PrintBuildings are often not designed to maximize solar utility for the building occupants. As such, there can be some “low hanging fruit” when it comes to increasing solar gain and solar energy utilization in the heating season. Additionally, active solar heating systems can be set up to offset significant portions of annual heating costs.
Consider the heating of your home, apartment, or office during the heating season. If you are in a region where there is little or no heating requirement, please imagine your home, apartment, or office in a location where you would need a heating system. What solar passive solutions would reduce your heating requirements at low capital cost? What solar active systems would help to offset your energy consumption for space heating? Section 13.2 of the D&B text provides some system schematics and specifications for typical, active solar thermal systems to give you some ideas.
Deliverable: Lesson 7 Assignment
Write up a 200-300 word mini-proposal of your solar thermal heating solution(s) for your built environment of choice. Include two schematics:
- a floor plan of your area (site map) with solar access, obstacles (trees), orientation, and location; and
- a schematic of solar thermal system design (including any collectors, pumps, fans, pipes, heat exchangers, and tanks) that you help to offset your energy needs.
Prepare both schematics using any convenient software (Power Point, CAD, SketchUp, etc.). Please insert your graphics to your proposal document and save as PDF. Submit your report as a single PDF file to the Lesson 7 Assignment dropbox in Canvas by 11:55 pm Wednesday night.