Today we cut the ducts on the top of the box. Here is a picture. The steel ducts on the top are slightly to the side of the bottom ones. This was the air can flow more fluently is a curve instead of a straight line. This will reduce the possibility of getting stagnant air in the box. This wastes potential heat.

First, we cut off the siding of the house using the multi-master.

Then we assembled the back half of the box.

These are the three window panes that will go on the front of the box.

Here is the box mounted on the wall. We haven't yet painted it or assembled the screening on the outside.

The wiring of the wall was all funky so we had to cut out the wall inside the house and fix it.

Then we inserted the ducts from the box to the room. Then we replaced all the insulation with new insulation.

It has been a while since I got to post something on my blog. The last time I did was about when I got my ACL torn. Since then I have been kept busy with x-rays, MRI's, physical therapy, and other doctor's appointments in addition to building the solar collector. Even though, I haven't been able to stand up for long periods of time Bill and I have really gotten a lot done. Here is a shot of the interior of his van. I will post a complete photo essay of the build in my next blog entry.

My project is coming along nicely. We have taken off the boards along the walls on the onside. It looks like this:

The wood was removed from the wall using a tool called the multi-master. It can cut through pretty much anything, but it won't cut through your skin. It is a very handy for cutting through wood accurately.

My next task is to actually paint the window frames that have been scraped, glazed, and primed. This shouldn't be too hard. I have worked with paint three or four times in the past. Anyway, today was a very productive day. Hopefully, the weather stays nice so I can have more days like this throughout next week.

The storm window that I thought was gonna be to big to fit in the frame , turned out to be too small. It was a true pain because I had already removed all the glazing and points, and the caulk had already been squirted out so as to cushion the glass and hold it in place more. So we had to meticulously remove all the caulk from the frame and package back up the useless piece of glass I bought. Now I know for sure the dimensions are 24"X15".

Today we worked for a long time. We worked from 1pm to 8pm. We also moved the cupboard in my mudroom from the wall that will be attached to the solar panel, to the adjacent wall. Now the mudroom is so much roomier. Pictures are below. Moving the cupboard which turned out to be connected to the wall was tricky, but once we did that we also had to remove the carpet. Under the carpet we found an abundance of dirt, dead flies, and dead maggots. That was the real chore.

Today I finished glazing another window. Two down, one to go. Bill also came over to check my glazing. I was doing it fine, but he gave me some pointers on how to smooth it out even more. If you use water to dampen the putty, then it becomes very malleable, and easy to shape. Also he showed me how to use the paint chipper to smooth out the putty even more. So now I have two very good quality glazed storm windows. The last one I have primed and started the glazing of. It shouldn't take to long to finish the glazing for that last one because I am a pro glazer now. 

I just emailed Svante. Yes, the mayor. I was wondering if maybe we could set up a meeting and discuss building solar collectors (like mine) on more houses in Ithaca. If a high school senior with no construction experience can do it, then lots of other people can do it. It is relatively quick, its easy, and its cheap.

So today I went to Agway, and I bought a pane of window glass as a replacement for the pane that I broke when I was paint chipping. Now I can start the glazing on the storm window finally. Even though, I gave the measurements to the Agway people, the glass I got back looks too big to fit, but we shall see.

Seven Observations on Learning

2. I agree that if you cannot express verbally what you know, your knowledge is powerless, but I think that learning is mostly a hands-on experience. I find that I learn better if I am physically involved. I can read all about how to build a solar panel from books and offline, but I will never truly know how to build one if I don't do it for real. Verbal learning is very beneficial, but it is also very restricted. A good teacher will incorporate both verbal and hands-on learning into their course.

5. I agree with this observation. If you cannot remember any of the information that is taught to you then you have not learned it. In high school you are given a lot of information, but you are not given a lot tools on how to use this information. Perhaps, that is what college is for.

