Passive solar house
For the past 2 months, my STEM class has been working on the passive Solar House project There were many steps needed to complete the whole process. I learned a lot during the given time and this was by far the most significant project so far. Here are the following projects we completed/learned about.
1. Atomic Structure
2. Hot water heater
3. Solar angles
4. Day lighting design
5. Site Selection
6. Materials testing lab
7. Building Design
8. Justification
9. Generation of Electricity
Atomic Structure
During this step, our class looked at how atoms work. The basic information from this was how protons, electrons, and neutrons develop an atom. We needed this information to learn about how atoms make up everything in our world.
Nucleus- the center part of an atom.
Isotope- an atom with an unusual number of neutrons
Ion- an atom with an unusual number of electrons
Daylighting Design
This step educated us on how to make a house that would get great amounts of sunlight. We had to build a model of a house made by my group with four daylighting techniques. These are the things we had to include in our house
Skylights- a window cut into the roof that allows light to travel inside the building
Light shelf- a window sill that reflects incoming sun rays onto the ceiling and then into the room
Solar tube- a highly reflective tube that brings daylight into a home by bouncing the light through the tube
Clerestory window- a window placed close to the ceiling on the walls, used to bring slanted light into the room
Blueprints for our design:
Our finished model:
1. Atomic Structure
2. Hot water heater
3. Solar angles
4. Day lighting design
5. Site Selection
6. Materials testing lab
7. Building Design
8. Justification
9. Generation of Electricity
Atomic Structure
During this step, our class looked at how atoms work. The basic information from this was how protons, electrons, and neutrons develop an atom. We needed this information to learn about how atoms make up everything in our world.
Nucleus- the center part of an atom.
Isotope- an atom with an unusual number of neutrons
Ion- an atom with an unusual number of electrons
Daylighting Design
This step educated us on how to make a house that would get great amounts of sunlight. We had to build a model of a house made by my group with four daylighting techniques. These are the things we had to include in our house
Skylights- a window cut into the roof that allows light to travel inside the building
Light shelf- a window sill that reflects incoming sun rays onto the ceiling and then into the room
Solar tube- a highly reflective tube that brings daylight into a home by bouncing the light through the tube
Clerestory window- a window placed close to the ceiling on the walls, used to bring slanted light into the room
Blueprints for our design:
Our finished model:
Hot Water Heater
This step in the project was for our group to design and create a make-shift hot water heater. My group decided to build the heater using copper tubing, a shoe box, tin foil, and a funnel/container. We ran the copper tubing through a foil lined shoe box, then ran 100mL of water through it and into a storage container. We kept the water heater in the sun for 30 minutes, then observed. Our total net gain was 10,342 Joules. We were somewhat surprised by our results.
Blueprints for our design:
Our Finished Design:
Solar Angles
During this part of the project, we learned a lot that was necessary for the later parts of this project. We learned about how the suns angle changes throughout the seasons. Here is a diagram that shows the sun throughout the year:
Materials Testing
In this step, our STEM class learned about how different materials insulated, conducted, and sustained heat. We tested a total of 27 materials. They were split up into categories of conducting, insulating, and sustaining heat. We tested for these aspects by putting them under a 60 W light bulb for 20 minutes. Then, we would turn off the light bulb, take the temperature and take their temperature again after 20 minutes of cooling time. My group tested seran wrap, double seran wrap, and glass. Here are our results:
In this step, our STEM class learned about how different materials insulated, conducted, and sustained heat. We tested a total of 27 materials. They were split up into categories of conducting, insulating, and sustaining heat. We tested for these aspects by putting them under a 60 W light bulb for 20 minutes. Then, we would turn off the light bulb, take the temperature and take their temperature again after 20 minutes of cooling time. My group tested seran wrap, double seran wrap, and glass. Here are our results:
Building Design
This was the longest part of the project. It was a lengthy process and took about 5 weeks to complete. Our task was to create a solar reflector to get light into the Northern window of the solar studio, and to design a cold frame. For our solar reflector my group designed a satellite like dish reflector on top of an 8 foot post. For our cold frame we designed a somewhat simple and easy design. You can see our presentations below.
This was the longest part of the project. It was a lengthy process and took about 5 weeks to complete. Our task was to create a solar reflector to get light into the Northern window of the solar studio, and to design a cold frame. For our solar reflector my group designed a satellite like dish reflector on top of an 8 foot post. For our cold frame we designed a somewhat simple and easy design. You can see our presentations below.
Justification
Part of our presentation was the justification. We were asked the question: why would we want to create an energy efficient home off the grid, or why we want to conserve energy? Each group was given a piece of a google document that Mr. Williams created, and we answered them separately. Then we all presented what we learned. Here is a link for the page:
http://tinyurl.com/k7wlyra
Wind Turbines
Our final project was to look at how wind turbines work. We first researched the topic Then we each designed a horizontal and vertical model of a wind mill, and made a scale model of both. Next, we put them on a pole that had the power they created monitored, and we set up a fan next to them. We turned on the fan (modeling the wind) and decided which would be the most efficient with certain amounts of wind.
Reflection
This project as a whole taught me so much. I had always been curious about how to build a house and how much work went into it. I knew it was a lot, but I never imagined that you would need a blue print for every single part of wall, floor, and roof. It's essential to know where every screw is! This project made me think about how much energy I was using, and made me more aware of how much work was put into getting everyone energy. Before this project I was kind of aware of how much I was leaving lights on, but know I try to always turn off my lights before I leave the room. This project was also eye opening to how much thought was put into the design of everybody's houses, town buildings, and other man made forms.
Some good things that I think my group excelled at were listening to each other and keeping on track. I believe that my group listened to each other well because when one person had an idea, the rest of the group stopped and listened to them. The different people in my group weren't worried about sharing their opinion. The second thing that my group excelled at was staying on track. We finished both of our power points on time and we had time to go over our presentation enough to make it go smoothly.
Some things that I think my group could improve on are working on both projects equally and focusing on the facts. My group definitely focused on the cold frame at the beginning. Halfway through, we realized that we needed to work on the reflector panel. You could tell from the quality of our designs that the cold frame was more thought out and made more sense than the reflector. We also could have focused more on the details and facts of our reflector especially, but in both we didn't have everything 100% accurate. We hadn't thought about the small things that put it together. If we did this project again, I would want to work more on the usefulness of our idea and make sure everything would work. Overall, this entire project was amazing!