SMS students learn about green energy

If you walk into Mike Geisen's science classroom at Sisters Middle School (SMS)and wonder why the lights are going on and off, it's because the sun is rising in summer and winter.

His students are demonstrating houses they designed and built to their specifications as a "Dream Home of the Future."

Students had to:

• Incorporate at least seven solar design features.

• The model could not be larger than two feet in any direction.

• No industrial heating or cooling. Heating and cooling had to be all-natural.

• Solar panels could be used to generate electricity for appliances, but not to operate a heater or A/C.

• Thoughtful landscaping could be implemented to heat or cool the design.

During each student's demonstration, Geisen would interrupt with questions like, "What's going on during nighttime cooling in summer? How are you using heat transfer, by convection, conduction or radiating? How do you store that heat?" And when a design hit the nail on the head: "Good solar gain!"

To help bring the student's Dream Home of the Future into reality, about 100 students from Geisen's class went on field trip last Thursday, touring two homes in Sisters Country. One of the homes was of straw-bale-and-plaster, off Holmes Road, east of Sisters, owned by the Givot family. The other home was owned by Doug and Leanne Smith, of Central Oregon Timber Frame, off Cloverdale Road.

Touring actual homes using all the elements of green features and renewable energy systems gave them an on-site and real appreciation of how renewable energy works in the homes of today.

The Smith's off-grid home features traditional timber framing, an age-old craft that features exposed beams secured with mortise-and-tenon joinery. The home also has many green features, including solar panels and recycled building materials.

Doug and Leanne Smith explained in detail to the SMS students how they designed the home to be able to maintain a comfortable temperature, based on its inherent structure and design, and used renewable energy for its power needs.

The students were shown the important elements of passive solar design used to enclose the home in high-insulation exterior walls and ceiling material, and positioning the windows to maximize solar gain, yet minimize heat loss.

The broad side of the home and the majority of its windows face primarily south for optimum solar exposure for winter heating and photovoltaic electricity generation. The north and west sides of the home have minimal glazing and are protected by the garage and trees from prevailing winds.

Of particular interest to the students who were thinking of a career in building were the polyurethane SIPs used in exterior wall construction, which have high R-values, used in conjunction with R26 walls and R40 ceilings. The floor of the Smith's home is insulated with R38 bats, plus 1-1/2 inches of light cement slab to enclose the in-floor heating system.

All of the home's electricity is supplied from batteries powered by photovoltaic panels. Solar hot water panels supply hot water for in-floor heating to the main floor and the upstairs bathroom, while the back-up heating system uses less than 500 gallons of propane a year.

While one group of students was visiting the Smith home, another busload was transported to the Givot residence, where they were greeted by Winnie Givot, who introduced them to straw-bale construction.

If the first Little Pig in the old fairy tale "Three Little Pigs" had the technology of today, the Big Bad Wolf could have huffed-and-puffed all day long and the house would still be standing today.

The Givots tied their locally grown straw bales together with twine and bamboo, then used clay made of ground limestone from the south of France to plaster the outside of bale and bamboo to make it weather-tight.

On the inside, they used marble dust and mica clay to plaster the curved window casings and walls. The mica chips reflect light around the interior, which cuts down on the use of electricity, and the combination of outside and inside plaster allows the house to breath. To further save on electrical energy, the Givots installed a solar tube in the bathroom.

Outside the home, teacher Mike Geisen discussed the construction and design features of the Givots' home and called the student's attention to the solar collectors on the highest part of the roof.

Geisen cleverly steered the students along to solar hot water heating, while at the same time discussing the angles of the sun in relation to the homes' roof lines and windows during the various seasons of the year, and how to best take advantage of the phenomena to collect energy.

One of the most obvious things the students noticed about the Givots' home was the warm and comfortable interior when they stepped inside from the blowing, freezing wind outside. The only heat source they noticed was an eight-by-18-inch wood stove. Then Winnie Givot explained how the two solar panels the students discussed earlier heated not only all the domestic water needed, but also flowed into heating pipes under the floor of the home.

Arriving back in the classroom, eighth-grader Artem Biggers remarked, "That was pretty cool; it fascinated me. I now know how you can do a lot of stuff with solar energy and houses that I never knew before."