6
Thursdav. Mav 1. 1980
University Daily Kansan
Energy sources combined in attempt to solve crisis
By ERNIE DAVI Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
If you're going to be living without the frosty blasts of an aid conditioner this summer, don't gripe, groan or sweat.
Impossible? Not really, according to Max Lucas. KU professor of architecture and urban design. Just use passive solar power techniques.
Passive techniques are some of the many alternatives available for easing the energy required to build a building in engineering, said there was a need to put "little bits of things together" to solve the problem.
Passive passive techniques, in which no machinery is involved, are the cheapest.
ANYONE CAN use passive techniques, Lucas said. Passive is a return to the ways of the past, but is more sophisticated today than it was consciously conscious of what they are done, he said.
At night, during the summer, he said, all the windows in the house should be opened for ventilation. During the day, the windows should be closed and dark colored curtains should be drawn, to keep the heat out.
As the day wears on, the house and all its contents will slowly get hot because of heat that gets by the curtains, Lucas said.
If an air conditioner is available, its use can be reduced by using passive techniques; for example, a pump and condi- tionary can be turned on and used until the outside temperature falls below that
Trees can be part of a passive solar system, also, Lucas said. By planting trees where they will shade windows from direct
sunlight, lighter curtains can be used to allow indirect light in the house. That way, artificial light won't be required, he said.
As the seasons change and the trees lose their leaves, the routine of using passive solar techniques changes.
IN THE summer the goal is to prevent heat gain, but in the winter the goal is to gain as much heat as possible during the day and prevent its loss at night.
Gain the sun's heat in the winter, Lucas said, curtains should be open during the day. Everything in the room struck by the wind or cold, like floor, walls, tables, chairs, and even people.
When the sun goes down, insulated shutters should be used to cover the windows. The windows also should have storm windows to prevent heat leak, and walls
The better a passive system is, the less the active one has to work. Lucas said.
Lucas said that buildings could be designed to include the use of passive systems.
Glass walls on the south side of a building to help gather heat, for example. Floors can be constructed of heat-dissipating materials such as fiberglass so that there is not direct heat loss, be said.
LUCAS SAID the Academic Compass... Center was built with passive systems in mind. The windows allow natural lighting to be used, but do not allow direct sunlight. The building also uses the heat produced by heating to help keep the building warm.
The Malot addition also has an energy-
conservations design, according to I. was.
consideration of energy consciousness;" he said.
"A person can't build today without
The costs of not doing so are getting too high, both for the individual and his neighbors, he said.
Thomas Dean, KM professor of architecture and urban design, uses passive systems to allow plants in the house design. Dean has a greenhouse that helps provide heat. The greenhouse is adjacent to the main house. It also allows 80 degrees of air draws an air draw into the house.
DEAN SAID he also was saving on his food bill by growing vegetables in the greenhouse.
Active solar systems are utilized to provide additional heat and hot water Between the two rooftops Dean said, he saves 72 percent on his billentail bill and 83 percent on his hot water
After living in a solar house, Dean said, he couldn't imagine not living in one. He designs only solar houses and requires a greenhouse to be included in the design.
"Nobody's objected in five years," he said.
The active system Dean uses is made up of flat-plate collectors mounted on his roof. The collectors are constructed of heat-resistant plastic and mounted running through it. Water flows through the copper tubes, is heated, and then stored in a 1,800-gallon tank in the basement. Dean said a system similar to his would cost about $29,500 for his system about five years ago.
Active systems are not just for individual use. But systems that provide power for many customers have to concentrate the use.
sun's light to get the most heat possible, according to Louis Burshemer, KUD systems' engineer. The systems must be built on a large scale, he said, taking up more land than conventional roofs.
ONE SYSTEM is a "power tower," a complex with a number of mirrors focused on a boiler on top of a tower. Brumster manufacturer of the boiler in the boiler is used to produce electricity.
Another example of a large-scale active system is a power satellite. The satellite carries power from the earth along a microwave beam, thus solving one of the major problems with solar power.
Clouds have an effect on any earth-based solar power system used.
Another problem with active solar systems which is not often considered is the energy it takes to produce the energy-saving system, Burnmaster said.
"Does it take more energy to produce than what we get from it?" he asked.
