Class Notes separated by semester, end of semester descending to start of semester
Here you can find my notes from lectures and presentations, my in-lab work, and my reflections.
Spring Semester
1 April 2014
After the WERC team’s presentation our team split up. I stayed in the computer lab to work on our report and a cost analysis of a full pv-array system to on-demand water heaters, or a hybrid system with pv for electricity and a thermal water heater. We have enough information from our project partners to deliver them a full design. Our biggest set back has been the Sketch Up model not working with Energy Plus.
25 March 2014
After class presentations. Our team determined we have three main things to complete by next week. We needed to get a working model finished, we needed solar system options, and we also needed to edit and and working on our design report. Ben continued to work with the model, Andrew worked on solar system options, and I worked on the report and continued research on current National Park Service Historic properties that are using solar technology.
11 March 2014
Solar Technology on Historic Properties
National Park Service Technical Preservation Services – The Sectary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation & Illustrated Guidelines on Sustainability for Rehabilitating Historic Buildings
These guidelines offer advice and standards to follow when implementing new technology on historic homes. The guidelines are not very detailed but they do layout a path to follow. An important part of the guidelines is to follow them closely step-by-step until a solution is found. Reasoning for not using the initial advice or standard is needed to explain how your solution was found.
• On-site Solar technology should only be considered after implementing all appropriate energy efficiency treatments of the historic building. This is because the treatments often have greater life-cycle cost benefit than on-site renewable energy
o Suggestion to INDL: When rehabilitating the house, priority should be given to energy efficiency. Thus when replacing doors and windows and fixing foundational issues the most energy
efficient choice should be made within economic feasibility and historic guidelines. Insulated doors, double-pane windows, and insulation between walls and floors are great energy
efficiency treatments. Energy efficiency fixtures and utilities also have great life-cycle cost benefits.
• The historic building’s character is important to keep uncompromised and solar technology will comprise the character. Thus an analysis of solar energy potential should be conducted to determine if the use of solar energy would be successful and economically feasible.
o Our team has performed a renewable energy feasibility assessment for the area of the building (Porter, Indiana). We determined the best suited renewable energy is solar power, both solar
water heating and pv-array electricity.
• Installing solar technology where it will have minimal impact on the historic building and its site and/ or other off-site location have been investigated.
o Implementing solar technology in the highest potential is not the best option when considering a historic site. Visitors of the house must not be able to easily identify the solar
technology, so not in high-visibility areas. For our building, Charles P. Nelson Home, this leaves only two ideal locations for solar panels implementation. The first one being on the
South facing gable roof of the house. This site is not easily visible to visitors and also has high solar potential. The second site is a parking lot roughly 150 feet south of the Nelson
Home. The parking lot is approximately 650 feet long (North to South), and 400 feet wide (West to East). The area would not affect the historic character of the building and also would
allow for a larger solar energy system to be designed.
o Ideally a solar water heater would be installed on the roof of the Nelson Home and a pv-array with grid connect would be installed in the southern parking lot. If we are not able to
install on the roof, then on demand water heaters would be next best option and a larger pv-array would be required.
4 March 2014
Dr. Nies: Still keep wind energy in our design, but display it as a “loser”
25 February 2013
Dr. Zhao suggests creating mock ups of a windmill drive system repurposed with a low speed electrical generator wind turbine. Or also looking at storing equipment in the pump house in accordance with historical guidelines.
Also suggest looking at PV systems, and solar water heaters systems
Questions for IDNL contacts: can we replace existing tower with larger model of the tower. Model #802 6′ to 10′.
18 February 2014
Prof. Zhou suggests our team use The windstream technologies wind turbine model he has in his lab. We ventured over to ME G068 To look at the turbine. It is a hybrid system with solar and vertical turbine complete with direct drive Generators, convertor, and invertors. Awesome!
We have determined the house may not use natural gas. We will assume this until, we can determine otherwise. With this assumption we will plan on using a solar water heater, as electric water heaters are inefficient. Our team will need to research the use of solar water heaters compared to natural gas heaters initially.
Questions for NPS contacts
Maintenance Workers
What utilities does the house have, Gas, electric, and water? What companies provide each utility?
Historic Architect
Is it possible to put a wind turbine on the Nelson Home property, or modify the existing wind turbine?
Is it possible to install a solar water heater and, or solar panels on the house(roof) itself?
Research Coordinator
Is there any current research in the park on wind or solar feasibility?