3. This point just seems to be out of place on this paper. The other observations are all that, observations. This once seems to be more like advice. I agree with it, cheating is bad, but maybe they could have made another observation of learning rather than use this one. 

Last Friday I met with my mentor. It had been a while since our last meet. Some advice she gave me is to set up a meeting with the mayor, Svante, and ask about his plans for energy policy in Ithaca. Also she reminded me that Tommy Beers, one of the owners of a solar panel I visited, is always available to help me out with questions I have.

So today I continued to glaze my windows. I finished an entire window. 1 down 3 to go. Glazing is a very time consuming process, and I think it is the most time-consuming part of my project. I hope.  

So today I continued my work on the storm windows. I did some more paint chipping, and I started to lay the putty around the windows to form the glazing. Putty is really hard to use because it is so sticky. It is a hassle to get the putty off your fingers and onto the glass, but after a while you get used to it. Here is a picture of what I have so far.

So today continued my work on the storm windows. I did some more paint chipping, and I started to lay the putty around the windows to form the glazing. Putty is really hard to use because it is so sticky. It is a hassle to get the putty of your fingers and onto the glass, but after a while you get used to it. Here is a picture of what i have so far.

So I started to scrape the paint off all of my storm windows. I did a rough job on all of them. Next time I will go over it again in more detail. Afterwards, I will paint shellac onto the bare wood. This will act as a sort of primer. Then I will do the glazing for the parts that were old and broken that I scraped off.  A slight setback is I accidentally cracked one of the windows. I don't know now if I can repair it, replace it, or if I will have to just buy a new one. Also paint scraping and glazing is so boring. It's also painful. I stabbed myself three times with the paint chipper by accident.

1) I feel most happy when I know I've completed something successfully. It could be finishing a math problem on a test, baking a pie for fun, or writing an essay late into the night. I think this makes me happy because it gives me a sense of accomplishment. I know that I am doing something right. I spend a lot of time not knowing what the right thing to do is. In some ways I just coast. I follow a path that someone else has made for me. So when I deliberately finish something correctly on my own, It makes me happy.

2) I don't know if I agree with the idea that you can't be happy, if you search for happiness. I think that a proactive lifestyle is the best way to discover happiness. If one just goes with the flow, than he/she could just flow right past happiness. A passive lifestyle can lead to sadness because you don't explore the things that might make you happy.

3) I feel like I am either in the anxiety channel, or I'm in the boredom channel. Rarely am I in the Flow channel.

4) I feel borderline calm actually when I'm doing my project. I feel a little anxious because I know I will get a grade on my project, my presentation, and my journal entries. This grade is a huge portion of my overall grade in this class. Even though I am already in college, I still most maintain my grades, or I will lose my financial aid. Other than that part, I've felt very happy throughout this project. When I've completed a task I set myself, it's a nice feeling. It's different from how I feel when I finish my homework. I guess it's because for this project I'm creating my own tasks, and I am setting my own goals. I feel more independent and satisfied with myself.

5) If I was more skillful in every way, I could easily achieve flow. Skills I need improvement on would be public speaking, computer skills, professional skills (e.g. carpentry, plumbing, engineering), writing skills, artistic skills, and many more. I have a lot of things that I can learn.

"The estimated recoverable energy from solar energy is about 75 times the present annual human global energy consumption."

I just called up Tommy Beers to schedule a meet with him, and he said that I could just come over today. He ended up living like 3 minutes from my house which is cool. I had always wondered who lived at the house the pink flamingo mailbox. His solar array is very simple, but still very efficient and useful. It generates 2,450 kilowatts per hour on sunny days.He pays $174 per year on electricity. The average household cost of electricity per year is $1440-1920 per year. Apparently there is a solar home tour that goes on in Ithaca. His house was part of it. I wish I had heard about this earlier so I could find other homes to look at.

I also can finally begin the construction process of my solar collection box. I have the storm windows on site already, so I can begin preparing those for the collector. First, I have to scrape off the loose paint and glazing on the framing of the storm windows. Most of it is loose, so it will take a long time. Then I will start the glazing process.

