Zero carbon emission house!
A new building has come up among the Florida State University's usual brick built campus buildings. It is an eco-friendly revolutionary building which runs on solar and hydrogen power only, and with zero carbon emission! This futuristic building has no electric connection from the local electric supply grid. It is a breakthrough solution to the climate change problems; combining traditional technology with unique solar-hydrogen experimental, heat and power source.
The solar panels on the roof are the visible difference from outside, for this two bedroom pioneer building. It has electric energy stored from the solar panel which also is partly used to turn water to hydrogen for power when the sun is not shining ! Hydrogen is a cheaper option compared to banks of expensive storage batteries.
The hydrogen gas can be safely stored in a simple storage facility. The key is a newly developed cheap electrode material, that enables hydrogen production by electrolysing water cheaply. The large solar panels on the roof produce nearly 7KW of power, compared to 1or 2 KW for a normal roof panel. The panels for the experiment house measures 99 square meter in area!
Apart from hydrogen gas being used in the fuel cell to produce electric power, it is also burned in the kitchen for cooking and other similar uses! This burning of hydrogen produces no CO2 or any other gases; only water vapour! Because the hydrogen flame configuration is like a vertical column, it is not effective in radiant-heat ovens. For this convection heating fans circulating the heat is needed. Although the kitchen has an electric refrigerator, it can easily use gas-burning refrigerators that have gone out of production since early twentieth century, but was common earlier!
Although the building uses an electric and geothermal system which is very efficient in the milder climate of Florida. However in colder regions, hydrogen gas can be burnt to provide heating. Despite the photo voltaic panel that produces electricity for the house, the roof has and old model efficient oversized hot water coil also. This can heat sufficient quantity of water to fill a 1000 litre hot water tank with water at around 60°C!
To boost natural internal lighting from the sun, simple light shelves under the upper windows are fitted to reflect the incoming sunshine evenly, without creating any hot areas. The other energy saving set-up includes a reflecting roof. All materials of construction in this building are made from recycled products and natural wood. Partitions walls are made of boards sandwiched around foam insulation! The outside walls are locked to the main building frame by wooden keys.
No nails use used in the constructions anywhere! Hinges and internal frame panels in the building are made of harden board and wood combination that function quite satisfactorily!
To sum up it is a model eco-friendly with no atmospheric pollution coming from the house with zero carbon emission.
Comments