Sophia Masciarelli

Passive Solar Home Assignment

Energy and Sustainability
Due 04.04.17

Problem:
Design a passive solar house with no more than 3 windows.

Design Process:
I found the design process itself pretty simple, and it was made even smoother with Energy3D.
This application gave me the opportunity to change my design multiple times without wasting
time or having to scrap materials because my ideas had changed. After the design process, I
was left with the following house:

The dimensions of this house are as follows:

Wall Length x Width

#1 33m x 15m

#2 23m x 15m (plus a 6 m gable on top)

#3 33m x 15m

#4 23m x 15m (plus a 6 m gable on top)

#5 (floor) 23m x 33m

#6 & #7 (roof a and b) 33m x 13m

I decided the most simple way to do the conversion for my model was to simply make every 1m
in Energy3D equal to 1cm in real-life.

As far as windows, I had planned to center 3 separate windows on walls #1, #3, and #4. The
two long windows would be 25m x 9m and the square window would be 11m x 11m. While these
dimensions looked fine inside Energy3D, I quickly realized that what I just constructed was not a
house, but a greenhouse. During the construction process I decided to size these windows
down considerably.
 Sophia Masciarelli
Passive Solar Home Assignment
Energy and Sustainability
Due 04.04.17

Construction
I definitely found the construction process the most finicky part of this assignment. The foam
board was difficult to work with as a medium; many of the cutting objects I tried either a) left it in
shreds or b) creased the board (which made it very difficult to keep the walls square.) I ended
up going through 2 pieces of foam board before finding a cutting apparatus that worked
relatively well (I settled on a cutting mat and rotary cutter, these are tools meant for fabric but
worked surprisingly well on the foam, especially in comparison to the damage the pocket knife
had done.) Here are a few images of the cutting process and the templates I used.
 Sophia Masciarelli
Passive Solar Home Assignment
Energy and Sustainability
Due 04.04.17

There were a few instances in the cutting process that I noticed I had gotten off in terms of lining
the board up with the ruler, and since I was already working with limited foam board, I had to
change a few of the dimensions to correct these mistakes.

At this point, my new dimensions were as follows:

Wall Old Length x Width New Length x Width

#1 33cm x 15cm 32cm x 13cm

#2 23cm x 15cm (plus a 6cm 13cm x 17cm (plus a 4.5cm

gable on top) gable on top)

#3 33cm x 15cm 32cm x 13cm

#4 23cm x 15cm (plus a 6cm 13cm x 17cm (plus a 4.5cm

gable on top) gable on top)

#5 (floor) 23cm x 33cm 32cm x 13 cm

#6 & #7 (roof side a and b) 33cm x 13cm 33cm x 13cm (these

remained the same; the
overhang was just slightly
longer that I originally
planned because of the
reduction in other
dimensions)

I had planned to join the seams where the walls met with hot glue, but as it turns out, my sister
got to my hot glue stash before I could. So unfortunately, I had to join the walls by cutting
notches and fitting them together like teeth (Taking about an inch and a half total from all the
widths of the new dimensions). While this method proved to be
pretty stable, all things considered, there are several spaces where
the model is definitely not airtight. In my next draft, I will work on
making those seams more airtight; that may include adding an
insulating layer to my current model or scrapping it and starting
over with new foam board and more hot glue.

My plans for windows also changed drastically. I mentioned earlier how my original dimensions
would result in an extremely inefficient greenhouse-like building, so I sized those down
considerably. I decided on one square window (5cm x 5 cm) on both walls #2 and #4, and a
long rectangular window (15cm x 5cm) on wall #1. These were all centered on their respective
wall.
 Sophia Masciarelli
Passive Solar Home Assignment
Energy and Sustainability
Due 04.04.17

Final
Model
and

Reflection

I would say that overall I was pretty satisfied with my

final model, all things considered. However, there are a
few things I am considering changing in my next draft
 Sophia Masciarelli
Passive Solar Home Assignment
Energy and Sustainability
Due 04.04.17

(including length and width proportions, seams, window size, window placement, overhang
length).