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Macey Pavon

Block:F
#15
24 May 2017
APES Design/Build Project-Solar House
Introduction
Today, energy conservation seems to be a problem, and inventors have attempted, and
still are attempting to manufacture various ways we are able to shift toward renewable energy.
Renewable energies are referred to as “new” because it is not being widely used in our
industrial society, developing technologies are being used, and because they would play a likely
role in the future. All around the world nations are always trying to discover techniques to
abandon the burning of fossil fuels. “This is because the economic and social costs, security
risks, and health and environmental impacts of fossil fuel dependence are all continuing to
intensify”(Withgott, J.; Brennan, S 591). By exemplifying the creation of renewable energy, a
solar house model was constructed demonstrating two ways renewable energy is created.
This solar house model is suppose to act in a way as a real house would using the
renewable energies of the sun and wind. Like other energy sources, the renewable energies
can power electricity, heat air and water, and fuel vehicles. However, in this lab we are providing
renewable energy to apply power for electricity. In this lab, manufacturing a solar house model
will show how it uses less energy to create electricity compared to an average house.
In this experiment, the different variables an average house might not have compared to
this model are solar panels and a wind power plant. The solar panels and wind power plant are
the sources to generate items from renewable sources.
Methods
First, to construct this project, we needed to have the kit with all of the materials needed
to make these products will come in this kit. Once the kit was in our possession, the structure of
the house was already made from Mrs. Muno’s family. However the house would not be already
constructed, therefore, if this project were to be reconstructed, the structure of the house would
have to first be built before any proceeding to any other parts of the project. When constructing
the house, it is essential that you do not glue the roof because you would not be able to get
access to the interior of the house and the roof where the solar panels are places.
The first item constructed was the solar panel roof. The kit came with four solar panels
and red and black wires. With these wires, we connected the farthest right solar panel to the
“outlet” on the house which is silver and rectangular, with a long red wire. Then we connected
the farthest left solar panel with another long wire to another “outlet” which is right next to the
first one we used, but this time, this wire was black. With the remaining solar panels, we
connected the backs of the panels with short red and black wires. Lastly, it’s important to
connect the actual roof to the actual house.
The second item made was the wind power plant. For this product the materials used,
which came in the kit: an electric motor, impeller(rotor), cardboard cards(windmill tail piece and
windmill body piece), thick wooden stick, wooden skewer, glue/tape, and sandpaper. We started
with the larger wooden stick and stuck the smaller wooden skewer in the little hold of the bigger
stick. We noticed that the wooden skewer was too long to be on top of the thick wooden stick so
we cut the little wooden skewer 8 centimeters and used the sandpaper to smooth out the ridges
form the stick being cut. Next we found the impeller(rotor) and the electric motor and popped the
impeller with two blades onto the electric motor. After we put that together we popped out the
cardboard cards to make the body piece and wrapped it around the motor, then popped of the
tail piece and connected it to the back of the body piece, making sure it is not slanted at an
angle. Lastly, the motor had two wired connected to it already, a black one and a red one, we
grabbed a long black and red wire and connected it to the ones that are connected to the motor.
After that, we connected the super long and connected wired to the “outlets” , the black wire in
one, and the red wire next to it.
Results
After we made these products, the kit came with a little red bulb which had two little
wires sticking out of it. With these two wires we bent each one so it looked like the letter “h”, a
vertical line to a horizontal line, to another vertical line. With this red light bulb, we connected it
to the two “outlets” that were side by side that were connected to the solar panels and brought
the house out into the sunlight and angled the house to where the sun directly hit the solar
panels and the red light turned on.
For the wind power plant, we also connected the red bulb into the two other“outlets” that
are connected to the wind power plant. This was difficult to make it work at school because we
do not have any portable fans or hair dryers, but finally we came up with the
ideas of going to the bathroom and using the hand dryers. However, although after several
attempts, the blade was spinning fast it wasn’t spinning fast enough, so we switched the
impeller with two blades to a smaller impeller with four blades. We attempted it again with the
hand dryers and after several trials, the light turned on.
Discussion
The results of these products made our hypothesis true that by the creation of
renewable energy, a solar house model was constructed demonstrating two ways renewable
energy is created. When we were testing if the wind power plant worked, we had to change the
impeller blade, because with the “Wind turbines convert the kinetic energy in the wind into
mechanical power. This mechanical power can be used for specific tasks (such as grinding
grain or pumping water) or a generator can convert this mechanical power into electricity” (How
Do Turbines Work?). In this case, its task was to generate the mechanical power into electricity,
but the wind under the hand dryer which had 20 AMPS and 110/120 volts. When we switched it
to the impeller with the four blades, the motor turned fast enough that it created mechanical
power to then generate electricity.
The solar panels worked just the way it was suppose to because of solar energy. The
energy is collected through active solar because we used a device to focus, move or store solar
energy. With active solar technologies, a common method is the installment of flat-plate
collectors on rooftops, which the solar panels acted as in this lab.
It was fairly difficult to create electricity with the wind power plant because in order for it
to work, the wind direction has to face the wind turbine in a specific direction to where the
impeller will spin fast enough to where it creates energy to power electricity. A more effective
and efficient product would be the solar panels because it achieved the a more constant
productivity with a low expense because the sun is a renewable source.
The results of these products made our hypothesis true that by the creation of
renewable energy, a solar house model was constructed demonstrating two ways renewable
energy is created. If conducting the experiment again, I would place the impeller with four
blades on the wind power plant. These products were to test wind and solar power showing the
energy that was manufactured in response to the sunlight and very strong winds.

Works Cited

Withgott, J.; Brennan, S. (2011) Environment: Science behind the stories, 4 th ed. San
Francisco,CA: Pearson Education Inc.

Thames; Kosmos (2012) Power House Experiment Manual:Sustainable Living in the 21st

Century, version 2.0

"How Do Wind Turbines Work?" How Do Wind Turbines Work? | Department of Energy. N.p.,

n.d. Web. 22 May 2017.

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