Energy Efficient House
We had to do many steps to get our final project. We did mini labs to test materials, water heaters, and day lighting effects. We worked in groups of four to each create a passive solar home. Out of our two STEM classes one group's home would be chosen to be built. We were given a budget of $5,000.
Hot Water Heater
Looking at instructions, each group built water heater. We had to go by almost exactly how the instructions told us. We could adjust some things such as how thick of copper tubing or plastic tubing. When we were building the heater we had a bottle to hold the water in a insulated bag connected to plastic tubing to copper tubing. The copper tubing was in a tinfoil covered box. The water was entered through the bottle top and heated in the tubing. My group decided to use the thinner copper tubing to let the sun have less material to warm the water through. Also, we could add black spray paint to absorb heat on the bag and a reflector of tinfoil onto the tubing. Once we had followed all the instructions of building the heater we had to test it. We checked the temperature of the water in increments of ten. After testing it for a few minutes, we realized we had to adjust some thing to make it more efficient. We put cups under one side of the box holding the copper tubing to angle it towards the sun. Also, we had to put a stopper at the end of the tubing to make sure none of the water leaked out. It ended up only heating the water after making many changes. It increased a total of 10 degrees Fahrenheit.
Solar Angles and How It Changes During Seasons
Solar angles can be useful for bringing in light to homes. Although, solar angles can change over the year because of the Earth's rotation and because Earth is at a tilt of 23.5 degrees. This can cause seasons. Since where we live is not on the equator we have the sun rays at an angle.
Hot Water Heater
Looking at instructions, each group built water heater. We had to go by almost exactly how the instructions told us. We could adjust some things such as how thick of copper tubing or plastic tubing. When we were building the heater we had a bottle to hold the water in a insulated bag connected to plastic tubing to copper tubing. The copper tubing was in a tinfoil covered box. The water was entered through the bottle top and heated in the tubing. My group decided to use the thinner copper tubing to let the sun have less material to warm the water through. Also, we could add black spray paint to absorb heat on the bag and a reflector of tinfoil onto the tubing. Once we had followed all the instructions of building the heater we had to test it. We checked the temperature of the water in increments of ten. After testing it for a few minutes, we realized we had to adjust some thing to make it more efficient. We put cups under one side of the box holding the copper tubing to angle it towards the sun. Also, we had to put a stopper at the end of the tubing to make sure none of the water leaked out. It ended up only heating the water after making many changes. It increased a total of 10 degrees Fahrenheit.
Solar Angles and How It Changes During Seasons
Solar angles can be useful for bringing in light to homes. Although, solar angles can change over the year because of the Earth's rotation and because Earth is at a tilt of 23.5 degrees. This can cause seasons. Since where we live is not on the equator we have the sun rays at an angle.
Daylighting Design Activity
For this section of the project we had to built a cardboard model, or a house using all different types of daylighting to test how much sun it gets with each season and time of day. We used solar tubes, picture windows, skylights, clerestory windows, and light shelves. They all captured the sun(light from a lightbulb) in different ways. When we built the model we designated a side of the house to be directed in the South direction, where sunlight comes from where we live. We moved the light over top of the house starting from the East. We measured the lightbulb from the degree ot came from during the different seasons. Then moved over top going across to the West. We took down the amount of light during each time of the day. Out of this, we found out that skylights worked best with a slanted roof. Also, Picture windows can bring a lot of light in at any time of day. All of this helped us decide our daylighting for each of our final design of our buildings.
For this section of the project we had to built a cardboard model, or a house using all different types of daylighting to test how much sun it gets with each season and time of day. We used solar tubes, picture windows, skylights, clerestory windows, and light shelves. They all captured the sun(light from a lightbulb) in different ways. When we built the model we designated a side of the house to be directed in the South direction, where sunlight comes from where we live. We moved the light over top of the house starting from the East. We measured the lightbulb from the degree ot came from during the different seasons. Then moved over top going across to the West. We took down the amount of light during each time of the day. Out of this, we found out that skylights worked best with a slanted roof. Also, Picture windows can bring a lot of light in at any time of day. All of this helped us decide our daylighting for each of our final design of our buildings.
Site Selection
We had to chose our site to place our building on based on many things. First we had to choose what our building purpose was. Also, it had to visible to the community to show our work to the public. When we were walking around school looking at the places, we looked a lot for sunlight. We also looked for relatively flat ground that would be easy to build on. It had to be close to main campus for easy access and not blocking anything around it. My group chose the area behind the portables and next to the side parking lot on Novato Blvd.
We had to chose our site to place our building on based on many things. First we had to choose what our building purpose was. Also, it had to visible to the community to show our work to the public. When we were walking around school looking at the places, we looked a lot for sunlight. We also looked for relatively flat ground that would be easy to build on. It had to be close to main campus for easy access and not blocking anything around it. My group chose the area behind the portables and next to the side parking lot on Novato Blvd.
