Brenna Copeland

How Effective is your Model Home?

The purpose of this report is to test how effectively the solar house holds heat. The house
is a passive solar house and is built to hold heat. When I built my house, I used hot glue as a
sealant. When I was sealing my house, I put multiple layers of hot glue in minimize leakage. Two
pictures of my house are below.

To test the efficacy of my house, I used Logger Pro and a heat sensor to measure the temperature
inside and outside the house. I took the temperature outside the house, inside the house, at all the
corners, and in the middle of each side. The data collected is shown below. All degrees are taken
in Celsius.

Temperature inside house 41 degrees Celsius

Temperature outside house 23 degrees Celsius
Brenna Copeland

Each of the numbers shows a temperature taken in Celsius. The house seemed to hold
heat well in all the sealed areas. The weakest spots were the windows. To improve the
effectiveness of my solar house, I will find a way to minimize the leakage from around the
window. I decided to add curtains to minimize the leakage by the windows. The curtains are
made from blankets so they will act as insulation. They are only attached at the top so they can
be lifted to let sunlight into the house. Making the curtains took a few tries, testing different
blankets and sizes. The final measurements from the three windows are recorded below.

Window Location Temperature before curtains Temperature with curtains

Left window 29.7 degrees Celsius 26 degrees Celsius

Front window 33 degrees Celsius 28.8 degrees Celsius
Right window 31.4 degrees Celsius 28.2 degrees Celsius

As seen in the data the curtains were successful in reducing heat leakage. Below are pictures of
the final project.
Brenna Copeland
Brenna Copeland