Mason Dowling Title: Passive Solar House Modeling Project Purpose: To explore passive solar construction.

Materials: Lab quest, cardboard, scissors, hot glue, dirt, tin foil, magnifying glass, pennies, tissue

Procedure Pt. 1: Construct passive solar house using materials provided/brought from home. House must have one window. -See attached lab handout.

Procedure Pt. 2:

1.

Heat house to 12c above room temperature and record the amount of time it took to reach that temperature. Use lab quest to determine cooling rate.

2.

Start at room temperature. Heat house for 4 minutes. Record temperature reached light bulb is six inches from house. Use lab quest to determine cooling rate.

3.

Test outside with sun?

Results:

Trial 1 Group Geran/Nic ky Andre/Sai n Max 32.2 34.3 Min 24.6 24.7 25.3 27.2 28.5 26.3 23.8 21.7 28.1 22.6 Cooling Rate 0.0253 0.032 0.024 0.007333 0.011667 0.025 0.0333 0.0823 0.0166 0.03633

Trial 2 Max Temp Initial Temp 38.1 35.9 33.1 23.5 26.8 35.4 26.4 23.9 25.3 35.1 22.2 22.2 22.4 22.1 22.3 22 23.2 21.1 21.7 21.6 Change In Temp 0.0663 0.032 0.04375 0.005833 0.01875 0.055 0.01 0.0116 0.015 0.056

Liz/Carolin 32.5 e Clay/Maso 29.4 n Nykke 32

Elijah/Alen 33.8 Ricky/Laur 33.8 en Taylore/An 24.7 thony Emily/Nat alie Matthias 33.1 33.5

Conclusion: The Cooling rate in my model solar house was .007333% - very low. Two features of passive solar houses that help capture solar energy and retain heat are heat absorbent building materials, such as adobe and high amounts of insulation. Three ways my model could be improved and my cooling rate lowered would be more windows for light to enter, a more insulated roof, and insulation on the floor. My model did, however, have

the lowest cooling rate in the class. Passive solar house designers want to lower the cooling rate of the house so that the house can retain heat even when the sun is not present, getting rid of a need for heating. My two most successful strategies for lowering the cooling rate were heavy insulation and heat-absorbent walls (earth). My lowest cooling rate was in trial two (four minutes), and was 0.005833% - the lowest in the class. In one hour, the house would lose 25 x 0.005833% of the heat - or .145825% of the heat. Possible errors in the experiment would have been caused by the lab quest, which rarely maintained what seemed to be accurate temperature readings. For other people building a passive solar house, I would recommend many windows, and thick earthen walls.

To elaborate on ways I could improve my model: Adding more windows would allow sunlight (or lamplight) to pass into the model, heating it up. It only had one window. A more insulated roof would allow less heat to escape, as heat rises. A more insulated floor, on the other hand, would prevent the ground temperature influencing the climate inside the house. The outside test worked less well than the inside test for my model, as the sun was not at an acceptable height to focus light through the magnifying glass, heating up the house. The lamp inside worked well for this. My heating rate was much higher inside. To evaluate the best passive solar design, I would consider three variables, 1) design/attractiveness of house. 2) cooling rate. 3) heating rate. To improve this lab, I would have more materials and time available to build the house, especially more hot glue.