Hey!
I've finished! The experiement is done and the report is done. I'm fairly happy with the end result. I got the results I wanted and am content with my science report. Now all there is to do is hand it in. It's been a good experience and has definately made me more aware of the importance of energy efficiency within the home:)

signing off,

Demscience

Hey, so I attempted my experiement again. It went better, but not well enough. there are a couple problems I came across and here's how I plan to fix them:

1. The temperature strips I'm using only measure 35 degrees and higher, so I'm going to heat up my steel samples and then leave them out in the sun.

2. The sun was out, but the air was still cold, so im going to make plastic windows for each house replica to trap the heat.

Meanwhile, in the process of writing my Science report introduction. Going good! No problems there yet :)

SO, ABOUT THAT PROBLEM,

I've come down to three ideas

1. After heating the steel, I will time how long it takes return to normal temperature.

2. Liquid temperature strips - you stick them onto the object you want to measure.

3. Place steel in water, take temperature of water, then time how long the water takes to cool back down.

So, there you have it. Let's just hope we see a bit more sun now!

So, I attmepted part one of my experiment today,

Fail. The weather was all over the place sunny, rainy, sunny, rainy.

But, when it was sunny it was easy to tell, just by feeling, that some of the colours were absorbing the heat a lot faster than the others.

I've also had an idea: When I heat up the steel next time, I will time how long it takes for each colour to return to orginal temperature. Hopefully this will eliminate this problem.

I got my steel samples!! I a lot more than I hoped for which is great.

With the help of colourbond steel centre, I've listed and given a brief description of each colour. But first, here's some basic need to know things about colourbond steel:
Colourbond steel has a low thermal mass, which mean it cools down fast was the sun is off it. Lightweight steel can help minimise the amount of heat radiation into the home.

Surfmist -
One of the most popular colours on the steel palette and is also one of the most thermally efficient. Lighter colours are especially good at radiating less heat during summer.

Windspray -
Windspray is mid-strength, neutral grey with a blue undertone

Shalegrey -

Light grey colour, similar to surfmist.

Sandbank -

Is a versitile shade of yellow, suitable in both summer and winter.

Jasper -

Brown/grey colour, fairly new to the colourbond steel palette, but has proven to be popular.

Bushland -

Bushland is a warm, mid grey/green hue, ideal environmental colour.

Woodland Grey -

Is a dark brown/grey colour that has been consistently popular over the years.

Ironstone -

Is a dark purple/grey colour

PROBLEM

So, I'm having trouble trying to find a way to measure the heat absorbency of steel. I've had a look around and I'm heading out today to hopefully get some steel samples and other equipment for the experiment. Anyway I'll keep you posted and let you know how its going.

Here is my climate graph. It includes minimum and maximum temperatures for Sydney and average rainfall for a year.

The idea of the graph was to help us understand which information is neccessary and which is not.

Hopefully it will help me better acknowledge what is neccessary information in my own project.

Here is the method for my experiment:

Method: Part A

1. Lay five different colour of steel out in sun.
2. Leave for 1 hour.
3. Record temperature of steel.

Method: Part B

1. Collect steel samples and cardboard.
2. Set-up steel sample at different roof pitches
3. Leave in sun for 4-6 hours
4. Record Observations and temperature
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4, 3 times, each time facing a new direction (i.e North, South, East and West)

hey there,

so here's a fun fact for you -

roof pitch is the degree of the slope of the roof

roof pitch is found by rise over run, kind of like gradient in maths. The higher the number the steeper the slope. e.g 4/12 is steeper than 2/12.

there's a picture above to help understand

anyway that's all for today

bye

hi there,

my last blog was over a month ago! sorry. ive been travelling. i have to admit though I've come across some pretty amazing roofs - the sistine Chapel, for example :D

seriously though, I have found a website that has a selection of colours used for residential steel roofing. A lot of the information is about the asthetics, but there are small bits of information relating to energy. This site will hopefully help in choosing the colours of steel Iwill use for my experiement.

