Bryce Beardslee

3rd Period
05-04-15

Question 1:
Our house was built primarily out of wood. The inside walls are reinforced with
cardboard. We chose to build it out of wood since it provides a balance between cost effectivity
and it is strong enough to support a buildings weight. We built our building in a deciduous forest
since we felt that the deciduous forest was the best biome to build our home in as the deciduous
forest does not get extremely hot nor extremely cold. This will make it easy to plan on not
needing to account for extreme temperatures. Thus not providing the need to go out of the
groups way to buy or provide a form of extreme insulation like that we would need to provide if
we were to build in an Arctic Tundra. We also chose to have four south facing windows to allow
heat to enter during the winter by using thermal mass. We are also using a heat resistance
ventilator to filter out stale air and carbon dioxide and filter in new oxygen.
The deciduous forest has four distinct seasons of winter, spring, summer, and autumn.
The seasons will benefit our house; the seasons allow us to get the fullest capabilities of the
active and passive solar benefits to the house. During the winter the radiant flooring will heat the
house with sunlight. Also during the winter the house will be heated by the thermal mass in the
thick east to west indoor wall. During the summer the solar panels will absorb sunlight and
provide energy to the house. And the roof will absorb the sunlight rather than the suns energy
going into the house through a normal roof.
Another advantage of using the deciduous forest is we do not have to deal with excessive
amounts of humidity. Whereas our moderate climate doesnt promote much moisture to collect
this would cause the house to deteriorate at a faster rate as if there was no moisture. Meaning we
dont have to make any un-needed adjustments.

Bryce Beardslee
3rd Period
05-04-15

Question 2:
Our house we chose to use a couple elements of passive solar and active solar
energy. We are going to use radiant flooring. Radiant flooring is the practice of running hot water
through pipes in which heats the floor up, and in turn heats the house during the winter and late
autumn. This will act as thermal mass for the heat of water releasing heat into the house. The
American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE)
conducted a study and determined that radiant heating/cooling tends to be about 6 to 8 degrees
Fahrenheit, which is more efficient than the normal heating/cooling system. So is radiant flooring
not only more effective and also active solar, but you can argue that it is better than the usual
HVAC method for heating. Also on the roof we are building a few solar panels which in turn will
turn the suns energy into energy that we will use for providing electricity and power the boiler
that produces the hot water for the radiant flooring.
Active solar energy, being energy that uses an external source of energy, include vacuum
insulated panels and heat ventilators. Vacuum insulated panels have a thermal conductivity of 5
mW/m.K, making it better than any other insulation material. It allows approximately 7 to 10
days of storage within the necessary temperature range and caters for needs of more than 5 days,
which most insulation materials dont always allow. This is considered heat resistant because of
its ability to allow heat to pass through it quickly and efficiently. Heat recovery ventilators are
responsible for controlling the moisture and pollutant levels inside a home. Heat recovery
ventilators contain two fans, one that takes in the stale household air and another that releases
fresh air. The heat recovery ventilator is able to recover up to 85% of heat in the outgoing
airstream which saves more money and as well is more efficient and safer than cracking open a
few windows to get your ventilation.

Bryce Beardslee
3rd Period
05-04-15

Question 3:
We chose this layout and design for the passive solar home because the main goal is to be
able to renew energy and disperse energy in an environmentally safe way and so with our biome
with the deciduous forest, that is simple enough. The advantages of this layout compared to other
layouts is that, again due to our biome, we are able to easily obtain the goal of redistributing heat
within a home using solar energy without having to worry about the temperatures of our biome
itself. In other biomes where it is more humid, one has to be able to convert heat to a cool air
conditioning system which doesnt use as much solar energy except to power the home rather
than provide heat and cooling energy. Three types of solar homes include direct gain, indirect
gain, or isolated gain. In a direct gain design, sunlight enters through south facing windows and
strikes floors or walls which absorb and store the solar heat. As the room begins to cool down,
the thermal mass releases the heat into the house. An indirect solar home is when heat is released
through south facing windows and is spread throughout the room, mainly through masonry
walls. The heat travels through the wall and radiates to the living space.
Lastly, isolated gain is the most common solar home design. Isolated gain solar homes
normally come into the form of a sunroom, solar-room, or solarium. Unlike greenhouses,
sunrooms serve to provide auxiliary heat, a sunny space to grow plants, and a peaceful sitting
area like. For all three functions are difficult to apply at once and need compromise to do so.
The solar home that we are doing falls under direct gain due to our use of south facing
windows and machinery that stores solar heat.