Environmental and Economic Analysis

Determining the economic and environmental impacts of a product is very important. It allows the producer to determine if the development of the product is a worthwhile investment. For the Automatic Aquarium Water Changer prototype that we are creating, the total cost of all the parts is $361.63. This cost is fairly high, but if the product were to ever be mass-produced then this cost would be significantly reduced by purchasing the components in bulk quantities.

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• ​Economic Analysis

- For our assembly process, it took approximately 35 total man-hours. Since this is the first assembly attempt for our team, the assembly time will be greatly reduced in the future. A large portion of this time was spent calibrating the sensors, writing coding for the Arduino system and testing to make sure all the components work properly.

- With free access to the machine shop at UB, we were able to do the vast majority of the construction there. The tools that were used were a handsaw to cut the PVC pipe, a grinder to smooth out the areas which were cut, and a drill press to drill necessary holes in the PVC pipe and acrylic sheets. All of these machining activities would keep the overhead of the factory very low.

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Total Cost=$361.63+(10 hours)x(18$/hour)+$50.00

Total Cost=$591.63

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Annual Cost=Total cost/Product Lifespan

Annual Cost=$591.63/25 years

Annual Cost=$23.67 per year

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• Environmental Analysis

- The main types of materials used for the construction of the prototype were various sizes of PVC pipe, acrylic sheeting, and screws. The remainder of the parts used were already constructed upon purchase (such as the sensors and Arduino board).

- The distance that each raw material travels is important in terms of its environmental impact. The raw materials are typically transported by either plane or truck, both of which rely on substantial amounts of gasoline. All of the PVC components were purchased locally, and therefore did not have a far travel distance. However, the acrylic sheets were purchased from online distributors.

- The estimated pollution was found by using a value of 221.2 grams of carbon dioxide emission per mile driven.

- The only machining that required electrical power was the machining of the acrylic sheets. The estimated wattage used for the entire assembly process is 2775 Watts. This value was determined from using the wattage listed on the machinery, and multiplying it by the amount of time the machine was in use.

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