1 Cost Barrier Reading

Please read Natural Capitalism Chapter 6, Tunneling Through the Cost Barrier and answer the following questions.

  • Why is optimizing a system a better approach than optimizing single elements in isolation?
  • Provide an example of an energy efficiency improvement that has an indirect effect on another energy use.
  • Which example in the book did you find most interesting?

2 Reinventing Fire Industry Reading

Please read Reinventing Fire Chapter 4, Industry and answer the following questions.

  • What are the four levers in the reading for improving efficiency?
  • What is fuel switching?
  • What is dematerialization?

3 Advanced Energy Center Preparation

Browse the list of products, choose one you are interested in, and answer the following questions.

  • What is the basic function of the device?
  • What electrical and/or thermal models we’ve learned about explain its energy efficiency compared to existing devices?
  • Do you see any indirect benefits to the use of the product?
  • What questions would you like to ask at the Advanced Energy Center about the device?

4 Conduction and Infiltration Reading

Please read EFS 6.1 – 6.6 and answer the following questions.

  • What are R_{cvi} and R_{cvo}?
  • Why is the inside of a single-pane window colder than the air in the room?
  • How is infiltration related to heat capacity?

5 Natural Capitalism Building Blocks

Please read Natural Capitalism Chapter 5, Building Blocks and answer the following questions.

  • How do energy costs in buildings compare to rent and salaries and why is that important?
  • Provide three examples of indirect benefits from the reading

6 Thermal Series or Parallel

For each of the following examples, is series or parallel a better model for determining the overall heat flow?

  • An exterior window and an exterior door in the same room
  • A sweater and a jacket
  • A jacket and a hat
  • A layer of drywall, plywood, and insulation
  • In a wall, the 2x6 and the insulation

7 Tankless Water Heater

You want to buy a tankless water heater. Your home requires that the heater provide 22 liters of water per minute at 40C from incoming water that is 10C.

  • What is the thermal power that must be added to the water?
  • If the water heater is 85% efficient, what is the input power for the heater?

8 Whole building spreadsheet

We consider a simple one room building with windows and doors and model the heating need of the building in W/K. We will create a spreadsheet similar to EFS table 6.7.

  • Walls
  • Ceiling
  • Windows
  • Doors
  • Infiltration
  • Floor perimeter

9 Hewitt Radiation Reading

Read the Radiation section of Chapter 15 of the Hewitt text.

  • What are the properties of a good radiation absorber?
  • Are the properties of a good absorber and emitter the same?

10 Radiation Conceptual Questions

  • If I want a material to absorb thermal radiation at a given wavelength do I want high or low emissivity at that wavelength?
  • If I want a material to absorb thermal radiation at a given wavelength do I want high or low absorption at that wavelength?
  • Draw the desired emissivity versus wavelength for an object to absorb energy from the sun and retain it.
  • Draw the desired emissivity of an object that uses radiation as cooling by rejecting sunlight and radiating heat.

11 DOE Windows Fact Sheet

Please read the DOE Windows Fact sheet and aswer the folliwing questions.

  • What are the radiation absorption and emission properties for an energy efficient window?
  • How do these properties acheive our energy and comfort goals?

Scavenger Hunt: Let me know if you can find a more in-depth reading or video on this topic appropriate for class.

12 Floor Radiation

Assume you have a concrete heated floor area of about 100 square meters. If that floor is heated to 90 degrees Fahrenheit and the surroundiings are 70 degrees F, what do you estimate the net radiant heat from the floor to be in units of watts?

13 Melting Heating Boiling Prediction

In class, we will heat a mixture of ice and water in an electric kettle. The kettle has a power of P in watts, we will have m_i grams of ice and m_w grams of water.

  • Write a formula for the time for the ice to melt in seconds
  • Predict the water temperature when the ice has finished melting
  • Write a formula for the time for the water to reach boiling after the ice has melted
  • Write a formula for 60 grams of water to boil away
  • Predict the water temperature after the 60 grams have boiled

14 Melting Heating Boiling Reflection

  • What parts of the demonstration were most useful for your understanding of the material?

15 New Belgium Brewing

Watch the video on sustainability practices at a Brewery and answer the following questions.

  • What examples do you see of energy efficiency practices (four levers, other strategies).
  • Is there a strategy you think is missing?