ZERO ENERGY HOME

DESIGN PROJECT

10/14/2016 EDSGN 100: Section 020 Team # 1 Submitted to Dr. Smita Bharti

Robert Saracino rjs6221@psu.edu

John Zheng jxz264@psu.edu

Leon Zhao zjz5100@psu.edu

Yonatan Solomon yfs5040@psu.edu

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Zero Energy Home Design Project

E D S G N 1 0 0 : S E C T I O N 0 2 0 T E A M # 1 S U B M I T T E D T O D R . S M I T A B H A R T I

T H E T E A M

A B S T R A C T

Zero Energy Homes, houses that produce enough energy too equal or exceed consumption, serve as a

way to reduce the environmental impact that humanity has inflicted upon planet earth. This report

explores the design process of a Zero Energy Home, beginning with basic research all the way through

basic prototyping and testing.

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I N T R O D U C T I O N

Global climate change is one of today’s most pressing issue and most Americans favor taking

meaningful action. Buildings alone are responsible for 40% of the total energy used in the United States.

Zero energy homes are one of the cornerstones of a reduced carbon future that is not reliant on fossil

fuels. With a zero energy home, you control where your home’s energy comes from with every flip of

the light switch, every day.

A zero energy home is not just a “green home” or a home with solar panels. A zero energy home

combines advanced design and superior building systems with energy efficiency and on-site solar panels

to produce a better home. Zero energy homes are ultra-comfortable, healthy, quiet, sustainable homes

that are affordable to live in.

As a team of 4, we were challenged with the task of building a zero energy home with the goal of

maximizing energy efficiency as well as customer needs. This design challenge revolves around the

creation of a home for a family of four in State College, Pennsylvania. The aim was to create a

comfortable and functional home, which produces enough energy to be self-sustainable. The design

prototype must be able to absorb heat from a lamp, as well as retain the heat while undergoing an

easterly wind provided by a fan.

In order to better understand what factors make up a zero energy home, we decided to look at how our

house would perform in another location not far from State College PA. Because I am from New Jersey

and spend a lot of time in Long Beach Island, I realized that this common summer vacation spot has not

a single Zero Energy Home. After hurricane sandy, the construction for new homes on the island is at an

all-time high. So, in addition to State College PA, we decided to take a stab at how one might function in

this climate as well.

C U S T E M E R N E E D S

They made it clear to the designers that they are not sure if they want this home to be their main living

house, or a summer home in LBI, so we as designers catered to both possibilities and would make the

minor adjustments once a decision was made. After sitting down with our excited customers, a family of

4 with 2 boys, we have gathered the following guidelines for designing their new zero energy home:

Sleeps 4

Solar panels that are of average quality (Don’t use the best in order to keep initial costs down)

Single floor

Water front

E X T E R N A L R E S E A C H

Pictured below is the Morningstar Home, Penn State’s entry in the 2007 Solar Decathlon held in

October, 2007, in Washington, D.C. The home finished fourth out of twenty entries including MIT,

Carnegie-Mellon, and the University of Colorado. The home not only produces all of the energy it

needs over a year, but also enough to charge an electric car, and still put some excess into the grid. The

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home demonstrates that solar-powered Zero Energy Homes can be made to work well in the

Commonwealth.

The MorningStar Solar Home is a net-zero home: it produces as much (and even more) energy as it

consumes. It is currently used in sustainable housing education efforts through research and outreach

activities. The MorningStar Solar Home is about to be integrated in the Penn State HyRES Lab and will

serve as a residence for a graduate student to test the house systems in real life conditions.

After taking a tour of this home, we witnessed the extensive use of energy efficient features that we

would include in our home as well. Some of the more obvious being a south facing roof, large windows,

and a well-insulated framework.

One key aspect that the morning star house has that we would need to incorporate, is the use of passive

solar heating. Passive solar heating is the least expensive way to heat your home. Put simply, design for

passive solar heating aims to keep out summer sun and let in winter sun while ensuring the building’s

overall thermal performance retains that heat in winter but excludes it and allows it to escape in summer.

Passive solar design also depends on informed, active occupants who remember to open and close

windows and isolate zone spaces, for example, each day.

Solar radiation is trapped by the greenhouse action of correctly oriented (south-facing if in northern

hemisphere) glass areas exposed to full sun. Window orientation, shading, frames and glazing type have

a significant effect on the efficiency of this process (see Orientation; Shading; Glazing).

Trapped heat is absorbed and stored by materials with high thermal mass (usually masonry) inside the

house. It is re-released at night when it is needed to offset heat losses to lower outdoor temperatures (see

Thermal mass).

Passive solar heating is used in conjunction with passive shading, which allows maximum winter solar

gain and prevents summer overheating. This is most simply achieved with northerly orientation of

appropriate areas of glass and well-designed overhangs. Fixed shading above openings excludes high

angle summer sun but admits lower angle winter sun.

High insulation levels are essential in passive solar houses. Ceilings and roof spaces account for 25–35%

of winter heat loss and must be well insulated. To prevent heat loss, place most of the insulation next to

the ceiling as this is where the greatest temperature control is required.