To give the putty that I line around the edges of the glass something to stick to, I first brush shellac on the bare wood all around the edges of the windows panes. Then I line the putty around the window which connects the glass to the wood frame. Once that's on, I can prime and paint over the putty and  the entire window frame. It will be the dark green tree color that matches the trim on my house, so as to create an aesthetically pleasing look for the solar collector.

It's earth day and I just met with Bill. We went to visit a couple houses around town that already have these solar collectors on them. They were all bigger then the one that I am going to build, but they were constructed using the same concept. Here are some pictures of them:

The collector I am building will be similar to this one., but it will only cover the space under the windows.

“Energy use is what binds us most immediately to the world around us, to our style of living, and to each other as well.” by Scott L. Montgomery

I just got back from Italy. Time to start my project back up again. I just called Bill and set up a meet with him this coming Sunday to go shopping for materials. Finally, I am getting started on the actual construction process. Hopefully the weather will stay nice.

Our WISE assignment was to listen to the NPR report by Brian Grazer, "Disrupting my comfort zone". Brian believes that to grow as a human being, you have to step out of your comfort zone. He, like many WISE students, called up experts in many different fields to meet with them. Even if it was difficult and not that pleasurable, he still did it. He did it in order to learn about basically anything he could.

Similarly, in WISE it isn't always easy to just call up some one that you don't know, and to meet with them. I know it totally disrupts my comfort zone. So far I have met with one of my several contacts.  His name was Michael Kaplinka-loehr. Even though I was nervous about it, and it was totally disrupting my comfort zone, I am so glad that I did it. I had a great time and learned lots of interesting solar information.

I am also stepping out of my comfort zone in another way. One that is not related to WISE at all. I am going to Italy! It is with soccer team that I have only met two times, and I know no one. Should be interesting. And it should be very educational.

In WISE we read the poem "TWO TRAMPS IN THE MUD" and were asked to make connections to our project.

A line that I connected with in this poem is "But if you so much as dare to speak, A cloud comes over the sunlight arch, A wind/ comes off a frozen peak, And you're two months back in the middle of March."
It seems like in this project every time I take one step forward there is always an obstacle that sets me back two steps. For example, I just found out that due to the design of my mudroom and the window panels I bought, the air collector box will not be as efficient as it could be. Some of the air will not flow into the mudroom, and will end up in a pocket in the corner. So that's stressful.

Also at the end of the poem I connected with the line "...As that I had no right to play With what was another man's work for gain."
What I am doing now for my project is purely avocational, whereas other people have to do this for a living. I don't think that they would hate me for it. In fact the person who is working with me, Bill Goodhew, does this for a living, and I'm pretty sure (hopefully) that he enjoys working with me.

I met with Mr. Koplinka-Loehr yesterday. We visited his house which is completely off the grid. It was the coolest. The house was built by Cornell college students for the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon. The houses entered must be cost-effective, energy efficient, and attractive. In my opinion the house wasn't that attractive from the outside, but on the inside it was the coziest house I'd ever seen. It wasn't a small house, but everything had been built to not waste space and therefore, to not waste energy.  It was very compact on the inside, but still left plenty of room to navigate throughout the house. For example, the refrigerator was build into drawers. that meant that when you opened the drawer (refrigerator) the cold air would not fall to the ground and be wasted. It would stay in the drawer and therefore, save energy. Refrigerator's are also very energy intensive. Another cool thing was their stoves were heated up by magnets revolving. It would take like ten seconds to heat them up, and after like two second they had already cooled down, wasting no heat and no energy.

It had 72 solar panels which were connected  to72 batteries. The electricity from these was then sent to a converter which would convert the direct current from the solar panels, to alternating current which is used by the majority of household appliances. The difference between direct current and alternating current is that direct current can only go in one direction, and it losing energy over time. Alternating current doesn't lose energy over long distances and can go in either direction.

