Our passive solar design project was to create a house that used minimal to no electricity powering it. It was to use the most sun light to heat and brighten the house.
We had many labs leading up to this project:
Hot water heater lab: This lab had us create a solar powered water heater (as the name says). For our design, my group went with a more simpler path; an arc of tin foil that focused on the clear bottle of water with a copper pipe in the metal. Our plan was that the sun would reflect in to the water bottle and heat the copper pipe, since copper transfers heat quickly. In the end, our water had a small temperature change, but because we had so much water in our water bottle, the energy transfer ended up to be a lot more than the other groups. We learned in this lab that metal transfers heat quickly and that heat can be lost just as quickly, so you need a good insulator, (although our design heated the water so quickly that the heat lost was less than the heat gained). As a group, we learned that the arc has to be very specific on its focus; aiming directly at it and the angle from the ground has to be right, too, as to allow the radiation to hit the foil at the correct angle. We also learned that convection currents in the water matter: heat rises to the top where it starts to cool, where it falls, is heated again, etc.
We had many labs leading up to this project:
Hot water heater lab: This lab had us create a solar powered water heater (as the name says). For our design, my group went with a more simpler path; an arc of tin foil that focused on the clear bottle of water with a copper pipe in the metal. Our plan was that the sun would reflect in to the water bottle and heat the copper pipe, since copper transfers heat quickly. In the end, our water had a small temperature change, but because we had so much water in our water bottle, the energy transfer ended up to be a lot more than the other groups. We learned in this lab that metal transfers heat quickly and that heat can be lost just as quickly, so you need a good insulator, (although our design heated the water so quickly that the heat lost was less than the heat gained). As a group, we learned that the arc has to be very specific on its focus; aiming directly at it and the angle from the ground has to be right, too, as to allow the radiation to hit the foil at the correct angle. We also learned that convection currents in the water matter: heat rises to the top where it starts to cool, where it falls, is heated again, etc.
Day lighting techniques: This project was for us to create a cardboard 3D model to test how each room lights up using different day lighting techniques. Our group decided to put one window for each room to test the different day lighting techniques by themselves. This however, did not go very well at all. We had a total of 7 rooms, none of which were white. Our outcome was very dark ended poorly. What we learned were the different day lighting techniques: sun shelves, sky lights, light tubes, and clerestory windows. We also learned that some colors reflect light better (such as white) and some absorb light better (like black). What my group learned is that all of the windows needed to be a lot bigger, as to let the light inside. We also learned that white would be better at reflecting light, although no light entered really so there wasn't much for us to reflect. The windows on the south side should have been larger, since the sun is angled toward the south, moving from east to west. This also changes during the different seasons, such as summer the sun is at a higher angle, since the sun is closer to the Earth. Winter it is lower to the horizon, since the sun is farther away.
Materials heat testing lab: We were asked to test a set amount of materials on their temperature change. Each group was given 3 materials to test. We had set up our heat lamps 12 inches from the counter, with cardboard under the material. We checked the temperature every minute, for 5 minutes with the lamp on, and 5 minutes off. What we learned from this lab was that materials that heated up and cooled quickly had a low heat capacity and materials that heated up slower and cooled slower had a high heat. This is important, because different materials for a house are used for different things. Materials with a low heat capacity are hard to heat up, but stay at a warmer temperature longer. These would be used for insulation, such as brick or stone. Materials with a lower heat capacity are good for reflecting heat or heating up quicker, such as metal or carpet. We also learned that there isn't a cold, but only the transfer of heat, and that heat moves from more heat to less heat.
This was the presentation for our passive solar design project:
Generation of energy: For our last lab, we tested wind turbine designs to see which method created the most energy. We tested different methods, such as if the turbine was vertical or horizontal. Vertical was better because there wasn't an opposing force against the turbine as it moved in one direction. We also tested different fin length, shape, etc. We came out that smaller curved fins were best, since the curve would allow the air to push the turbine in a certain direction.