Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Hello,

My brother is doing a science fair project on designing an energy efficient home for the future because of the limitations of fossil fuels on Earth. He is developing conservation techniques for keeping energy inside the house. I would appreciate any help regarding unique or catchy names for his project!

Thank You !

How about "TRAP that electron!"

You might also want to utilized the names of the conservation technique in the title. Tell us more about the project so we can be more specific in our suggestions.

Hello,

My brother is doing a science fair project on designing and energy efficient home by using conservation techniques. Here is his project: https://www.scienceproject.com/projects ... /IP043.asp

Although as he was working on it this morning he figured out a problem. We live in a place where its really cold and its winter with snow outside and we weren't able to test the house outside because of this reason. Instead at the bottom of the procedure they recommended using flood lights to stimulate sunlight for the houses. This was what were were going to do until he realized that the sunlight won't change because its basically a light.

According to the chart we were going to measure the temperature every 30 minutes for 12 hours to see the change in temperature but if the sunlight won't change how will this work? If we would have kept it outside in front of real sunlight the temperature would've changed because it would've gotten darker toward later in the day but we aren't able to do the experiment outside because of winter.

Any help will be greatly appreciated if you have any suggestions on what to do next! THANK YOU

Hello AV123,

I've merged your new post with your first post for your brother. Please keep posts on the same topic together in the same thread.

I'm also cross-posting this thread in the K-5: Physical Sciences hoping that those experts will have some ideas for you!

This is not really my area of expertise, but depending on how many flood lights you will use, perhaps you could turn 1 of the floodlights off to simulate late afternoon, then have 2 off to simulate twilight, and maybe all floodlights off to simulate nighttime/darkness. Maybe you could put a programmable timer on each floodlight so each light will go off and on according to your schedule.

There are some expert physicists on this forum so I hope they will add to this!

Hi AV123,
Following up on what MadelineB have suggested, you can use multiple lights to simulate different part of the day or use a "shutter" (such as card board) to block off the flood light to acheive similar effects.

One additional resource that you may want to explore is https://www.suncalc.org/
When you enter the location of your city, it will give you detail information on the sunrise, sunset, etc... that you can then use to "program" your shutter / multi-light setup.

Hope that helps. Good Luck!
Willey

Hello AV123,

Following up on Willey's suggestions, you could arrange the flood lamps at different distances from your "house" in order to approximate the angle of the light from the flood lamp, based on the information you get from that website about your own location.

This sounds like a really fun project! Be sure to take photos and make diagrams to include on your display board at the science fair. I think the judges will be impressed with how you set up the project! Good luck!