Passive Solar House CreationAaron Bernhard, Braydon Hall, Izzi Durham and Vibhu Iyer

HMW Questions

• How might we design a structure that takes in as much energy from the sun as possible?

• How might we utilize the building materials in the class to build a powerful solar house?

• How might we build our house as time efficient as possible?

• How might we maintain the heat throughout the night?

• How might we focus the energy of the sun into the house?

• How might we absorb as much energy from the sun as possible?

• How might we use light?

Brainstorming

• For each and every HMW question, my group would sit down for a period of 15 minutes and draw any idea that came to mind.

How might we use light?

• Mirrors

• Windows

• CDs

We held up CDs so they reflected light onto a thermometer or our hands – the increase in temperature was quite significant and noticeable.

How might we maintain the heat?

• Water

• Insulation

• Double paned/two walls

To test various methods of insulation, we put two identical cups of hot water underneath plastic and cardboard boxes. The cup in the plastic box stayed slightly warmer, though it was smaller, which may have skewed our results. But when we had two layers on one of the boxes, it kept its heat far better than the single box.

HMW absorb as much energy from the sun as possible?

We tested a clear water bottle and a black water bottle under a lamp. The black water bottle was slightly warmer at the end.

The Plans

• After much consideration we cut down the ideas to its most rudimentary form.

The Breakdown

What we had learned in our experimentation was that we could focus the heat through a single hole. Then we could absorb it through something with a high heat capacity that was relatively dark. Finally we learned that in order to be successful we needed something that was both air tight and had a lot of insulation. All of these became key in our final design.

Final Product

Additional Images

The End…