Hello All

Here is Bob’s first animation of Solar Exhibit Option “B” from our design session on February 16th 2008.

The concept for this one is to reuse four shipping containers twenty feet long by eight feet wide by eight feet six inches high. Each container is capable of standing on it’s own in a vertical orientation in order to take advantage of the “stack affect”.

The “stack affect” is a phenomenon caused by rising warm air currents creating positive air pressure at the top and negative pressure at the bottom. In a chimney or tower this phenomenon is most beneficial as due to the height. By putting remotely operated sky lights at the top and operable windows at the floor we can generate this air flow naturally as the positive pressure at the top and negative pressure at the bottom will perpetuate itself. Furthermore, this passive system can be completely controlled by a computer as the temperature changes and sensors detect those changes the skylights and windows will automatically open or close based on the current interior condition. Thus, we can create a passive cooling space as a demonstration of efficient passive heating and cooling.

Likewise the PV arrays on the outside are designed to shade the exterior skin from the heat of the sun, which it would absorb and transfer to the interior space as heat gain.

The exterior skin is composed of a hodge podge collection of recycled plastic laminate sheets on marine grade plywood on one and a half inch metal hat channels to act as a rain and sun skin. The skin keeps the effects of weather and the sun from beating up and beating down the shipping containers. The idea being to reduce the maintenance costs of repainting the containers, make them more energy efficient by moderating the heat gain in the summer.

The entire box then can be disassembled into four individual containers and put onto a truck with a crane and moved to a new location and reassembled.

Don’t take the animation to seriously in this regard as the windows, doors, skylights, and solar panels would remain attached to their respective container. Look for a demonstration of that process in the next animation.

That is all for now let me know if you have any questions or issues.