http://www.colorbondcolours.com/home/residential/information/selecting-colours/tips-for-colour-selection

anyway that's all from me tonight. I just got back! about three hours ago.

be back soon.

here's a previous experiment I found on the internet:

http://resources.metapress.com/pdf-preview.axd?code=12x2731203x0v876&size=largest

It tests the heat build up different colours of steel. The experiment was done in Australia and looked at 29 different colours of steel panels ranging from black to white. It was interesting to see the apparatuses used to complete the experiment. One apparatus used was a heat build up box which was used to predict heat build-up in paint films. A Tracrac was also used. A Tracrac is a 'racking system that follows the sun so that the surface of the painted panel is normal to the incident direct solar radiation'. Plywood was placed on the back of the steel to stop heat escaping from the back of the panels.

that's all for today :)

Hey, here is an overview of my experiemnt

Aim: to investigate energy efficiency of uninsulated steel roofing.

My experiment will be conducted in two parts;

Part A - Colour of steel.
I will test four or five colours of steel, by leaving them in the sun for a period of time (1 hour). I will test how much heat is absorbed by the steel.

Part B - Orientation and positioning of roof
I will test three different types of roof (e.g. flat roof, slanted roof) and leave in the sun for 4-6 hours. I will repeat this four times, for each direction the house can face ( North, South, East, West). I will observe how much sunlight is let into the house* and record the temperature of the house.

Independant Variables Include:

• Amount of time steel rooing is left in the sun
• Angle of roof
• Colour of steel

Dependant Variables Include:

• Intensity of sun
• Heat of steel
• Amount of sunlight let into house*

* My 'houses' will be small models I make. I know someone who is an architect and will be able to obtain the materials from him.

I did some research today,

http://www.colorbond.com/home/residential/roofing/thermal-efficiency

http://www.steelroofing.com/energy_efficient_choice.pdf

http://preengineeredsteelbuildings.net/news-society/energy-efficient-color-options-for-pre-engineered-steel-buildings/

http://www.resene.co.nz/homeown/probsolv/prob10.htm

Here's some info:

• Lighter colours radiate less heat during the summer.
• The sun is higher in the sky in summer.
• If your home faces true north, it will receive more sun.
• Eave-overhangs will prevent direct sunlight exposure in summer.
• "Cool" paint-based sun reflecting pigments act to reflect the infrared radiation.
• This means less solar energy is transferred throughout the home.
• Less heat, means less energy to cool and thus, reducing cooling costs.
• Reflectance is the amount of light reflected compared to the amount of light that falls on the given surface.
• Dark, matt and/or textured surfaces absorb a lot of light and have low light reflectance values. Light, glossy and/or smooth surfaces reflect most of the light that falls on them and have high light reflectance values.
• The higher the reflectance value, the less heat is transferred, home remains cooler.

I've had a new, completely different idea.
The most energy efficient uninsulated steel roofing. Well, it kind of stemmed from looking at energy efficient roofing and what I could look at/research. I decided that I needed to be more specific to reduce the number of variables (thanks miss Zhang). Eventually I came up with the idea of steel roofing.

I can look at two things:

• colour of steel - how much heat it absorbs, is the colour appropriate for both winter and summer, etc.
• Anlge/ positioning of roof - how much sunlight is let in, which direction is the best way for the roof to face, etc.

So yeh, this is my best idea so far..

still thinking...

Hey,
Started to throw around some ideas. I'm thinking about something to do with colour.
Here are some sites I looked at for some inspiration:
http://psychology.about.com/od/sensationandperception/a/colorpsych.htm
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/colors1.html
http://www.squidoo.com/colorexpert

I found looking at how colour effects your mood really interesting. The sites talked about differen colours and how human react to those colours. I'd like to better understand how they reached these conclusions and why we react to the colours the way we do.

Anyway, still thinking...

Hey :)
My name is Demi. And I have pondered the SRP immensly. Still my idea seem to be in hiding...
I'll give you an update when I find it.

Hello World