirs, Hypalon covers aren't always financially feasible. In those cases, shade balls are a workable alternative to reduce water evaporation.

Competition history

• CSEF 2019 Environmental Engineering · Entry J1118

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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