Article

The Green Approach: Self-Powered House Design Concept for Undergraduate Research

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Abstract

This paper discusses innovative ways of using power through everyday activities at home. A green approach uses ambient energy sources such as solar, wind, geothermal and active/passive human power to generate electricity to power home appliances, air conditioning system, and light bulbs. The concept of a self-powered house is to use energy- efficient methods to explore ways to convert environmental sustainable energy sources into electrical energy. Sources of ambient (environmental) energy are determined prior to the de- sign of the house in order to construct a house of maximum efficiency from ambient energy sources. Research has been conducted at several universities to make this futuristic approach for solving energy problems in the 21st century. The purpose of this research was to study a house of the future intended to be an off-grid self-sufficient, energy- efficient, and ambient-energy powered that would generate enough energy to power the appliances. This paper explains the first phase of the project which was to identify ambient energy sources and group them into specific categories such as thermoelectric, mechanical/vibrations, hydroelectric, magnetic field, airflow, acoustic noise, wind, solar/light, and geothermal. The identified ambient energy sources are characterized as high, medium, and low power sources and will also be discussed in this paper.

Keywords: curriculum, electricity, electronics, environmental issues, renewable energy

How to Cite:

Yildiz, F., Fazarro, D. E. & Coogler, K. L., (2010) “The Green Approach: Self-Powered House Design Concept for Undergraduate Research”, Journal of Industrial Technology 26(2).