Materials Testing
We tested many materials to see which ones held the most heat. For flooring, interior walls, exterior walls, and roofing we put a lightbulb about ten inches from the materials. For insulation we put a bottle of heated water rapped in the different materials. After each set of ten minutes we checked the temperature of the materials and water to see which kept the water warmer. The materials we tested are listed below:
Flooring: wood, linoleum, bamboo, carpet, ceramic, cork
Interior Walls: textured and flat drywall both black and white, rock
Exterior Walls: PVC, redwood, brick, stucco
Roofing: tin, tar, shingles, skylight, turf
Insulation: foam, fiber glass batting, coconut fiber
Building Design
This part of the project was the main part. It took the most amount of our time to work on this. We had to design a fully passive solar home. Completed with all different types of key features to bring in light. One of our big key features was "the device". It was a reflector off the North side wall, reflecting light into the window on the North side and reflecting it onto a lightshelf, while the sun is on the South side. Also, we had three clerestory windows on the East wall. On the South side we had a big picture window. We placed our door and a smaller picture window on the West wall. On the roof we put a skylight, to capture sun at anytime of the day. We had to keep it under our budget of $5,000 including all the materials to build it. For our materials, we had to look at the materials testing and choose the best ones that would go with the design. We decided to go with the ones that kept the most amount of heat. For flooring we chose oak wood, interior walls would be white dry wall, exterior walls we chose composite wood siding, for insulation the best one was fiberglass batting, and roofing we picked corrugated steel. Oak wood, fiberglass batting, and drywall were all very good at absorbing heat. We chose corrugated steel because we wanted the roof to reflect the intense summer sun.We made blueprints of all the different walls and the foundation we picked to use. It took us many weeks to come up with all the details for our building. For every group we had to chose the purpose of what it was going to be. We decided to make our building a tutoring and test taking center. For our building we managed to keep the price at $3,800.30. This included deck screws, framing screws, and tax. Each group had to present their buildings to the class and a panel of judges. We presented them in class to everyone else, but had a presentation night later.
We tested many materials to see which ones held the most heat. For flooring, interior walls, exterior walls, and roofing we put a lightbulb about ten inches from the materials. For insulation we put a bottle of heated water rapped in the different materials. After each set of ten minutes we checked the temperature of the materials and water to see which kept the water warmer. The materials we tested are listed below:
Flooring: wood, linoleum, bamboo, carpet, ceramic, cork
Interior Walls: textured and flat drywall both black and white, rock
Exterior Walls: PVC, redwood, brick, stucco
Roofing: tin, tar, shingles, skylight, turf
Insulation: foam, fiber glass batting, coconut fiber
Building Design
This part of the project was the main part. It took the most amount of our time to work on this. We had to design a fully passive solar home. Completed with all different types of key features to bring in light. One of our big key features was "the device". It was a reflector off the North side wall, reflecting light into the window on the North side and reflecting it onto a lightshelf, while the sun is on the South side. Also, we had three clerestory windows on the East wall. On the South side we had a big picture window. We placed our door and a smaller picture window on the West wall. On the roof we put a skylight, to capture sun at anytime of the day. We had to keep it under our budget of $5,000 including all the materials to build it. For our materials, we had to look at the materials testing and choose the best ones that would go with the design. We decided to go with the ones that kept the most amount of heat. For flooring we chose oak wood, interior walls would be white dry wall, exterior walls we chose composite wood siding, for insulation the best one was fiberglass batting, and roofing we picked corrugated steel. Oak wood, fiberglass batting, and drywall were all very good at absorbing heat. We chose corrugated steel because we wanted the roof to reflect the intense summer sun.We made blueprints of all the different walls and the foundation we picked to use. It took us many weeks to come up with all the details for our building. For every group we had to chose the purpose of what it was going to be. We decided to make our building a tutoring and test taking center. For our building we managed to keep the price at $3,800.30. This included deck screws, framing screws, and tax. Each group had to present their buildings to the class and a panel of judges. We presented them in class to everyone else, but had a presentation night later.
Justification
Having a passive solar home has many benefits. Our class made a pros and cons list of many reasons why. Every type of energy we use has an impact on us. More of the eco-friendly is usually more costly. While Gas or chemicals can be more of a damage to the Earth. Look at the document below to see more of the pros and cons.
Physical 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 (Q)
Thermal Conductivity - Heat travels from places of lower pressure to higher pressure, or from hot places to colder places. This is why "coldness" is simply the absence of heat. The reason why your hand feels cold after touching ice is because the heat has left your hand and traveled into the ice, melting it. However, touching carpet doesn't have the same effect because it is not a good conductor, and therefore doesn't take as much heat from your hand.
Pressure - the exertion of force upon a surface by an object, fluid, etc. Pressure is Force / Area, and directly correlates to depth. The deeper you go, the more pressure there is. Every 10.3 meters downward, there is half less air, and it doesn't matter where you are. If you're at the bottom of a 10.3 meter pool in Hawaii, you are under the same amount of pressure as a person 10.3 meters underneath the Mediterranean Sea.
Archimedes' Principle - "An immersed object is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the fluid it displaces." This principle that Archimedes came up with is still used today whenever we think about object displacement.
