Passive House Design
About the Project
The goal of this project was to create a passive solar house that could be almost or completely self contained in its generation of energy and water. We wanted in integrate the use of daylighting techniques, water collection and heating, and materials to completely optimize our house to be able to be as energy efficient as possible.
About Our house
We decided to make a full 1500 square foot house with two stories. Our house has one master bedroom and bath that spans the entirety of the top floor. Our bottom floor consists of on large great room with an open kitchen and living area. We also included a one car garage and utility room. There are two major walk in storage closets, one on each floor that should provide enough space to store household items. On the eastern end of the first floor a full kitchen can be found. The appliances’ power would be provided from the energy generated from the solar roof.
The south side of the house is completely covered in floor to ceiling windows to let in as much light as possible during the day. During the summer there are over hangs that jut out about two feet to provide shade when the sun is high. On the other three sides of the house there are windows throughout to let light from other areas in. I the master bedroom, on the east side there is a large window that is meant to let in early morning light and on the opposing side there is a section of the wall that is completely floor to ceiling windows to let in the evening light and sunset. In the bathroom windows are placed high near the ceiling so that hot air can be let out of the house without the need to pump it out with some kind of system or just let it collect. In the bottom level one can enter the house on the north side where other windows are located so that one can see the surroundings. The roofs of the house are at a south facing angle to catch the most of the sun's light during the day. We ran an experiment by designing a small model of a house from cardboard and using a light bulb to record the amount of light that certain kinds of windows would let in at certain times in the year. From that test we were able to conclude that the floor to ceiling windows were the best option to let in as much light as possible.
Our plan is to install a full Tesla roof on all three of the roof sections. We went with a solar roof so that waz we would be able to collect and harness the sun's energy to power our house and possibly sell beck to other power users in the area. The flat solar panels on the roof are also meant to allow water to run off into the gutter system and be collected for use in the house and gardens. In one of our tests we made a solar powered water heater, from the data, or lack thereof, we were able to conclude that it was the least effective way to heat water and that using the power collected from the solar roof if the form of electricity would be a better idea to heat the water than to have it sitting, trying to heat up from the sun alone. Water has a high heat capacity which means it is difficult to heat up and difficult to cool down. That means that once a large portion of the water is hot it will retain it's heat but getting it to that point is a different story.
Why Renewable Energy?
The goal of this project was to create a passive solar house that could be almost or completely self contained in its generation of energy and water. We wanted in integrate the use of daylighting techniques, water collection and heating, and materials to completely optimize our house to be able to be as energy efficient as possible.
About Our house
We decided to make a full 1500 square foot house with two stories. Our house has one master bedroom and bath that spans the entirety of the top floor. Our bottom floor consists of on large great room with an open kitchen and living area. We also included a one car garage and utility room. There are two major walk in storage closets, one on each floor that should provide enough space to store household items. On the eastern end of the first floor a full kitchen can be found. The appliances’ power would be provided from the energy generated from the solar roof.
The south side of the house is completely covered in floor to ceiling windows to let in as much light as possible during the day. During the summer there are over hangs that jut out about two feet to provide shade when the sun is high. On the other three sides of the house there are windows throughout to let light from other areas in. I the master bedroom, on the east side there is a large window that is meant to let in early morning light and on the opposing side there is a section of the wall that is completely floor to ceiling windows to let in the evening light and sunset. In the bathroom windows are placed high near the ceiling so that hot air can be let out of the house without the need to pump it out with some kind of system or just let it collect. In the bottom level one can enter the house on the north side where other windows are located so that one can see the surroundings. The roofs of the house are at a south facing angle to catch the most of the sun's light during the day. We ran an experiment by designing a small model of a house from cardboard and using a light bulb to record the amount of light that certain kinds of windows would let in at certain times in the year. From that test we were able to conclude that the floor to ceiling windows were the best option to let in as much light as possible.
Our plan is to install a full Tesla roof on all three of the roof sections. We went with a solar roof so that waz we would be able to collect and harness the sun's energy to power our house and possibly sell beck to other power users in the area. The flat solar panels on the roof are also meant to allow water to run off into the gutter system and be collected for use in the house and gardens. In one of our tests we made a solar powered water heater, from the data, or lack thereof, we were able to conclude that it was the least effective way to heat water and that using the power collected from the solar roof if the form of electricity would be a better idea to heat the water than to have it sitting, trying to heat up from the sun alone. Water has a high heat capacity which means it is difficult to heat up and difficult to cool down. That means that once a large portion of the water is hot it will retain it's heat but getting it to that point is a different story.
Why Renewable Energy?
energyjustification342017.pdf |
Our Passive House Presentation
Blueprints of House
What I Learned
This was a difficult group to work with, there were different levels of work that each of the members committed to and executed. In this group I learned how to manage a group and design a project with little help from other members, However, this shouldn't be seen as a complete annoyance. Through this project much has been learned. I learned ow to deal with people more than any other group that i have been with. This group also had a wide variety of types of people. Since most of the project was done by me, when we presented there was a clear gap of understanding between the other members of the group and I. From this I learned that even though they may not have put in the work, making sure they know what happening is a must, even if the chose to do nothing. Overall this was a very interesting project, I was able to hone my blueprinting and people skills.
This was a difficult group to work with, there were different levels of work that each of the members committed to and executed. In this group I learned how to manage a group and design a project with little help from other members, However, this shouldn't be seen as a complete annoyance. Through this project much has been learned. I learned ow to deal with people more than any other group that i have been with. This group also had a wide variety of types of people. Since most of the project was done by me, when we presented there was a clear gap of understanding between the other members of the group and I. From this I learned that even though they may not have put in the work, making sure they know what happening is a must, even if the chose to do nothing. Overall this was a very interesting project, I was able to hone my blueprinting and people skills.