Project Objective
To design a home that is comfortable in all conditions, inclusive of weather, solar angles, natural daylighting, without the use of on-grid electricity.
Key Concepts and Terms
General Concepts
Heat (Q): a form of energy associated with the movement of atoms and molecules in any material. The higher the temperature of a material, the faster the atoms are moving, which makes other atoms vibrate, hence the greater the amount of energy present as heat. Q = mcΔT
Specific Heat Capacity (c): In Joules, the required to raise 1 gram of a substance 1 Kelvin. An object with a low specific heat capacity, cannot hold heat well, thus the object heats up and cools down quickly. As an object with high specific heat capacity can hold higher temperature well, thus the object heats and cools slowly. Heat Transfer: Radiation: The transfer of heat through any medium Convection: The transfer of heat through liquids Conduction: The transfer of heat through solids Insulation: An object that does not easily allow heat, and other forms of energy to easily pass through it. |
Daylighting
Solar Tubes: physical structures used for transporting or distributing natural or artificial light for the purpose of illumination
Sky Lights: a window placed in a roof or ceiling to admit daylight. Clerestory Windows: a large window or series of small windows atop a high wall of a building. The clerestory wall often rises above adjoining roofs. In a large building, the windows will be large to bring light into a large interior. Light shelves: a horizontal surface that reflects daylight deep into a building. Light shelves are placed above eye-level and have high-reflectance upper surfaces, which reflect daylight onto the ceiling and deeper into the space. Window Orientation: The windows should be south-easterly, as the sun is at a lower angle during the winter, if you also want to maximize solar time even during the evenings, rays of the sun are going towards North, so placing windows to the south-side allows for more rays to hit the house. Since the sun also rises east , easterly windows will help capture some light before during the morning. More Eastward Celerestory Windows, or lightshelves, should help to attract light to the western wall.
Color Choices: Darker Colors tend to absorb more light as lighter colors tend to refelct light. The reason why this is so, is because dark light is the absorption of wavelengths of light, as lighter light is the reflection of wavelengths of light. Since Visible Light is very closely related to Infrared Light (heat) on the Electromagnetic Spectrum, the colors also reflect or absorb heat along with the visible light, depending on the type of color. Lighter colors are used for the interior of the house to provide more heat, as the exterior is darker to let off excess heat. |
Solar Angles During the Day By Season
Natural lighting is an imporatant aspect of a passive solar design. We know that dawn strikes East, as dusk lies West, but when constructing a design such as this, solar elevation does make an impact. The solar angle change is due to seasons, which are caused by Earth's 23.5° tilt. Since the tilt is basically constant, and the orbit changes, when the Earth has a surface closest to the sun, that surface experiences Summer, as this surface has more direct light, as the antipodal region experiences Winter. It is important to build overhangs has they can improve the life of the house, by protecting it from water damage, but also can block and allow light during certain times of year. Since Summer brings a more steeper and more direct angle, overhangs can help block some light, as for Winter's shallower angles, the overhangs can help bring in light, and heat. The incorporation of this can minimize electric usage, and increase heat efficiency.
Solar Hot Water HeaterProject Objective: To build a device to heat water as much as possible through alternative energy sources.
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Daylighting LabProject Objective: To study and test the effectiveness of different daylighting techniques
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Our group had many iterations of what the final product might look like. From mirrors to a thermosiphon, we decided that a simple design should do us well.
The design consists of a cardboard box, aluminum, to reflect the light, which carries heat, a water bottle, so that the heat can be focused on, and food wrap, to act like a greenhouse that traps in the light. It was then set on a 60° angle, on the stand to get the rays of light coming in at 30° to be close to direct. Our device could heat up 350 mL of water, over a 70 minute period from 18°C to 40°C, a change of 22°C. The total heat gain in Joules was 32,223.2 J or about 32 Kilojoules energy was gained. |
Our group had tested solar tubes, skylights, lightshelves, windows, reflective materials against non-reflective materials, and light and dark colors. From what we have observed, the Southern lightshelf was the most effective, as the skylight and solar tubes were ineffective, this could be attributed to the exclusion of a diffusion and concentrating element. Also lighter colored interiors were also better for lighting, but performed the about the same as reflective aluminum. This might be due to the fact that this color and material tends to reflect light more, than absorbing it, thus allowing more light to disperse through the model.
