Passive Solar Home Project
Driving Question: How can we design a home that is comfortable in all conditions without the use of electricity? What is the most efficient way to heat and cool a home?
Summary: The point of this project was to design and build an energy efficient house off the electrical grid. With a budget of $5,000, each group will create a design and present it to a board of engineers. Then one group's design will be selected to be built. Over a few weeks the whole STEM class will be constructing a house and eventually we will have a new energy efficient bOuilding on campus.
Project Outline:
1. Design a hot water heater: During the first week of our solar house project we were assigned to make a solar water heater. We used materials such as aluminum foil, cardboard boxes, fiber glass insulation, a plastic 2 liter bottle, copper tubing and plastic tubing. We put insulation on the inside of a cardboard box and then set a 2 liter bottle on the inside. The we attached a plastic tube from the bottom of the bottle to a coil of copper tubing. Then we cover the inside of another box with aluminum foil and spray painted the bottom black. After that we laid down the copper tubing into the tin foil box and covered the top with cellophane wrap. For the rest of the week, our group would filter water through the heater and theoretically should eventually get hotter from the sunlight. Our group managed to raise the temperature 6 degrees. This experiment was extremely useful because it taught us that darker colors absorb heat and what types of insulation work better than others.
2. Day lighting a house: Our second project was to create a small cardboard house using as many day lighting techniques as we could. These techniques include:
Light Shelves: Used the bounce excess sunlight back into a room through a a window.
Skylights: Openings in the roof that allow sunlight to come in (ceiling windows)
Clerestory Windows: Windows at a higher place on the side of a building to allow in sunlight at higher angles.
Solar Tubes: Openings in the ceiling that allow in light from all angles.
3. Site Selection: Our group looked on campus for a site that would fit our building needs and we found one that was perfect location
for our usage and got direct sunlight during school hours. It is right across from the Spanish wing and we plan to use it as a foreign
language tutor center. It is also in front of the back parking lot and next to the bathrooms.
Driving Question: How can we design a home that is comfortable in all conditions without the use of electricity? What is the most efficient way to heat and cool a home?
Summary: The point of this project was to design and build an energy efficient house off the electrical grid. With a budget of $5,000, each group will create a design and present it to a board of engineers. Then one group's design will be selected to be built. Over a few weeks the whole STEM class will be constructing a house and eventually we will have a new energy efficient bOuilding on campus.
Project Outline:
1. Design a hot water heater: During the first week of our solar house project we were assigned to make a solar water heater. We used materials such as aluminum foil, cardboard boxes, fiber glass insulation, a plastic 2 liter bottle, copper tubing and plastic tubing. We put insulation on the inside of a cardboard box and then set a 2 liter bottle on the inside. The we attached a plastic tube from the bottom of the bottle to a coil of copper tubing. Then we cover the inside of another box with aluminum foil and spray painted the bottom black. After that we laid down the copper tubing into the tin foil box and covered the top with cellophane wrap. For the rest of the week, our group would filter water through the heater and theoretically should eventually get hotter from the sunlight. Our group managed to raise the temperature 6 degrees. This experiment was extremely useful because it taught us that darker colors absorb heat and what types of insulation work better than others.
2. Day lighting a house: Our second project was to create a small cardboard house using as many day lighting techniques as we could. These techniques include:
Light Shelves: Used the bounce excess sunlight back into a room through a a window.
Skylights: Openings in the roof that allow sunlight to come in (ceiling windows)
Clerestory Windows: Windows at a higher place on the side of a building to allow in sunlight at higher angles.
Solar Tubes: Openings in the ceiling that allow in light from all angles.
3. Site Selection: Our group looked on campus for a site that would fit our building needs and we found one that was perfect location
for our usage and got direct sunlight during school hours. It is right across from the Spanish wing and we plan to use it as a foreign
language tutor center. It is also in front of the back parking lot and next to the bathrooms.
4. Material Testing: We did a lab about how certain materials could reflect and absorb heat. One material that stood out to our group and is being used in our design is dark hardwood flooring.
5. Building Design: The last and longest part of our project was our building design. We spent multiple weeks creating a materials list of all costs along with taxes. We then had to create a series of blueprints to show our house design. Then we created a list of key features, reasons for location, and reason for usage. Later, we created a huge poster with all of these features on it and presented it to judges and parents on presentation night.
Concepts:
Reflection: This project was long! I enjoyed my group very much. We all had our own hobbies that coincided with our jobs in the group. Some days were long and boring. Some felt like there was nothing to do. In the end it was worth it. I learned basic construction techniques and gained some cool drawing skills. If I did this project again I would have changed the order in which we did things. I would have given more attention to the design and less to the costs. A lot of the projects ended up being boxes and I feel as though there was more that could have been done. I would have also paid more attention to the detail of our blueprint design and to the materials choice of our house. I thought that our materials list was beautifully put together, our group worked well together and it was very helpful when groups would exchange ideas and concepts with each other. This project was very fun and I would definitely do it again in a smaller time period.
Justification:
We could use many different energy-saving techniques for our house design Here are the pros and cons of them:
5. Building Design: The last and longest part of our project was our building design. We spent multiple weeks creating a materials list of all costs along with taxes. We then had to create a series of blueprints to show our house design. Then we created a list of key features, reasons for location, and reason for usage. Later, we created a huge poster with all of these features on it and presented it to judges and parents on presentation night.
Concepts:
- Conduction - transfer of heat through a material
- Convection - transfer of heat through a fluid
- Radiation - energy transmitted as rays, waves, or particles (
- Heat - a form of energy
- Thermal Conductivity - Heat travels from places of lower pressure to higher pressure, or from hot places to colder places.
- Buoyancy - ability to float or rise in a fluid.
Reflection: This project was long! I enjoyed my group very much. We all had our own hobbies that coincided with our jobs in the group. Some days were long and boring. Some felt like there was nothing to do. In the end it was worth it. I learned basic construction techniques and gained some cool drawing skills. If I did this project again I would have changed the order in which we did things. I would have given more attention to the design and less to the costs. A lot of the projects ended up being boxes and I feel as though there was more that could have been done. I would have also paid more attention to the detail of our blueprint design and to the materials choice of our house. I thought that our materials list was beautifully put together, our group worked well together and it was very helpful when groups would exchange ideas and concepts with each other. This project was very fun and I would definitely do it again in a smaller time period.
Justification:
We could use many different energy-saving techniques for our house design Here are the pros and cons of them:
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