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Said Tipton: “T is building is the culmination of a dream


that began almost two years ago. It was a perfect fi t for several projects that our construction programs had already begun working on.” NTC Electrical Technology Instructor Dan Ipock will be the


fi rst to tell you that, while many of the methods used during the project can’t be found in a manual, there are resource mate-


Clint Branham Communications Specialist


rials available if you know where to look. He found do-it-your- self books on solar energy at home improvement stores and read a few articles online. Trade publications and magazines also came in handy over the course of his fi ve years worth of research. “I’ve had an unquenchable appetite for any book that has


anything to do with solar,” he laughed. Added Ipock: “Most of what I found came from outside


sources. Anything I found in a textbook had to do with com- mercial applications, and that’s just too big of a scale. What we applied here came more from the do-it-yourself angle.” T e structure is off the grid and designed to be self- suffi -


cient. Some may consider this risky, considering it relies solely on renewable energy to power its systems. T e building was made accessible to the public during an


open house held April 12. Among the hundreds of visitors impressed by the unique project and its state-of-the-art energy effi ciency systems were District 1 State Senator Charlie Wyrick and District 7 State Representative Larry Glenn. T e fi rst thing visitors notice upon approaching the build-


ing are the renewable energy systems in place. Six 240-watt photovoltaic panels on a fi xed, ground-mount system are always at work, capturing valuable solar energy. T e panels are facing magnetic south and set at an angle of exactly 36 degrees. Precise calculations were used to ensure panels capture the optimum amount of sunlight and the solar window is free from obstruction. Frames for both the solar panels and wind generator were


custom designed by NTC welding students. “We used aluminum, which makes the bases lighter, easier to


set up and virtually maintenance-free,” said Jeff Tipton, Weld- ing Instructor. “It also adds to ease-of-use.” Added Tipton: “Aſt er seeing this project to completion, I be-


lieve so much in the methods used that I am building my own house using the same green technology.”


6 - Northeast Connection


Just a few feet away from the solar “farm” is a wind generator


that provides an additional 600 watts of supplemental energy on days when wind exceeds 18 miles per hour. It begins gener- ating a trickle of power in a breeze of around 7 miles per hour. T e combined electricity generated from the solar panels


and wind generator is stored by four, 12-volt batteries that are connected in a 24-volt array. “T e batteries are deep cycle—kind of like you’d see in a bass boat,” Ipock explained. “T ey’re not big batteries, by any means. I’ve seen solar systems that have huge batteries like you’d see in a semi. T ese are nothing like that. Said Ipock: “Right now we have the


ability to create more electricity than we can store.” Located directly above the front


door is a thermal hot air collector that is capable of heating air to tem- peratures exceeding 140 degrees F. T e self-generating unit draws air at room temperature through a bottom intake. Air passes through a set of baffl es, where it is heated before a blower pushes it out a top register. “It’s a self-contained unit. All we


had to do was assemble it, pen- etrate the wall and mount it up there,” said Ipock. “It isn’t connect- ed to our electrical system in any way. It’s generating its own power. Whenever the sun goes behind the clouds, it knows it won’t be effi cient so it just shuts itself off . T e baffl es close so there’s no air of any kind migrating out there. It’s controlled thermostatically, so I can shut it down on a warm day. On a cold day, we’re getting free hot air blowing out that top register. And, if I turn on my ceiling fans, I can circulate that heat throughout the house. I’ve measured tempera- tures as much as 170 degrees coming out that top register. It’s very, very effi cient. We’re impressed with it.” Generating energy is only one facet of the project.


Conserving the energy once it has been generated is just as important. T e shell of the building is constructed from structural insu-


lated panels that feature four inches of Styrofoam sandwiched in between sheathing. While conventional construction calls for stud walls, the method implemented here removes the possibility of thermal bridging and provides “R” values of 58


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