Learning about energy efficiency:
We learned about energy efficiency through many projects. Below are the details of each. Click on on a project button for more information.
Passive Solar home:
This was our main and longest project in our energy efficiency unit. Our goal was to make the most energy efficient house possible within a $5,000 budget.
solar Water heater:
To further learn about how solar energy works, we created a solar water heater using cardboard, black spray paint, copper tubing, foil, plastic wrap, plastic tubing, insulation material, and a water container.
Windmill:
Learning about the process of harvesting wind energy, we created our very own windmill designs on a much smaller scale of course. We made them out of cardboard, folder paper, and tape.
energy efficient house model:
After learning of the many different daylighting techniques used when building houses, we got a chance to demonstrate them on a smaller cardboard model.
below is our research on the different types of energy:
concepts learned through whole unit:
Thermal Conductivity: "The rate at which heat passes through a specified material, expressed as the amount of heat that flows per unit time through a unit area with a temperature gradient of one degree per unit distance"
Pressure: "The continuous physical force exerted on or against an object by something in contact with it."
Gases: "An air-like fluid substance which expands freely to fill any space available, irrespective of its quantity."
Laws of Thermodynamics: "The laws of thermodynamics define fundamental physical quantities (temperature, energy, and entropy) that characterize thermodynamic systems."
0th Law- Tells how if two connected objects are in equilibrium with each other then a third connected object must be in equilibrium with them both.
1st Law- Conservation of energy, which states that energy is neither created nor destroyed, and that heat is a form of energy.
2nd Law- The disorder in the universe always increases. After cleaning your room, it always has a tendency to become messy again. This is a result of the second law. As the disorder in the universe increases, the energy is transformed into less usable forms. Thus, the efficiency of any process will always be less than 100%.
3rd Law- All molecular movement stops at a temperature we call absolute zero, or 0 Kelvin (-273oC). Since temperature is a measure of molecular movement, there can be no temperature lower than absolute zero.
Specific Heat Capacity: "The heat required to raise the temperature of the unit mass of a given substance by a given amount."
Archimedes' Principle: "Law of buoyancy, discovered by Archimedes, which states that any object that is completely or partially submerged in a fluid at rest is acted on by an upward, or buoyant, force. The magnitude of this force is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object.
Conduction: "The process by which heat or electricity is directly transmitted through a substance when there is a difference of temperature or of electrical potential between adjoining regions, without movement of the material."
Convection: "The movement caused within a fluid by the tendency of hotter and therefore less dense material to rise, and colder, denser material to sink under the influence of gravity, which consequently results in transfer of heat."
Radiation: "The emission of energy as electromagnetic waves or as moving subatomic particles, esp. high-energy particles that cause ionization."
Pressure: "The continuous physical force exerted on or against an object by something in contact with it."
Gases: "An air-like fluid substance which expands freely to fill any space available, irrespective of its quantity."
Laws of Thermodynamics: "The laws of thermodynamics define fundamental physical quantities (temperature, energy, and entropy) that characterize thermodynamic systems."
0th Law- Tells how if two connected objects are in equilibrium with each other then a third connected object must be in equilibrium with them both.
1st Law- Conservation of energy, which states that energy is neither created nor destroyed, and that heat is a form of energy.
2nd Law- The disorder in the universe always increases. After cleaning your room, it always has a tendency to become messy again. This is a result of the second law. As the disorder in the universe increases, the energy is transformed into less usable forms. Thus, the efficiency of any process will always be less than 100%.
3rd Law- All molecular movement stops at a temperature we call absolute zero, or 0 Kelvin (-273oC). Since temperature is a measure of molecular movement, there can be no temperature lower than absolute zero.
Specific Heat Capacity: "The heat required to raise the temperature of the unit mass of a given substance by a given amount."
Archimedes' Principle: "Law of buoyancy, discovered by Archimedes, which states that any object that is completely or partially submerged in a fluid at rest is acted on by an upward, or buoyant, force. The magnitude of this force is equal to the weight of the fluid displaced by the object.
Conduction: "The process by which heat or electricity is directly transmitted through a substance when there is a difference of temperature or of electrical potential between adjoining regions, without movement of the material."
Convection: "The movement caused within a fluid by the tendency of hotter and therefore less dense material to rise, and colder, denser material to sink under the influence of gravity, which consequently results in transfer of heat."
Radiation: "The emission of energy as electromagnetic waves or as moving subatomic particles, esp. high-energy particles that cause ionization."