Sunday, March 29, 2009
Size and General Aesthetics of Ducted and Swift Turbines
*Note* Old main is not actually crooked. This picture is a combination of 6 pictures. It's sufficient quality for the point of this thread, though.
The first picture shows what Swift wind turbines would look like. The dimensions are accurate to under 12", so it's fairly proportional.
The second picture shows what the more discreet Ducted turbines would look like. The dimensions are not accurate, as the sizes may vary depending on the type used.
Pictures by Brandon Dallamore
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Roof of Old Main on the TRU Campus
On March 27th, I got an opportunity to go on the roof of Old Main. The goal of my adventure was to get a rough feel for the layout, to see if it could fit some new additions.
My conclusion was that Old Main's roof is fairly clutter-free, and may be considered completely open for Wind Energy designing purposes.
My next step is to find the most common wind directions. I have noticed that the wind is constantly flowing either West or East, but I need some way to record this. Anyone have any suggestions?
The pics below are of the roof of Old Main. To enlarge the pictures, just click them. The captions are posted above each one. Enjoy =)
The North-Western corner of the school is the most cluttered corner. It will be difficult to build any major additions here, but minor additions may still work.
The Eastern arm of the school (above the long hallway, parallel to McGill Road) is nearly completely clear of clutter. Anything could be added here. Depending on the wind direction, this may be the easiest place to add wind power.
This is another picture showing how cluttered the North-Western corner of the roof is. It doesn't look too bad from this angle.
This is a panaramic view of the roof, from the South-West corner. Very clear of obstacles everywhere visible. This one plays with the eyes a little bit (look at the roof tiles).
Pictures by Brandon Dallamore
Friday, March 13, 2009
Welcome!
Over the next few months, I will be discussing my research progress pertaining to the cost benefits or detriments of converting Old Main so that it primarily uses wind energy. I will be comparing the feasibility of many individual roof wind turbines versus one or a few very large ground-based turbines.
If anyone has any suggestions to where I might look, or has some interesting information, please mention it.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
OLD: Planning Outline
March 30/09
Project: Cost effectiveness of converting existing homes in Kamloops to using photovoltaic and geothermal energy
Method:
To determine the installation and maintenance costs, the relative savings, and their general feasibility in Kamloops, I’ll need to:
1. Search the open net for how they work and what they do, in layman’s terms, and also look for any foreseen technical advancements that may make my data useless.
2. Investigate previous research done on each of them. I will specifically be searching for large databases with collected information from different regions, and find the one most like Kamloops environmentally and geographically.
3. Contact businesses or contractors who deal with the purchase and/or installation, and ask about the difficulty to install, site or house prerequisites, common issues that come up during installation, and ask about who usually buys them (residential/commercial/industrial). I’ll also get some cost/time estimates, and ask about general opinions on feasibility in Kamloops.
4. Seek out businesses and homes who have had one or both installed for a brief period of time, and inquire on costs and savings, if they ever fail or stop working, how often and how severe the issues were (and what they were), their general opinions on the technology, and also on the amount of maintenance required.
Special Problems:
- If no research data from Kamloops, or anywhere relatively close, what factors will determine which data is most applicable to Kamloops?
- If there’s a major technological breakthrough (especially in photovoltaics) between now and the final hand-in date, what research can I keep, and how will I get newer information?
Also:
- Who’s going to be the primary reader? Contractors, engineers, researchers, teachers?
- Does any building in Kamloops currently implement either photovoltaics or geothermal heating? How will I find them? Will they allow me to interview them?
- Are there any Western-Canadian retailers or contractors who specialize in either of them?
Information Sources:
- M. Marshall, personal communication, Feb 27, 2009.
- Lionel, personal communication 250-372-3441, March, 2009.
- E. Begley, personal correspondence, March, 2009.
- Energy Efficient and Renewable Energy. Geothermal Technologies Program. Retrieved February 27, 2009, from within the EERE’s website, http://www1.eere.energy.gov/geothermal.
- Buresch, M. (1983). Photovoltaic Energy Systems. McGraw Hill Book Company.
- Oliver, M. Jackson, T (2001). Energy and Economic Evaluation of Building-Integrated Photovoltaics, 26(4), 431-439. Retrieved February 27, 2009, from http://www.sciencedirect.com.
- Zhai, X., Yang, J., Wang, R. (2009, July). Design and performance of the solar-powered floor heating system in a green building. Renewable Energy, 34(7), 1700-1708. Retrieved February 28, 2009, from http://www.sciencedirect.com, ISSN No. 0960-1481.
- Kalinci, Y., Balta, T., Hepbasli, A. (2009, April). Performance assessment of a geothermally heated building. Energy Policy, 37(4), 1502-1508. Retrieved February 28, 2009, from http://www.sciencedirect.com, ISSN No. 0301-4215.
- Komurcu, M., Akpinar, A. (2009, June). Importance of geothermal energy and its environmental effects in Turkey. Renewable Energy, 34(6), 1611-1615. Retrieved February 28, 2009, from http://www.sciencedirect.com, ISSN No. 0960-1481.
- Eicker, U., Vorschulze, C. (2009, April Potential of geothermal heat exchangers for office building climatisation. Renewable Energy, 34(4), 1126-1133. Retrieved February 28, 2009, from http://www.sciencedirect.com, ISSN No. 0960-1481.
OLD: Welcome!
*NOTE* (Sorry I didn't announce this, but my topic is no longer solar energy! The posts starting with "OLD: " are no longer in effect, and are only still on my blog just for reference.
March 30/09
Over the next few months, I will be discussing my research progress pertaining to the cost benefits or detriments of photovoltaic and geothermal upgrading on existing homes in Kamloops.
If anyone has any suggestions to where I might look, or has some interesting information, please mention it.
