Energy efficient housing
In this project me and my group had to create an energy efficient house. We did a ton of tests to learn about how materials deal with heat, how to get heat in the winter, how to keep heat out in the summer, and a couple more.
Design a hot water heater
The first mini project we made mini water heaters and tested them. After constructing a water heater we put them in the sun to see if it would heat up, we soon realized that it took really long to heat up water. Once we recorded all our numbers we looked at why it did not heat up. We found that water has a really high specific heat.
Solar angles and how it changes during the season
To be able to keep the sun in the summer out and the sun in the winter in we had to better understand the patterns of the sun. To do this we studied graphs like the one below.
Daylight design
For this next step of the project, we build model houses out of cardboard. We did this to learn about over hangs and different types of ways to get sun in
Site selection
To select a site for our building we had to test locations to see which one would be the best. We tested things like the amount of sun light there was, the flatness of the land, and how the area dealt with harsh weather.
Materials testing
Solar Angles and how it Changes During Seasons
Justification
energysources-23period.pdf | |
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key PHYSICS CONCEPTS
heat- energy transfer from random motions, resulting in gain or loss of internal energy
conduction- energy transfer through certain materials
convection-heat transfer because of movement of the heated substance itself
radiation- energy transmitted by electromagnetic waves
thermal conductivity- Heat travels from low pressure to high pressure. The word cold means the absence of heat. When you touch something the worth of your body transfers into the object so your hand has no heat or is "cold"
fluids- anything that flows. such as gas or liquid
pressure- Force per surface area where the force is normal to the surface. Pressure is measured in Pascals.
buoyancy- The loss of weight of an object submerged in a fluid.
buoyant force- The net upward force exerted by a fluid on a submerged object.
specific heat- The quantity of heat required to raise the temperature of a unit mass of a substance by one degree Celsius. Water has a high specific heat of 1. things with a high specific heat take longer to heat up, but also take longer to cool down. materials with low specific heat capacities heat up quickly but also lose their heat quickly.
Laws of Thermodynamics
0th Law- explains temperature- if two systems are in thermal equilibrium with a third system, they are also in equilibrium with each other
1st Law- conservation of energy- energy is neither created nor destroyed- heat is a form of energy
2nd Law- entropy increases- disorder increases
3rd Law- Temperature can never get to absolute zero- heat always exists
Reflection:
This has defiantly been our longest project yet, but it had to be. Building a energy efficient house takes a lot of testing, planning and detailing. After doing this project I have much greater respect for architects. During this project my group and I struggled a lot to stay focused at the beginning, and we did not always get along. We were able to come together make things work out. the time we spent actually working we got a lot done. It might have been because of it being a long project but by the end it was my favorite group this year
If I had to do this project again I would have changed a lot of things. I would have put more key features on the house. In the end the best groups took the most risks. they were not afraid to put some pretty crazy things on their house to set it apart from the rest. I think the reason we did not get to build our house is because it was to normal we needed to set it apart from the rest. This was a real fun project and I hope to work on more engineering projects soon.