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Materials Heat Testing Lab
Project Objective
To design an experiment that uses our understanding of heat to test each available material for its properties and applications in heat.
Wind Turbine Lab
Project Objective: Manipulate and test variables to support a claim about wind turbine design.
In this experiment, we were to test as many designs as we could to make a claim about the designs. The designs were tested under a vertical axis, and horizontal axis setting (determined by where the center of the design was oriented), with three levels of intensity. Level one and two being the low and medium setting on a small house fan, as the highest intensity being a leafblower. The designs were tested by mounting them on a motor and using a voltmeter to see how much energy could converted, in use, by these designs. Our claim was that the fewer amount of blades there were on the horizontal axis, the more voltage is produced. We reasoned that this might be due to inertia, where there is a low-enough mass, for the turbines, that it could spin faster, as less work was needed to move a lighter object.
Presentation
In the following presentation the floorplan, key features, key materials, solar efficiency, and blueprints are included.
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Materials List
The Spreadsheet below is a tally of the materials accounted for the tinyhouse design. This list is inclusive of lumber framing, to furniture, to insulation.
Tinyhouse Justification
Reflection
Winthin the past two months I left the project with more obvious, but important realizations. When I had my group I knew that I might find myself micromanaging the work that goes on, but I was wrong about my initial impression. I would say that our group had a strong start. We had collaborated and communicated well. Even if a group member was absent we would still text, call, or e-mail each other about our on-going work. During classtime we had made sure that everyone in our group would be able to give their perspective on their approach to our projects, and had pretty high productivity. But later on in the project, it all came down to poor team management and time management. Everyone had an idea for their floorplan, but the process of choosing one and proceeding with a design was very slow. We would have valid concerns about the floorplan, but these concerns came too often and hindered us from doing anyother work for a while. I especially have been told to "be more decisive". And I would agree, I have noticed I do like to contemplate all the possible pros and cons of each descision, which takes away from the time efficiency. Another issue we had was a laxness in our mindset to accomplishing our personal tasks. Although constant deadlines had been established, check-ins were conducted, and meetings arranged, the end product did not seem to show what was being told. Some other issues we had was lack of understanding. Sometimes some of or group members would be too focused on an activity, that they seem to forget the central idea behind the project and their task. I found myself in a hard place one month from the presentation date of this project: I could take reins and work on this project by myself, or give my team another opportunity to show me that they had the potential they weren't willing to show yet. Unfortunately I relied on the latter and underwent its consequence by having to to most of the work, being pressed on time. I knew that helping my teammates in their task is better for the team than doing the project myself, but I had to draw a line between having me "help" and having me do. After the presentation was over, I came to some conclusions: When working with a group with less than ideal input, provide the input yourself; when making decisions, there is no use in thinking of the perfect solution, as no such thing exists; when productivity is low, do not micromanage, but remind and work with the team about the overall goals. I will admint that our achilles heel was during our middle-phase of the project. It was here where we didn't take our responsobilities seriously, and relied on humanity's foe, time, to be our friend. We were for a mad scramble on presentation day, but I was pretty impressed with what we had done in this kind of environment, especially with the audience questions. Although some of our responses may not have been smooth, or complete, the fact that we could move on with confidence and trust in our product showed me what real team strength feels like. After all this said, I had a lot to look back upon, and a lot to correct for my future projects. I'm just glad that I have these opportunities to look and better mysef.
- Nihal Nazeem.
- Nihal Nazeem.