Something I learned that I could do to retain the  heat brought into my mudroom would be to put a piece of soap stone in the room. During the day it will absorb heat from the hot air, and at night it will release the hot air and keep the room warm. Even though my solar panel is a passive air collector box. This visit was still very helpful, and really cool. I would have wanted to do it even if I wasn't doing this project.

Might be meeting with some solar energy experts very soon! Their names are Michael-Koplinka-Loerh, and Kendall Carpenter.

I have lots of questions and am looking forward to it.

Here are the estimated costs of the things I am buying...

Framing: 2X4X16 (2X) $7.00 each

OSB: (7/16)  (2X)         $9.00 each

Screening: 3' X 27' +  36"X84"   $21.00+$7.00

Screws: 1 lb 1.5 + 1lb 2             $10.00+$10.00

Metal for Cap +Back of box: ~$50.00

Nails:                    $5.00

Dark Green (metalized) paint  $10.00      
Total                                  ~$150.00

Another cost is time.
Once all these materials are in my yard I should be able to build the solar panel in one long day of hard work!!
  

Went to Home Depot today to browse their selection of ply wood, screening, screws, and (metalized) Dark green paint dark green paint with Bill. I also got a free bag of popcorn woot woot! We pretty much found everything we needed at home depot, but I might go to Cayuga Lumber. They are closer to my home, and I like to support local businesses. I think that they will have most of what I need . Soon I'll start making purchases and collecting all my materials on site (aka my home).

I went up to Eco Village the other day to take pictures of their solar panels. They have a very large array, and I hope to talk to the solar panel caretaker up there. I think his name his Jeff Gilmore. Anyway, here is what they look like. It was snowing when I took these so their quality may be sub-standard.

My solar panel will not be as big as these...

Today I met with my mentor. I told her how I was feeling that I may be slacking a little bit, and she was very supportive. She gave me some websites to look at, and encouraged me to contact one of her friends Tommy Beers. He builds and installs solar panels, plus lives nearby my house.

I have just set up a tentative meeting this Sunday with a carpenter/man, Bill Goodhew, who will help me go shopping for wood that will be used for the framing of the solar panel.

After reading Claire Doran's journal, I felt like I have been slacking a little bit. She did a journal entry approximately 3 or 4 times a week. Even though, they were short, she always found the time to work on her project every single day. Her project was building a corset. Even though, after reading her journal I still have no idea how she built her corset, I did learn I have a lot more work to do in this project and I can't start slacking now. I am inspired by Claire's journal to work hard and to really put the hours into my project.

SOOO THANK YOU CLAIRE!

Here is all the research I have so far.
The books I got are helpful, but the information about solar power is spread out and hard to find at times. I will edit this post more and more as I get more and more research.

SOLAR ENERGY

• The sun has 350,000,000 terawatts of power available.
• 15 minutes of exposure to a full sun would be enough to generate the world’s energy requirement.
• 10,800,000 terawatts available from fossil fuels
• Each home is accountable for 22,000 pounds of CO2 emissions yearly
• Basically when the panels are exposed to sunlight, the electrons are separated from the atoms. This movement of the electrons creates the electricity.
• The problem with fossil fuels is the rising prices, increasing demands, declining reserves, and unpredictable supply from external sources.

Solar Energy: The Awakening Science

• In 1974 only 6% of the American public regarded energy as one of the country’s biggest problems. That is the same year Nixon retired.
• A trouble with sunshine as a source of power is that it is spread all over, and it is hard to concentrate. Therefore energy is being lost.

