Design and Construction of an Energy-Efficient Living Space

Abstract

This report documents efforts to design an energy-efficient living space in a small footprint. Worldwide energy use is on the rise - as more countries become more fully developed, their per capita carbon footprints increase accordingly, which clearly indicates the need for more efficient energy production and consumption. A reasonable goal that would go a long way toward reducing energy consumption is a distributed solar network in which houses use line their roofs to generate entirely self-sufficient power. The goal of this project is to design a small home that uses minimal energy per occupant, and can subsist entirely based on the energy generated from the rooftop solar panels. The largest constraints on the system are 1) its small size, 2) heating and cooling demands 3) energy management and production. As such, the bulk of this report will focus on 1) architectural design to maximize interior utility, 2) a novel radiant heating and cooling system powered by a variable=speed compressor, and 3) a lithium-ion solar system. These systems will gather data and control other aspects of the bus through a MQTT-connected distributed network of sensors and microcontrollers. The distributed computerized network allows for future flexibility when experimenting or improving on the systems in the bus. Because of the difficulties that come with designing something unique, most aspects of the design had to be built from scratch. This report documents those efforts.