1. Abstract

CASH (Campus Affordable Solar House) initiative

Muhammad Fahim Uddin, Advisor Dr. Navarun GuptaDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering

University of Bridgeport, Bridgeport, CT

Solar homes and “Zero Energy” homes are some of the current initiatives taken by several schools in United States to reduce their energy costs and carbon footprint. The motivation for this poster comes from understanding the requirements and detailed specification of building such houses. This further opens the doors for learning and exploring technologies that are environment friendly.My poster will show the renewable energy technologies needed for building such homes on campus. The poster will discuss estimated cost of the project and design of the house as an “Education model”. This poster will help students from EE and ME departments to work on this project and eventually enter U.S. Department of Energy's “Solar Decathlon” competition and several others competitions in this emerging area. We will discuss Load Analysis,  Ideal Home orientation, net-metering, relevant state laws,  ROI, Government Incentives in this poster based on real world studies of recently installed system in nearby towns..

10. Conclusion

2. Renewable Energy Systems

Fairfield CT – Solar Thermal[1]

6. System Calculation and Simulations[2]

Irradiation: 18.012 kWh/a System yield: 4.083 kWh/a Solar fraction: 29 % CO² savings: 1077 kg/a

  Irradiation: Solar radiation onto the tilted surface of the collector absorber surface, over one year

System yield: Solar system′s available energy

Solar fraction: Percentage of the total energy requirement produced by the solar system (= system yield)

Efficiency: System yield/irradiation

CO² savings: Emissions avoided by use of the system in kg/year

4. Solar Energy Homes Visited

Milford CT – PV System [3]

1. Photovoltaic –PV(Solar Cells)-Direct Conversion.2. Solar Thermal-ST (Heat, water/Space heating)3. PV-No Mechanical Parts, No Chemical hazards, Lifetime

up to 25-30 years, Orientation dependent, Produces DC output, Invertors needed to convert into AC electricity.

4. PV-Can feedback Grid (net-metering) and sell excess electricity back to Electric company and get credits.

5. PV-Can save DC Power to Battery for later use (during nights or on cloudy day.

6. ST-Very efficient for Hot water and Heating homes. High ROI and short payback periods.

7. ST-Can work as hybrid system with existing oil based furnaces and can work as Load balancing for water heating needs.

8. Student MotivationEE/SE: Can develop various interfaces between Electrical

Power generation, storage and usage. Can work with System providers and get involved in system installation.

ME: Can design layout for Passive Solar house features and energy efficient material usage and constructions modeling.

CS/CE: Can develop software tools to do online monitoring of Electricity generation and producing online Virtual tour of the house to outreach community, students and visitors.

Business Majors/TM: Can analyze the model and cost analysis to find out ROI and payback period on such investment.

9. Solar Decathlon Competition[4]The winning team produces a house that:1. Is affordable, attractive, and easy to live in, Maintains

comfortable and healthy indoor environmental conditions, Supplies energy to household appliances for cooking, cleaning, and entertainment, Provides adequate hot water, Produces as much or more energy than it consumes.[4]

If selected for the competition, then Department of Energy(DOE) gives each team $100,000. This is given in small increments when you submit deliverables for the project. This is not enough to get the project done. The rest is up to the individual teams to raise.

Minimum of 600 sq ft or maximum of 1000 sq ft.

11. References

12. Acknowledgements

Fig1- A diagram of the sun's path on the winter and summer solstices, Courtesy of DOE

1. Icarus Energy, LLC – Solar Power Simplified, (http://www.IcarusEnergy.com)2. Valentin Software, Inc3. CT Electrical Services.4. U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon (http://www.solardecathlon.gov)5. Green Passive Solar Magazine.6. http://www.ctcleanenergy.com, www.dsire.org, http://www.energystar.gov7. www.nrel.gov 8. Net Zero Energy Certified (http://nzen.info/ )9. http://oregonsustainabilitycenter.wordpress.com