The counterpart of passive solar heating is active solar heating. Active solar refers to the

collection of energy, primarily through Photovoltaic Systems (PV), more commonly known as

solar panels. Other than the power and efficiency of the panels chosen, the most important aspect

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of ensuring the PV system is being used as effectively as possible is the solar positioning of the

system. Solar azimuth, or rather the sun’s angle relative to due north, has a large impact on the

way solar panels are positioned. The output of a PV system in the Northern Hemisphere is

optimized when the azimuth is 180° (when the panels face due south) where they will receive the

greatest amount of sunlight.

House tilt is another major factor that needs to be taken into consideration. Besides the direction the

solar panels are facing, the tilt is just as important. In general, the closer the house is to the equator, the

smaller the tilt angle needs to be in order to optimize solar contact and maximize energy output of a

system.

C O N C E P T G E N E R A T I O N

About 16 different hand drawn designs were sketched to get an idea of what we wanted our house to

look like. Of those 16, we narrowed it down to 4 we all agreed we liked:

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C O N C E P T S E L E C T I O N

The final decision for our house concept was the elevated design on the bottom right. It appeared to be

the best choice based off the location. After choosing, an initial layout of the house inside was drawn

out:

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3 D M O D E L

Using solid works, we sketched the basic design of our house. The main specifications include a 35-

degree roof tilt and a 70 X 100 ft. base. Solar panels are not shown on the model, however cover every

square foot of the south facing roof to maximize our solar output.

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S C A L E D M O D E L

The scaled model was built using a foam board base and wall. There were many considerations when

choosing the correct building material. In the end, a black rubber was used to cover the foam base. Steel

beams were used to elevate the house and wooden popsicle sticks were used to cover the exposed foam

walls. A thick plastic was used as a substitute for the windows. Everything was then hot glued together.

Cardboard and black cloth were not present in the model even though they were great choices.

Cardboard is easy to work with, but it did not hold up to our standard of quality. The black cloth was

originally considered as a floor cover, but the black rubber was used instead because of its higher

quality.

It has passive features such as large windows to allow heat to be absorbed by a thermal mass inside. The

internal layout should provide a comfortable living experience (shown above). The lofted design

accounts for a possible water front location, which is susceptible to flooding, and also gives the house

some character.

D A T A A N D A N A L Y S I S

After testing our house, we found that our heat gain was as expected. Over the course of an 8-minute

heat lamp exposure, we increased temperature by only 5 degrees. However, when exposed to an 8-

minute period of wind (representing the cooling process of night) our heat retention was not as high as

we might have hoped. We dropped all the way back down to our starting temperature. Most of this loss

in our testing was due to our roof to wall insulation, or lack thereof. If this were to be located on LBI as

a summer home, this would not be a problem. However, in the winter in State college it would be.

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C O N C L U S I O N

In summary, this zero energy home will be an excellent house for a family of four to live in, either as

their main living house or just a summer home in Long Beach Island, NJ. A large amount of research

was needed prior to initial design steps, as there are many factors to take into consideration when

choosing a concept, including energy and heat conservation, aesthetics, comfort, and price. The final

production meets the customer needs: to sleep 4 people, efficient use of solar panels, single floor, and

water front (should the house not be built in State College). The solar panels were the HIT N245.

Although expensive, the panels yielded a 19.4% efficiency rating translating to a whopping power

output of 245 kwh, one of the highest on the graph.

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Importantly, this project is aiming a way to reduce the environmental impact that humanity has inflicted

upon planet earth. A zero energy home is not just a “green home” or a home with solar panels. A zero

energy home combines advanced design ingenuity and superior energy efficiency standards and on-site

solar panels to produce a better home. Zero energy homes are ultra-comfortable, healthy, quiet,

sustainable homes that are affordable to live in. As future engineers, our jobs are to ensure that problems

this world faces are met with adequate solutions, especially solutions that serve to benefit the

environment. The production of this Zero Energy Home is an excellent example that shows us as future

engineers, the importance of taking steps to reduce and mitigate our own environmental impact.

W O R K S C I T E D

Dentz, Jordan, Kunal Alaigh, and United States. Department of Energy.Building Technologies Office.

Zero Energy Ready Home Multifamily Case Study Analysis, Building

Technologies Office, U.S. Department of Energy, Washington, D.C., 2016.

DOE. 2014b. DOE Zero Energy Ready Home National Program Requirements (Rev. 4). Washington,

D.C.: U.S. Department of Energy, accessed February 12, 2015:

www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2014/04/f15/doe_zero_energy_ready_home_requirement s_rev04.pdf.

Merrigan, T. On the Path to Zero Energy Homes. United States: National Renewable Energy Laboratory,

Golden, CO (US), 2001. Web.

NREL. Zero Energy Homes: Combining Energy Efficiency and Solar Energy Technologies. United

States: National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO (US), 2000. Web.

"Passive Solar Heating." Admin_666. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Oct. 2016.

URL:http://www.yourhome.gov.au/passive-design/passive-solar-heating

http://www.wbdg.org/resources/psheating.php

https://www.civicsolar.com/support/installer/articles/effect-azimuth-angle-energy-output