The mighty plan
With group members Sally Jung, Ryan Tavenner,and Spencer Shifs
This project is rather a series of smaller projects all relating to one goal. How can we make something that is independent from electricity to heat and light up a home and it's appliances? How can we harness the power of sunlight to our advantage? Before we could get started on building or even designing, there is a considerable amount of knowledge needed to understand how the sun works.
components
1. Learn about sun angles at different times of the year.
2. Work on a solar water heater.
3. Site selections/Daylighting Design Techniques/Materials testing
4. Make a model of a solar house using several techniques (light shelf, clerestory windows, etc)
5. Design a cold frame (for the garden) & Solar reflector (to shine light into the north window of the Solar Studio)
2. Work on a solar water heater.
3. Site selections/Daylighting Design Techniques/Materials testing
4. Make a model of a solar house using several techniques (light shelf, clerestory windows, etc)
5. Design a cold frame (for the garden) & Solar reflector (to shine light into the north window of the Solar Studio)
Sun angles
Sunlight seems to be like a giant lightbulb in the sky, however it is actually rather intricate since it actually shines light at angles, and these change over the seasons making designing solar efficient products much harder. For example, during the winter time, sunlight hits other places on the Earth directly, while we get sunlight that hits us at a glance. During the summer, sunlight hits us directly so we get the highest concentration of light during that time.
Here are some concepts that we learned about heat conservation as well.
Heat: Heat (cal J) how fast the atoms are moving in an object or area
Specific Heat: (cal J) amount of heat to raise the temperature of a gram of a substance by one degree.
Radiation: Transfer of heat through waves/particles
Conduction: Transfer of heat through a solid
Convection: Transfer of heat through a fluid
Insulation: They are bad heat conductors
Law of Thermodynamics: If two systems are in thermal equality with a third, then they are in equality with each other
1st Law of Thermodynamics: Energy is neither created nor destroyed
2nd Law of Thermodynamics: entropy increases
3rd Law of Thermodynamics: Temperature can never reach absolute zero since heat always exists
Here are some concepts that we learned about heat conservation as well.
Heat: Heat (cal J) how fast the atoms are moving in an object or area
Specific Heat: (cal J) amount of heat to raise the temperature of a gram of a substance by one degree.
Radiation: Transfer of heat through waves/particles
Conduction: Transfer of heat through a solid
Convection: Transfer of heat through a fluid
Insulation: They are bad heat conductors
Law of Thermodynamics: If two systems are in thermal equality with a third, then they are in equality with each other
1st Law of Thermodynamics: Energy is neither created nor destroyed
2nd Law of Thermodynamics: entropy increases
3rd Law of Thermodynamics: Temperature can never reach absolute zero since heat always exists
Solar water heater
From our new found knowledge of sun angles and heat transfers and such, we had to find a way to heat a certain amount of water as high as posible in a relatively short amount of time (30 minutes). So we decided to think outside the box, (no pun intended if you worked on this project as well) my team decided to build a parabolic reflector four feet wide, and roughly one foot deep. When we tested our design, we had astounding results! We gained a little over 90,000 joules of energy and raised the temperature by about 30 degrees celcius. We also tested during the morning when there wasn't a serious amount of sunlight.
Site selections
The goal in this was to find 3 places on the school campus that was suitable for building a solar efficient home. We rated them from 1-5 in several different categories.
Daylighting techniques
Here we have a lightshelf that shows how it bounces light into a room.
This is a skylight, essentially a window on the roof.
Solar tubes direct sunlight into a home generally placed on a rooftop.
Example of a clerestory window and its function.
This is our home design utilizing all of the above examples of daylighting techniques.
MAterial testing lab
In this lab we tested a crazy amount of materials for their insulation and heat gain. All the materials seen on the left were brainstormed by the class.
Solar relfector and cold frame design
This was the bulk of this project, it consisted of two parts. First we had to design and make a model of a cold frame that the garden club needed, as well as to create a solar reflector to guide sunlight through the north window of the solar studio. This window was rather useless.
Reflection
Overall the project was excessively long, this led to lack of cooperation within our group. Though our enthusiasm was strong at first, this quickly deteriorated since we were working with the same people over a long period of time. We eventually grew tired after a while of the different projects. Overall this was more of a learning experience than the actual projects themselves. Having the same group for too long could lead to lack of cooperation due to disdain of other group members. If this project was split into half with two groups, then it would be more manageable. Despite lack of cooperation, we managed our time well, and completed all the tasks well within the time given. From now on I think it is wise to understand how others feel about a certain situation and see what everyone has to say. Banter.