Yet Burmeister said he was not pessimistic about the future of solar power.
BECAUSE THE active systems don't provide all the energy needed today, other sources have to be used.
Dean also has a wind power system. He said that although wind was not used as much as other sources of power, he wanted to learn about its problems.
One of the problems he heard about, he said, was that wind systems interfered with television signals. He said his system was 35 miles away from his set and he had no trouble with it.
Dean is not the only KU professor studying wind power. Robert Nunley.
professor of geography, said he used to receive up to one-fourth of his electricity from the wind.
NUNLEY'S SYSTEM was set up as part of a graduate student's work on the sitting of windmills. Nunley said windmills were made because concentration of windmills in a city would reduce the amount of energy that could be produced by windmills would also cause problems in the city, he said, because a windmill that would probably land on someone else's property.
Biomass is an option to use windmills in the city. It is also the least understood alternative, according to McKinney. Biomass is the energy received from living organisms.
Wood stoves are examples of biomass energy systems.
Another example, McKinney said, involved using methane gas produced by
microorganisms in sewage treatment plants. He said TepaKe's sewage treatment plant, built during the depression, was one of the few places in Florida to save money. Lawrence also uses microorganisms to treat its sewage, but it also uses gas produced because natural gas is cheap.
THE KEY to biomass, McKinney said, is to take a common situation and figure out how to make more efficient use of it.
He said the Bacardi Corp. in Puerto Rico was "killing two birds with one stone" by treating its waste products with bacteria to kill them, then using the gas in the distillation process.
Although it is not economical now, he said, Kansas could one day tap the methane gas being produced naturally in the sanitary landfills of the state. He said California was already able to profit from this because its fields were larger and produced more gas.
Futurists seek new approaches
By RICK HELLMAN Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
When people hear the word futurist, they tend to think of predictions, crystal balls and future forecasts. William Conley, professor of speech and other KU futurists would like to dispel.
“It’s a field some people find strange enough as it is, so we prefer to call it future studies,” Conboy said.
'What we do is offer ideas and approaches, waves of thinking. We want to
examine the options and ask 'What are the possibilities?' "
CONBOW AND THOUSANDS of other futurists from around the world will have an opportunity to do just that at the First Century Foundation on the Future July 2024 in Toronto.
The conference incorporates the Third General Assembly of the World Future Society and the fifth annual conference of the Canadian Futures Society.
THE FOUR days of seminars, speeches and other programs are expected to draw more than 4,000 futurists, including Coboy and others from KU.
5. The number you spin corresponds to a number on our discount board--from 10% to 50% off.
CASINO DAYS SALE!
EXCLUSIVELY AT
MISTER GUY
WED. APRIL 23 TO
SAT. MAY 3
HERE'S HOW TO PLAY:
1. Pick your merchandise.
6. Everyone is a winner--you get at least 10%
off on all the new spring merchandise in the
store. Hurry, the fun lasts only a short
time!!
2. Take it to a dealer (clothing consultant)
4. Spin our big wheel of savings.
3. Have him total up the merchandise.
FREE REFRESHMENTS FOR ALL !!!
HOURS:
HOURS!
M T W F SAT
10-6
T 10-9
Sun 1-5
920 Mass.
HIRD RETAIL LIQUORS In the Westridge Shopping Center 6th & Kasold Drive Lawrence, Kansas
Complete KEG BEER Service
843-O354 • Reserved Equipment • All Domestic &
THE FUTURIST PERSPECTIVE.
Cobay said, is based on an understanding
that things are changing more rapidly now
than ever before.
"Things are rolling along at a rapid pace with ever larger effects," Coboy said. In other words, the snowball has got very many impacts of impacts and things we do in our lives.
"It has become more necessary than ever to question where we are headed. We can't afford to go to the future by accident."
"I see us developing a smaller number in-in-depth relationships," Conboy said. "That will be more important than knowing a whole lot of people vaguely. The old 'half-fellow-well-net,' slap on the back, have you noticed that things don't allow us to really feel rooted."
CONBODY, WHO is one of the founding members of future study committees in the conference on value systems in the future and their effects on communication
"In some aspects it will be a world more like the depression. We won't be traveling, driving cars everywhere."