Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

I am a 12 year old boy studying in VII grade in India. I am planning to participate in a Science project competition co-sponsored by Intel, wherein i propose to take up a theme of a model dream house of the future.

I am planning to prepare a model house which will have passive solar design, OLED lighting, grey water recycling, hydrogen fuel, self cleaning walls, switchable windows.

Request you to please guide me as to how to go about the project. Also please give me some tips on the project and also some references (books, web sites) so as to complete the project.

Also please let me know whether anyone is already doing same / similar project.

Some one may please help me as to under which category this project will be classified.

Some one can also help me to identify any innovative project under any of the below mentioned categories
Botany
Computer Science
Chemistry
Environmental Science
Earth Science / Space Science
Mathematics
Physics
Zoology

Your valuable advice is highly appreciated. Please note that the due date for the project is June 30, 2006

Regards
Siddharth Suresh

which will melt the fastest ice or juice

Doriscoles,

You might like to post your message under a new subject

Siddharth Suresh,

Your project is quite unique and complicated at the same time, and it's just down my alley. Great project to research on, but remember, it's going to be very, very time intensive.

1. Passive solar powering can range from solar energy collection, and store it in battery cells, to active solar usage as you collect solar energy based on how many solar panels you have. Just type in "solar panels" on any search engine, and you'll get a variety of company providing you the necessary information about how many solar panels needed to collect how much energy required by your energy needs. Check out the areas of total energy collection per panel (kWh, or known as possible kiloWatt for every hour of energy collection). This is quite important for a passive energy homes.

2. OLED lighting is an awesome technology advancement that uses very little energy, yet yield terrific display brightness. You might like to search for "PHOLED" as well as "FOLED" on any search engine. This will give you plenty of research information to go on. The searched site will give you critical information about how much power is used by these tiny lights, and how bright they can be (measured in lumens). These two are critical for your research.

3. Grey water recycling systems information are super abundant on the internet. Do a search on "grey water recycling" as well as "greywater recycling". You be surprise what you can find. I perform grey water recycling myself to conserve water usages. State of Arizona is the best state to do research on about water conservancy as well as grey water recycling.

4. Hydrogen fuel is still a bit of a distant throw away, but incorporating hydrogen energy into the house is not something that is impossible. To start you out, here's something:

http://www.smart-homeowner.com/articles/9491/

Do a search on "hydrogen home" or "hydrogen house". More and more people are leaning towards the renewable energy direction.

5. Self cleaning wall is a dream come true for any homeowner. If your walls are made out of glasses, that may be possible. If your house walls are made of stucco, or plaster, or even of bricks, you might be up for a great challenge in doing researches. In the past, people attempted to make a wall of marble and glasses that has a film of deionized water run along the surface to remove any dusts and oils, with catch drains at the bottom. You might like to search for that.

6. Switchable windows? Mind elaborate on that for me? You mean removable windows?

7. Your subject actually touches multiple categories:
a. Environmental Science
b. Earth Science
c. Physics

But if I have to chose one, it's more on Earth Science, since you're building a modernized home of the future.