Buoyancy - ability to float or rise in a fluid. An object must have a density less than the fluid it's in if it wants to have any chance of floating. Water, for example, has a density of 1. Anything with less density than 1 therefore floats .Objects with a density greater than one, like a rock, immediately sink. However, there are ways to bypass this law, and that is by filling the said object with lots of air.
Boyle's Law - the principle that pressure and volume of a gas have an inverse relationship. It describes how the pressure of gas tends to decrease as the volume of a gas increases.
Ideal Gas Law - Pressure x Volume = # of atoms x constant x temperature (P V = n R T )
Bernoulli's Principle - In fluid dynamics, Bernoulli's principle states that for a flow, and increase in the speed of the fluid occurs simultaneously with a decrease in pressure or a decrease in the fluid's potential energy.
Laws of Thermodynamics - There are four main laws of thermodynamics; the 0th, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd
Specific Heat - a physical property of matter that states the heat capacity of a certain object. Objects with higher numbers take longer to heat up, but also take longer to cool down. Objects with low specific heat capacities heat up quickly, but also lose that heat relatively fast as well.
Conversion of Temperature - Fahrenheit = Celsius x (9/5) + 32. Celsius = (5/9) (Fahrenheit - 32)
Reflection
I Thought this was a great project. I learned many things about myself and working with people during this project. I had a great group. We all worked and collaborated together great. We were able to evenly disperse the amount of work to each group member. We all put our ideas together to make a great building. It was fantastic working with people I would have not usually worked with. I got to know them well and see how everyone worked.
There were some things me and my group could have worked on a little better. I realized I should have focused more on what we were working on.Also, we could have been a little more exact on our key features. Sometimes people did not get what "the device" was. We could have explained it more in detail of everything about it. Every project we do makes us learn more and more. This was just one of those projects that teaches us many things and helps us out for a lot of reasons.
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 (Q)
Thermal Conductivity - Heat travels from places of lower pressure to higher pressure, or from hot places to colder places. This is why "coldness" is simply the absence of heat. The reason why your hand feels cold after touching ice is because the heat has left your hand and traveled into the ice, melting it. However, touching carpet doesn't have the same effect because it is not a good conductor, and therefore doesn't take as much heat from your hand.
Pressure - the exertion of force upon a surface by an object, fluid, etc. Pressure is Force / Area, and directly correlates to depth. The deeper you go, the more pressure there is. Every 10.3 meters downward, there is half less air, and it doesn't matter where you are. If you're at the bottom of a 10.3 meter pool in Hawaii, you are under the same amount of pressure as a person 10.3 meters underneath the Mediterranean Sea.
Archimedes' Principle - "An immersed object is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the fluid it displaces." This principle that Archimedes came up with is still used today whenever we think about object displacement.
Buoyancy - ability to float or rise in a fluid. An object must have a density less than the fluid it's in if it wants to have any chance of floating. Water, for example, has a density of 1. Anything with less density than 1 therefore floats .Objects with a density greater than one, like a rock, immediately sink. However, there are ways to bypass this law, and that is by filling the said object with lots of air.
Boyle's Law - the principle that pressure and volume of a gas have an inverse relationship. It describes how the pressure of gas tends to decrease as the volume of a gas increases.
Ideal Gas Law - Pressure x Volume = # of atoms x constant x temperature (P V = n R T )
Bernoulli's Principle - In fluid dynamics, Bernoulli's principle states that for a flow, and increase in the speed of the fluid occurs simultaneously with a decrease in pressure or a decrease in the fluid's potential energy.
Laws of Thermodynamics - There are four main laws of thermodynamics; the 0th, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd
- The 0th law explains temperature, and states that if two systems are in thermal equilibrium with a third system, they are also in equilibrium with each other. (Transitive Property: if a = b, b = c, then a = c.)
- The 1st law explains conservation of energy, stating that energy is neither created nor destroyed, and that heat is a form of energy.
- The 2nd law is about how entropy increases; as time passes, energy gets more and more "messy and unstable." For example, the sun gives of significant quantities of energy, but as it does so, it becomes more unstable until it will eventually explode.
- The 3rd law simply states that temperature can never get down to absolute zero. The idea of absolutely no molecular action is merely theoretical, as heat always exists, even if it's very very slight.
Specific Heat - a physical property of matter that states the heat capacity of a certain object. Objects with higher numbers take longer to heat up, but also take longer to cool down. Objects with low specific heat capacities heat up quickly, but also lose that heat relatively fast as well.
Conversion of Temperature - Fahrenheit = Celsius x (9/5) + 32. Celsius = (5/9) (Fahrenheit - 32)
Reflection
I Thought this was a great project. I learned many things about myself and working with people during this project. I had a great group. We all worked and collaborated together great. We were able to evenly disperse the amount of work to each group member. We all put our ideas together to make a great building. It was fantastic working with people I would have not usually worked with. I got to know them well and see how everyone worked.
There were some things me and my group could have worked on a little better. I realized I should have focused more on what we were working on.Also, we could have been a little more exact on our key features. Sometimes people did not get what "the device" was. We could have explained it more in detail of everything about it. Every project we do makes us learn more and more. This was just one of those projects that teaches us many things and helps us out for a lot of reasons.