(Total Cost = $6K-30 % Fed Tax credit(Good until 2016) – State Rebate), State Rebate 275/mmBTU, System is about 10 mmBTU, 75 % of hot water needs. Avg 3.5 years for ROI or payoff.This specific systems 70 degrees off true south (not ideal) - state rebate of 10X275 = 2,750.00 dollars

Solar Thermal Collectors-Evacuated tubes,

Hot water tank for ST

ST Energy Monitoring system

PV Power: Power of the PV-Field at STCPerformance Ratio: System efficiencyGrid Feed-in: Energy to public gridFeed-in Payment: Annual payment from power

supply company.STC : 1000 W/m²

Home orientation plays very important role in utilizing the Solar Active and Solar Passive technologies to build energy efficient homes. South facing is ideal for Sun rays to hit at 90 degrees.

5. Proposed NZE System for University Campus and Tax Incentives/Rebates Details

3. Recommended Home Design and Orientation

After attending few Green Energy Seminars, visiting Solar Homes in Fairfield, Milford, and Branford CT, personal discussion with home owners and Installers, documenting and sampling their work I created this poster and the CASH Model. I conclude that there is a high demand in our community to become energy efficient and greener. Based on calculation provided in this poster and model presented, I believe team of students each from Electrical, Mechanical and Computer Science/Engineering department can work on various parts of the project and design a suggested model size house that is powered entirely by the sun.Student will learn about high-tech materials, material design, how to raise funds, communicate about their progress, collecting supplies, talking to contractors and companies, attending Solar Open houses, developing relationships with companies that help finding internships, learn Federal and State Incentive and Funds and eventually compete for Solar Decathlon competition. This would help them evaluate various possible solar energy designs (PV and Solar thermal) to generate every last watt of electricity needed.

I thank Dr. Navarun Gupta for his advisory for this work. I thank Erik Anderson from CT Electrical Services and Mark P. Wikman from Icarus Energy, LLC, who let me visits their installed system and provided great information. I thank Rachel Oxman, from Sunlight Solar Energy, Inc. for valuable information/discussions.

7. Recommended Renewable Tech UsedSolar Thermal:• Evacuated tubes, very popular in Europe, middle east

and Asia. Becoming popular in USA.• Expensive in general.• Recommended for climate like CT (cloudy and mild)• Each tube is like Glass within the glass like Thermos.• Inner tube has solar absorption coating, traps the heat

inside so ambient temp or wind can not draw heat from it.

• Inside water and glycol mix can be used to avoid freezing.

• Tip gets up to 400degrees that transfer the heat to water.

• In summer time, excessive heat need to be dissipated or can be stored to re-use in winter.

Solar PV:• 194 degrees Magnetic South, this is magnetic south

adjusted for declination in CT.• 220/230 Modules @ rate of $5-6/watt Production.• Grid-tied with net-metering in place.• Grid-Free Systems with Batteries for Energy storage.

1. 220 watts module with Enphase microinveter.2. two 15 inv wired in series, so total 30, two branch circuit coming of

this roof.3. Goes to existing home service panel where it feeds the existing

service configuration.4. UI makes sure that invertors adheres to United Labs 1741 standard.

That prevents any feedback from the array to the Grid and preventing harm to lineman or utility worker in event of power outage.

5. 15Amp breakers labeled as Solar PV in Red, combines two 15 invertors output and this combined go through 60Amp (NEC standard) towards home Circuit.

6. AC Solar Disconnect is used to give ability to Electric company to shut you off and isolate you.

7. Utility company does witness test to makes sure AC disconnect (Off or open) stop producing power.

8. New – UI(United illuminating) due to their billing tech, has to install another meter next to existing one, one measure delivered power to Grid and one measures power to customer and that is where you get net. Net Zero: Delivered to Grid – Delivered to Customer = 0

Fig 2[5]

Fig 3[5]

Fig 5 – https://www.powerclerk.com/[3]

Fig 6[2]

Fig 7[2]

Computer (online resource)

Hand Calculations

CCEF=CT clean Energy Funds.NZE=Net Zero Energy