Summer Session Kansan
Thursday, June 7, 1979
3
Prof's solar home lets the sun shine in
Heat for the McCols' home is to be supplied primarily by a passive solar energy system, supplemented by a fireplace and a water heater.
supplied by a separate, active solar system. Collectors for both the active and passive systems are located in the rear of the house. They face the south and are tilted skyward to absorb the sun's power.
If natural ventilation works as well as Robert McColl thinks it can, he will not have to turn on the air conditioning in his new house this summer.
By JIM BLOOM Staff Reporter
McColl, professor of geography, said he hoped to open the windows in his solar cell on Crepe Drive, and let the wind, or even breeze help him survive the summer.
"I's amazing how cool it is in here when just a slight breeze kicks up outside." McColl said as he stood in the soon to be finished house. "I'm hoping I won't have to use the air conditioning at all this summer."
One theory of natural ventilation is that it allows air to flow through a structure where trapped inside with no escape. The system has an open door in the house, where hot air exits a room, are one-third larger than those in the lower floor and a design, McColl said, creates a natural compartment.
But natural ventilation is not the only energy-saving mechanism in McColl's house. The living areas of the house and the basement are supplied by two separate solar-powered systems.
Passive solar power system of 12 plexiglass panels heat the house. The panels allow the sun to heat gravel and three different water systems below the house. As the sun's rays are absorbed in the house, warm air starts to rise through the open vent to heat the house. These vents also are used when cooling the house.
The other solar-powered system, which is active, heats the hot water supply.
through a glass panel, warming copro-
cells in three 6 feet by 3 feet panels. Inside the coils is an anti-freeze liquid, which is heated and pumped through tubing to a tank. Inside the tank, the antifreeze enters another series of coils and heats the water in the tank.
"The active system is probably the type of solar power system that most people think of when they think of solar power." McCill said. "It can be attached to any house or apartment and supply hot water."
But the passive system is what required the most planning.
"We had to design the passive system from the foundation up," McColl said. "That's because it involves the entire room, not just the solar panels below the house."
from the foundation to the roof, the house is well insulated. A foundation of a thickness of about 4 inches outside, helps retain heat within the house, McCail said. In a house without these features, much of the heating goes through the foundation and into the
in this system, the sun's rays pass
The ceilings have 12 inches of insulation and the outer walls contain six inches of insulation.
The eaves on the exterior of the house are built so that the summer sun is shaded away from the windows. The sun's rays will help warm the house in the winter months because the eaves will be high and the sunlight to filter through the windows.
The roof of the house is silver-gray, a color that reflects solar rays. This reflection, McCollick said, would help keep
the attic from becoming a "solar fur nace," as it does in conventional homes.
Trees around the house provide shade from the early morning and late afternoon sunlight. In the winter, the trees will be covered by foliage that will hit the roof heater to heat the house.
If the solar system cannot generate enough heat for the house during the winter, McColi said, there is a wood-burning fireplace that is vented for the entire house. A small fan in the wall of the fireplace can push hot air from a fire through air ducts that a conventional heater would use to heat a house.
Aside from the heating and cooling systems, McColl has installed other equipment.
One device is a 2,500 gallon cistern which he booked into the gutter system on his house. McColl said he let rain rinse out to the cistern and then sent it back to channel the rainwater into the cistern.
Plans are to use this "free" water in the backyard and garden system would inhale more oxygen than the water itself source because gravity would draw from the cistern providing irrigation for the garden.
McColl and his family plan to move into their solar house by the first week in July. If they can survive the sultry days of July, August and early September, without air conditioning, as McColl said he thought they could, then his two years of planning and building of the house during his free time will have paid off.
For lighting, McColl said he installed fluorescent light tubes because they were more energy efficient than common incandescent bulbs.
Too much sun could cause cancer
The warm rays that students bask in this summer could cause skin cancer later in life. Lee Bittenbender, a Lawrence dermatologist, said yesterday.
"Ultraviolet rays basically have two effects. The acute effect is a sunburn. The chronic effects don't show up until later and are long-term effects," he said.
Bittenden said effects from sun damage included cancerous, precancerous and malignant lesions.
Skin damage occurs because the ultraviolet rays penetrate the skin and damage the DNA in the epidermal cell, he said.
"The problem is that the effects of ultraviolet rays are cumulative and intriguing."
The sun's rays are most direct in the months of April through October. During
Daylight Saving Times, the rays are most intense from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Ultraviolet rays also can cause eye damage, Warren Culver, a Lawrence attorney.
"ULTRAVOILET RAYS from the reflection of the sun off water or snow can cause keratitis, which is an inflammation or irritation of the cornea." Culver said.
Dark glasses can serve as protection from keratitis. Persons with light-colored eyes also are more susceptible to sun irritation than those with dark-colored eyes.
Burning the macula will leave a blind spot in the visual field.
Infrared rays can burn the inside of the eye if a person looks directly at the sun,
The eye focuses the sun directly on the macula, a small reddish area on the back of the eye which allows people to see objects clearly.
BITTENBENDER SAID that sum excreminar can be good for paresis and eczema
"But aside from skin diseases like eczema or psoriasis, that may improve from sun exposure, for the normal individual there is no benefit to the skin from it," he said.
Sun light can help the body make Vitamin D, which is essential for bone maintenance.
Patricia Dalyre, director of the University of Kansas biochemistry lab, said there was a substance from which Vitamin D is derived present in the skin.
Ultraviolet rays cause these substances to go through certain chemical changes—which are not described.
organist, and institute participants. The COLLEGE HONORS PROGRAM meeting will be held at 9:30 p.m. in the International Room of the Union.
SATURDAY: SUMMER ORIENTATION
SESSION FOR INCOMING FRESHIMEN
will be held all day in the Kansas Union and
in Wescose Hall.
SUNDAY: At 3 p.m. there will be a CARILLON RECTAL by Albert Gerken.
TODAY: SUMMER SESSION FOR INCOMING FRESHMEN will meet all day in the Kansas Union and in Wescoe Hall. In addition, participants will manage MANAGERS AND INTRAMURAL SOFTBALL CO-REC. MANAGERS will meet at 4:30 p.m. in Room 265 Robinson. At 8 p.m. in Room 269 Robinson. At Plymouth Congregational Church, 925 at Plymouth Congregational Church, 925 St.venture, having Frederick Swann,
KANSAN
IT TAKES ONLY 1 HOUR You will improve your reading skills in just one hour with no obligation at a FREE SPEED READING MINI-LESSON
and you will learn how the Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics Course can teach you
...how to read 3X to 10X faster
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how to organize and simplify information so you can remember it longer and more accurately
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Come in for a free sample!
FREE SPEED READING
MINI-LESSON
TONIGHT, FRIDAY,SATURDAY,SUNDAY
In the Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics classroom downstairs in ADVENTURE a bookstore NEW CLASSES STARTING NOW!
7:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Summer class schedule
Summer class schedule Monday and Wednesday, 7-10 p.m., June 11-July 2 Tuesday and Thursday, 7-10 p.m., June 12-July 3 By meeting twice a week the regular 7-lesson course is completed in only $ 3 \frac{1}{2} $ weeks
CALL OR COME IN TO ENROLL BEFORE THE CLASS IS FILLED
EVELYN WOOD READING DYNAMICS downstairs in ADVENTURE a bookstore
Hillcrest Shopping Center
Ninth & lowe
Rent it. Call the Kansan.Call 864-4358.