Overview:

The R’Garden system was designed to offer a pilot-scale prototype to allow the team to test the system while still being located on the UCR campus. This prototype consists of both our air and water systems. The air system is a scaled-down version of the closet currently in V’ Garden. The water system utilizes a looped circuit consisting of water heaters and our solar thermal collector to preheat water leading to a water heater to alleviate the power consumption of the water heater. This water system has an attached sink that the R’ Garden visitors will be able to use to wash their hands and produce that they harvest. This prototype is powered by a photovoltaic system consisting of 8 solar panels and battery bank.