Discussion

The aim of this experiment is to be introduced with the thermo-electric thermometers,

to understand the temperature current and voltage relationship, and to learn
temperature measurement by using thermocouple and RTD. The instrument used in
this experiment is thermocouple Type K and Type J and resistance temperature
detector (PT100) element. Temperature indicator was used to show the reading of the
element temperature meanwhile a multi-meter was used to show the mV reading of
type K and type J thermocouple and resistance reading of RTD.

There is a total of four run in this experiment with different temperature set which is
(30, 40, 50, and 60) °C with the use of heater to obtain the temperature increasing.
After that, the millivolt of thermocouple is collected from the references tables by
using linear interpolation formula. Then, measure the signal output and calculate the
actual signal before we can calculate the actual temperature. The experiment is done
in two set to obtain the average value.

From all table result, it shows the different in deviation range in term of temperature
for the three types of instrument were used, we can see that the average temperature
deviation is increasing when the measured temperature increase from 30 ºC to 60 ºC
From the result obtained RTD has the lower deviation temperature in the range
followed by Type J and Type K. This result obtained says that RTD is more accurate
compare to other thermocouple. The smaller the deviations, the higher the accuracy of
instruments. This deviation may due to some error of instrument or human error
during conducting the experiment.

Theoretically, it is impossible to conclude whether RTDs or thermocouples are the

superior option as a whole. Instead, it is more useful to compare the performance of
RTDs and thermocouples using specific qualities such as cost and temperature range
so that users can choose based on the specific needs of their organizations. RTDs are
superior to thermocouples in that their readings are more repeatable and more precise.
Repeatable and precise means that user reading the same temperatures produce the
same results over multiple trials. The RTD producing more repeatable readings means
that their readings are more stable, while their design ensures that RTDs continue
producing stable readings longer than thermocouples.
In brief, RTDs and thermocouples each have their own advantages and disadvantages.
Furthermore, each make of RTDs and thermocouples possesses its own advantages
and disadvantages. User should choose their reading instrument decisions on the
specific needs and capabilities of their organizations matched to the specific
capabilities of the brands available to them. In general, thermocouples are cheaper,
more durable and can measure a bigger range of temperatures, while RTDs produce
better and more reliable measurements.

There are some errors during conducting this experiment. The first one is the way
handling the multi-meter. Next, thermocouple and RTD sensor might be faced the
sensor error and the circulation pump can be the error due to under range data
collected. In addition, heater cannot heat the water at high capacity due to lack of
power to generate and lastly, the wind disturbance might disturb the data collection.