Passive Solar Project:
This project was about how to make an home as energy efficeient as possible. (Why?) e came up with many plans to help lessen the energy bill as much as we could. We had to build a solar water heater with water storage, a house that uses the placement of regular windows, clear story windows, light shelves, and solar tubes as the main light source, and build a cold frame. We also built a solar reflector to reflect light into the north window of the solar studio on campus and came up with another plan, the bonus plan, to help reflect light into the south window of the solar studio. We even made vertical and horizontal windmills. For this project I worked with Nolan Joseph (http://nolanjoseph.weebly.com/energy-efficient-house.html) and Colin McCloskey (http://colinmccloskey.weebly.com/energy-efficient-house.html).
Solar Water Heater: The first project we did was built a solar water heater with storage. The purpose of this project was to be able to build a solar water heater with storage so that it wouldn't cost as much to have warm water in houses. We used a 7 Up bottle as our storage container and wrapped it in fiber glass insulation to help retain the heat (not shown). The 7 Up was connected to the heater with a plastic tube that transferred the water into the copper tube inside our heater. As the water traveled slowly through the tube it heated up and came out into a beaker we used to collect the water. We repeated this many times. In a house the water would circulate trough this system many times until the water was at the desired temperature. The water would then flow into your house, warm and ready to use.
Solar Lit Housing: The solar lit house was a project that required us to make a diagram of a house that can use more of the sun's natural light then electricity. We used windows/skylights (the large rectangular holes) and solar tubes (the tin foil cylinders in the roof). Here are some pictures of what it looked like:
Cold Frame: In this project we had to build a scale model of a cold frame for the school garden. A cold frame is a box that plants are planted in. It helps hold in heat to allow warmth for the plants to grow in the winter time, while being able to open the and let in the cool air during during the summer time. We would also have chicken wire underneath to prevent rodents from burrowing in. The cold frame is a mix of green and black on the outside because those colors are the best for absorbing heat, therefore making the cold frame warmer. The inside was made of reflective insulation to help reflect sunlight onto the plants.
SolarReflector-North Window: The solar reflector is designed to reflect sunlight into the south window, allowing more natural light to have access into the solar studio.
Bonus Plan: Solar Reflector-South Window: For our bonus plan, we built light selves on the south window to help reflect the sunlight into the solar studio, allowing more natural light to enter. This also helps to prevent light from exiting the house.
Windmill: For this part of the project, we built cardboard cutouts of the blades of a working windmill. The pole of the windmill was provided by our teacher because it was set up and connected to a thing that told us how much energy was being produced. This told us how productive our blades were. After doing three trials for each windmill on three different wind speeds, we found out that the class as a whole all made better horizontal windmills. The horizontal windmill was also easier to build then the vertical. Here are images of our groups two designs.
Reflection: Working with Nolan and Colin was Great. Everyday was fun and we got work done. I thought we were very well organized too. We split up each part of each project into different jobs and divided them up equally. We even finished our work before the due date which gave us time to make the project even better. Our presintation was a bit rushed because the night seemed a little hectic. If we had taken a moment to look around and breath we might have had better projects and better presentations.