Passive Solar Design (page 2)

Terms and Concepts for Background Research

• Passive solar, Passive solar design
• House building materials
• Roof overhang length equation

Research Questions

• What is Passive Solar?
• How much can it save?
• What is gained/lost by using Passive Solar Design?
• What are some basic designs?

Experimental Procedure

1. Assemble the passive solar house and the normal house, but keeping in mind to make them roughly the equal square centimeters.
2. Install thermometers inside of each house, the thermometers that will be used are wireless, this will decrease the likely hood of the cool air outside the house to get in and the warm air inside to get out.
3. Mark the ground one meter away from the base of the light stand to make sure both houses are the same distance from the light for each trial.
4. Attach the halogen light to a stand at a 30 degree angle for the winter test, or a 70 degree angle for the summer test.
5. Record the starting temperature of the house before the light is on. Have a timer set at 10 minutes and start it at the same time you turn the light on.
6. After the ten minutes pass, record the ending temperature, and then repeat.

Results

The winter test shows that a passive solar house harnesses a lot more energy during winter when the sun is at a lower angle that the ranch style house, and increased by 4 degrees Celsius on average. While the ranch style house only rose one degree Celsius on average.