HW 07 Exam Question¶

Suggest and provide a solution for a final exam question that you think fairly tests your knowledge of the material. You may submit an essay question or a quantitative question. Topics include heat capacity, conductive heat flow, solar gain, thermal mass, or any other relevant concepts. Challenge yourself to come up with something interesting and unusual.

You saved up enough money to build your dream passive solar home in Sonoma County. In which direction should you orient your house if you want to maximize the amount of light in the winter and decrease the amount of light during summer? What if you wanted to build your house in Australia, would you still orient your house in the same direction or a different direction? Why is this direction beneficial to your passive solar dream house? How much heat loss in a day will you experience through a double Low-E 366 (U=0.24) window that is 1 sq ft in the month of January?

a) I want my home to face south if I am building my dream home in Sonoma. b)I would want to orient my home north if I am building in Austalia. c)Using these specific directions allows for more light to come into my home in the winter time and less light to come in the summer time. d) To solve the heat loss I will use the equation (UAT2-T1)24hours =BTU/Day

U = 0.24 
A = 1
T2 = 70
T1 = 50
U * A * (T2-T1) * 24

115.19999999999999

115 BTU/ day is the amount of heat lost through the window.