If not , does NPS, Great Lakes, Sea Grant, the ranger station, or anyone else have measurement tools or data collection devices installed in the Dunes that you know of?
11 February 2014
Roll: Alex, Andrew, Ben, Pat
Ben and I discussed our site assessment (2/9/14) to Alex, Andrew, and Adviser Zhao. I worked on labeling the pictures I took, with labels corresponding to each room and location they were took. Ben is finishing up a google sketchup model of the Nelson house, using dimensions from our assessment. Alex is going to use the model in Energy Plus and Andrew is working on finding a hybrid renewable energy system the house could use. The Team and the project is progressing, we are working together to accomplish a partnership with the Dunes. N.B. At our assessment the Dunes staff seemed very eager to have students work on the house as much as possible, they were suggestion projects to us dealing with all aspects of the house and property.
4 February 2014
Roll: Alex, Andrew, Ben, Pat
In our lab time meeting, since our site visit was canceled we discussed another visit date. We decided Sunday would be the best. UPDATE(2-6-14) Joy, our Dunes contact, agreed to Sunday at 9am.
Andrew worked on researching renewable energy options for the home.
Ben and I, discussed using the Thermal imaging camera to determine the heat coefficient for the house. We found some good documentation on how they performed this method in Italy. The document is under Documents & Resources : Infrared Screening for Energy Audit.
Our list of needs to perform this method: We will need a thermometer to measure air temperature, we will need to measure wind speed, with an anemometer, flir tools software to evaluate our images, data for the weather/ climate conditions for that day, humidity, etc….
28 January 2014
We started off talking about what we need for our site visit to the Charles nelson house. Ben has a checklist, I also have found a LEED checklist for homes ( http://www.usgbc.org/resources/homes-v2008-checklist-xls). We plan on taking lots of pictures and noting all appliances, structural elements, windows, doors, floor/ wall insulation, etc… I have also talked to the Office of University Sustainability’s Engineer Mike Ursem and he said he would consult us on ways to improve the house and to look over our solutions. He was very interested in the project and helping us
Fall Semester
24 October 2013
Constraints
-Historic building
-Feasibility from IDNL – economic, design requirements, socially pleasing, etc…
-Type of building/ use of building
-weather/ seasons/ climate
Energy Constraints
-Economic – payback period, initial cost, etc..
-Solar Activity/ Solar feasibility
-Wind Energy feasibility
-Alternative Energy – biofuels, fuel cells, digesters (methane, natural gas), and many more
Waste Water
-footprint – size, environmental
-energy consumption
-level of treatment
-water use/demand
-In restoring a historic building there is an need for an unobtrusive and innovative waste water treatment plan
15 October 2013
Economic Ideas
• Ideas
○ Solar Panels
§ Affordablesolar.com
○ Wind
§ Strong winds coming off the lakes
§ Feasibility?
○ Home Power – magazine
○ Etc…
○ To make a energy system combing renewable energies to create a net-zero home with the least emissions and the highest efficiency.
• Constraints
○ Emissions
○ Efficiency
○ Historic Constraints
○ Connection to the energy grid
§ Is it allowed in Indiana, Power companies, etc..
§ Backup system?
○ Solar/wind feasibility
○ Budget
○ Use: Full time residents, short term, permanent residents?
• Feasibility/ requirements
○ Solar Wind Potential
§ Comparisons of Solar Panels and Wind options
○ Property boundaries, Floor Plans, Pictures of Nelson house
○ Can we monitor Bailey homestead( on the grid) for their power consumption/ or other National Park buildings that is used likewise to the proposed Nelson house.
○ NPS future plans for the home
3 September 2013
-You get what you pay for
-“3 months in the lab will “save” you 2 hours in the Library”
-ISI
-Science Citation Index Expanded
-Web of Knowledge
-homepower.com
-McMaster-Carr – everything
-Newark – electronics
-SigmaAldrich – chemicals
-VWR – lab supplies
-Coleparmer – lab supplies, environmental orientated.
-Its all about the money….
Assignment
What is our project and what is it about (1/3 page)
27 August 2013
-According to ABET: Engineering Design is the Process of devising a system component, or process to meet desired needs.
-Bio-mimicry – look into natural systems and processes for ideas, maybe even solutions
-Reverse assumptions to gain insight on multiple views, and open up the brainstorming
-Measurable criteria allow for easier decisions on the most appropriate solution
The Nelson House 