Applied Solar Energy: An Introduction

• After World War 2 George Keck built the popular image of the solar home. He discovered it while building a house of all glass windows. Even though it was frigid outside and there was no artificial heating the working were talking off their shirts and were sweating terribly.
• The Solar Energy Research Institute was born from the chaotic rush into alternative energy in 1973 after the OPEC oil embargo.
• Solar Energy has had trouble becoming very popular because of four reasons. SERI was never given the level of support that it needed to pursue its wide-ranging vision. Its budget was half what the national Academy of Sciences recommended. It had enormous ground to make up in comparison to other energy sources.
• The organization of the institute was a mess. No one knew what the purpose of their regional center. No one knew which center was in charge.  
• SERI was supposed to research solar heating and cooling of buildings, agricultural and industrial process heat applications, solar thermal electric generation, photovoltaic technology, wind energy conversion, bioconversion, ocean thermal energy conversion, and low-head hydroelectric power. The research of each was completely different. Therefore SERI never had a definite direction.
• The head of SERi was incompetent. He viewed his job as a fun adventure in the Wild West as opposed to a challenge of a lifetime.
• Once Denis Hayes became head of SERI, and the 1979 energy shock started pushing the political agenda, SEIR morale returned.
• In just four years the cost of photovoltaics dropped by a factor of three as money poured into the field and production.
• When Reagan took office he promoted decentralized energy sources. This was not good for solar energy because no private corporation was willing to invest in it. Solar research and production needed government aid.

Surprisingly, I can get like 20 free books and articles on solar energy from my NOOK.

It's time to start downloading.

I just checked out three huge textbooks on solar energy from Uris library.

This will keep me busy for a while..

On Saturday I went to Significant Elements. I was looking for storm windows that will be used as the panels of my Solar collector. Significant Elements has a very large collection of storm windows of all different styles, sizes, colors, and qualities, so it took me about an hour to find the storm windows I wanted. It was a very lucky find. There were three of the same exact storm window. The length of all three put together came very close to the maximum length available along the wall of my mudroom (the room the solar panel is going on). The height was just under the height of the existing space between the mudroom windows and the ground. This means the panels should fit perfectly along the wall and under the existing mudroom windows.

The only problem with the panels was that they were very expensive. Luckily the manager of Significant Elements was awesome, though. She let me have them for $12 each instead of the original $23 if I agreed to give her a picture of my solar panel when it is finished. She can use that for advertising.

This is a sketch of the back of my mudroom.

Two Week Plan
For the next two weeks I will be conducting research. This will be in the form of reading books, online articles, and visiting local organizations that deal with solar energy. I have a long list of online periodicals and websites that I can easily access. I will also visit the Public Library and Mann Library at Cornell.

Some local businesses that I plan to check out include Renovus and Significant Elements. Significant Elements sells materials that can be used to build the panel for the solar panel. Renovus actually builds and installs solar panels onto their clients' homes or businesses. Here would be a great place to ask for advice about my project. I also know that Eco Village has added a whole new array of solar panels, and I may go up there to ask a few questions. My project isn't to just build a solar panel but to learn as much as I can about solar energy and how to make it usable in a regular home.

Dear Reader,
My interest in solar energy is driven by my fear of ruining our planet. Our environment cannot be sustainable as along as the world remains dependent on fossil fuels. Many different alternative energy sources are being considered as substitutes for fossil fuels. Examples include wind energy, nuclear energy, hydraulic energy, and solar energy. Solar seems to be the most efficient and the most promising for future generations. It is a reliable, renewable, and can be used for long-periods of time without maintenance. A major deterrent in investing in solar energy is its price. As solar energy becomes more and more developed and more popular, the price will decline. It is already in the process of declining.
 My goal is to successfully build and install a solar panel onto the side of my mudroom. My solar panel is going to be an air mode collector. In an air mode collector solar panel the sunlight is not stored as energy. Heat is absorbed by the panel and the hot air is then circulated into the building. Along with building this solar panel I will be doing a fair amount research on the topic as well. Fortunately, there are many websites and organizations that are dedicated completely to solar energy so research will not be too difficult. I know that if my solar panel fails. I will still have learned a lot from all the research I will have done.