Energy Efficient House
Overview
This project was a very, very long one. But it was also very unique. This project is the biggest one we've had so far. And instead of focusing on a single task, it consisted of about 7 different, smaller projects. These projects were:
This project was the second project this year that we had to present to judges. Instead this time, we weren't presenting one, we were presenting three. These were our Cold Frame, North Window Reflector, and Bonus Plan. A description of all the projects we did will be available below for you to look at.
I liked this project, and I also disliked it. The peak of this project for me would definitely be once it was over. I was so glad for it to be done. The worst part of this project for me was definitely the first group of judges on presentation night. That was terrible for me. First of all, they were the most intense judges of the night. And they were judging the worst project we had done (That would be our North Window Reflector). Our project was falling apart as we were presenting (We had tried to do something that was too difficult to be done with cardboard). It wasn't very much fun.
I learned a lot about myself through this project as well. I also learned quite a few good tips to surviving STEM projects. A great example would be: Don't freak out. Freaking out makes everything seem so much worse, and then you stress, and then you don't do quality work. What I learned about myself in this project is that it's best to just try and make everyone in the group happy. Don't make problems, solve problems. That way everyone in the group wants to help out and work, and you can pull together to do the best work possible. To make this project better, I would have liked to have spent more time on my North Window Reflector project. That project didn't go well for us. At all. Also, it would have been much better to have spent time to practice our presentations. We were at a loss for time (Plus we were lazy) and we didn't get to it. However, I think we would have done much better on presentation night had we practiced beforehand.
- Solar Water Heater Design + Model
- Solar Daylighting House Design + Model
- House Site Selection
- Wind Turbine Energy Generator
- Cold Frame
- North Window Reflector
- Bonus Plan
This project was the second project this year that we had to present to judges. Instead this time, we weren't presenting one, we were presenting three. These were our Cold Frame, North Window Reflector, and Bonus Plan. A description of all the projects we did will be available below for you to look at.
I liked this project, and I also disliked it. The peak of this project for me would definitely be once it was over. I was so glad for it to be done. The worst part of this project for me was definitely the first group of judges on presentation night. That was terrible for me. First of all, they were the most intense judges of the night. And they were judging the worst project we had done (That would be our North Window Reflector). Our project was falling apart as we were presenting (We had tried to do something that was too difficult to be done with cardboard). It wasn't very much fun.
I learned a lot about myself through this project as well. I also learned quite a few good tips to surviving STEM projects. A great example would be: Don't freak out. Freaking out makes everything seem so much worse, and then you stress, and then you don't do quality work. What I learned about myself in this project is that it's best to just try and make everyone in the group happy. Don't make problems, solve problems. That way everyone in the group wants to help out and work, and you can pull together to do the best work possible. To make this project better, I would have liked to have spent more time on my North Window Reflector project. That project didn't go well for us. At all. Also, it would have been much better to have spent time to practice our presentations. We were at a loss for time (Plus we were lazy) and we didn't get to it. However, I think we would have done much better on presentation night had we practiced beforehand.
Projects
- Solar Water Heater Design + Model - For this project we designed a small box with a reflector that was supposed to attract heat. The interior of the box was lined with tinfoil so that light would be reflected all around the inside of the box. We laid a layer of plastic wrap over the sun-exposed top of the box. The plastic wrap served as insulation, keeping most of the heat trapped inside the water heater. In the water heater we ran a length of copper tubing through one end and out another. The idea is that we would flow water through this tubing, and the solar energy would slowly warm it up.
- Solar Daylighting House Design + Model - For this project we designed a 1,000 square foot house with lights, windows and skylights in an attempt to get the maximum amount of natural light into the house. After the designing phase, we made our house to a scale out of cardboard and cut windows and skylights out of the roofs and walls. We scaled our house to a much smaller scale, because we wanted to have a sizable end product that could be easily visualized as a real home.Finally, we turned out the lights and used a light bulb to simulate the sun. The point of that experiment was to see how much natural light would actually be in the house during the day. Drag your mouse over the pictures below to see the caption.
- House Site Selection - For this project we embarked on a long and perilous journey around campus in our groups. Each group was told to go and find a location on campus that we think would be the best location for us to place our houses. We had to factor in variables such as sunlight, wind, land, population density, etc. My group and I chose a spot about a hundred or so feet to the left of the cafeteria. In our location the grass is green, the sun is shining and it was pretty secluded, so there would be privacy if you were to live there.
- Wind Turbine Energy Generator - For this project we were told to design the two types of wind turbines. These are Horizontal and Vertical Wind Turbines (For a better idea of what these are, scroll down to the Terms section). We built the turbine's blades out of cardboard. The goal was to generate the most electricity when our turbine was put up in front of a fan. We learned from building that the more surface area you can have on each blade without them interfering too much or weighing the turbine down, the better. However, the blades had to be tilted at an angle. Otherwise, the blades would be unable to catch any air, and would generate no electricity.
- Cold Frame - This was one of the three projects we had to present. For this project, we designed and built and scale model of a Cold Frame for plants. If you are unfamiliar with what a Cold Frame is, check out the Terms section below. In the entirety of the STEM class, one design would be chosen to be actually built. We decided to make our Cold Frame a very large model, so that it would appear more realistic. We wanted the lid of our Cold Frame to be able to stay in an open position on it's own. To do that, we made sticks with nails on the ends of them so that the nails could be slid into little notches on the side of the Cold Frame, allowing it be held in place. Check out our presentation here:
- North Window Reflector - This was the second of the three projects we had to present. For this project, we designed and built a reflector for the North-facing window of the Solar Studio. This window gets close to no light through it during the afternoon, so we were instructed to build a scale model of a reflector that would attach to the window to catch more light and reflect it into the window. Rather than go with the typical stationary reflector, we attempted to engineer a reflector that could attach to the sides of the window that could be adjustable. Making a model of this was a pain. Using cardboard to make something that needs to move on an axle in two places was almost impossible. We spent quite a lot of time trying to create what we had envisioned, but it never worked the way we wanted. We ended up presenting our project in shambles, due to all the deterioration it went through while we tried to make it work. Check out our presentation here:
- Bonus Plan - This was the third and final project we had to present. For this project, we had to come up with an idea for something that could improve the Solar Studio in any way. We spent a day or so contemplating what we could do. When we went inside the house, we noticed that there was no form of privacy whatsoever. All the windows were constantly wide open for anyone to see inside. What's a house if you can't have privacy? So we went ahead and decided that our bonus plan would be blinds for the windows of the house. For our model, we made blinds out of popsicle sticks. Sadly, our model blinds could not be pulled shut or pulled open like real blinds can be. That would've been much too difficult to make. Check out our presentation here:
Terms
- Solar Studio: A small house built nearby the side parking lot of San Marin. It was nicknamed the Solar Studio because it was designed to retain the heat of the sun and stay warm on the inside. Two of the projects we had to present were additions to the Solar Studio. Here's what it looks like:
- Horizontal Wind Turbine: A type of wind turbine that is pointed into the direction or flow of the wind.
- Vertical Wind Turbine: A type of wind turbine that is placed perpendicular to the direction of flow of the wind.