Atmospheric Water Vapor Cooling

The purpose of the Atmospheric Vapor Extraction Device project is to build a research device for recording atmospheric conditions and the amount of water condensed from air.  To condense the water from the air, the team assembled a heat exchanger in combination with a refrigeration cycle to cool the air to its dew point and collect the moisture.  An Arduino controller was incorporated to monitor the state of the air and the system. The data collected will be used to research optimal extraction conditions.  Efficient extraction of atmospheric vapor might promise a cheap water source to areas where liquid water is difficult to come by.

- There is not enough research to determine if extracting water from air is a viable option in arid environments.

- Create an atmospheric vapor extraction device to collect 2 litres of water per day for researching optimal operating conditions.

The device should to be able to collect water from air, be portable enough that one person can move it unassisted, and be low cost to build. 

It needs to have sensors and data loggers to gather atmospheric conditions, to limit power usage for use by an average homeowner, and to cost no more than $1,000 to produce.