Eco-renovating Our Social Models – One Community Weekly Progress Update #428

This week the core team completed our final review and feedback round on the Earthbag Village Construction of the Footer, Foundation, and Flooring doc, followed by a collaborative phone call to clarify our final outstanding concerns. The same team member then continued proofreading the Sustainable Roadways, Walkways, and Landscaping tutorial, going through page 18.

Continued Proofreading the Sustainable Roadways, Walkways, and Landscaping Tutorial – Click for Page

The core team also began final edits and additions to the “Best Small and Large-scale Plastic Recycling, Reuse, and Repurposing Community Options” article. This is the process of integrating extensive new research and edits from Aidan, updating the spreadsheets and other graphics, and beginning the process of transferring them to the One Community site. The same team member also did some additional work double checking all the images were correct for the finished “Earthbag Village Dome Home Loft Engineering page.

Began Final Edits to the Best Plastic Recycling, Reuse, and Repurposing Community Options – Click for Page

And the core team created a new list of requests covering up through page 39 of the Tree House Village (Pod 7) online book.

Created a New List of Requests of the Tree House Village Online Book – Click for Page

The core team additionally continued double checking the Earthbag Village energy specifics for the solar microgrid design, sizing, and cost analysis. We interviewed 2 volunteers to assist with this task and the same process that will be applied to the City Center, Straw Bale Village, Ultimate Classroom, and Aquapini and Walipini Structures next. We’d say we’re now 90% of the way done with the energy consuming components within the Earthbag Village. We added additional details for how we arrived at different numbers of units, added percent use, and worked with Frank to estimate energy use by potential HVAC system for the Tropical Atrium, water heater for eco-showers, and some greywater pumps. We also added the time of day the power draw occurs from the different power demands. See below for related pictures. 

Continued Double Checking the Earthbag Village Energy Specifics for the Solar Microgrid Design – Click for Page

Dean Scholz (Architectural Designer) continued helping with the Earthbag Village (Pod 1) 4-dome cluster designs. This was week #223 of Dean’s work and the focus was placement of the 2nd quilt in the guest bedroom, adding lights, and beginning light effects testing/rendering. Pictures below show some of this work.

Continued Helping With the Earthbag Village 4-dome Cluster Designs – Click for Page

Jose Luis Flores (Mechanical Engineer) completed his 45th week helping finish the Net-zero Bathroom component of the Earthbag Village. This week Jose Luis completed the calculations for the maximum scaling factor of the Net-Zero Bathroom roof with the addition of an exterior support column. He completed the calculations by assuming the distributed load was uniform on the wall and made the max distance from the reaction force on the wall to the center of gravity to be 60% of the distance from the edge of the wall to the column. The weight of the roof was related to the radial beam length and the radial beam was related to the length of the external column. By substituting these relationships, the length of the exterior support column was calculated. The weight equation was then used to solve for the reaction force on the external column and set it equal to the equation of the critical load before buckling. This was used to solve for the maximum length of the external column and then used to solve for the length of the radial beam. With the equation used to calculate the area of a trapezoid, the surface area of the roof was calculated. The next step will be to review the calculations to look for any discrepancies and then add it to the Net-Zero Bathroom Tutorial/Instructions and add the spreadsheets. The pictures below show some of this work.

Continued Helping Finish the Net-zero Bathroom Component of the Earthbag Village – Click for Page

Hannah Copeman (Structural Engineer) completed her 39th and final week helping complete all the Earthbag Village tutorials. This week Hannah finalized the development of the Earthbag Village Footer, Foundation & Flooring tutorial. She changed diagrams to reflect the increased horizontal wing insulation of the domes, worked with other team members to discuss the future paths of the FFF and loft tutorials, and cleaned up the CAD files for the next team member who works on the dome and loft. You can see some pictures of this work below.

Finalized the Development of the Earthbag Village Footer, Foundation & Flooring Tutorial – Click for Page

Vicente J Subiela (Project Management Adviser) completed his 20th week working on the solar microgrid design, sizing, and cost analysis specifics. This past week, Vicente continued the supervision of the ongoing energy tasks. For easy follow-up view he created the flow working diagram below which can be updated according to progress. He also updated the schedule plan and replied to the questions and comments related to the ongoing tasks.

Continued the Supervision of the Ongoing Energy Tasks – Click for Solar Energy Page

Jeson Hu (Aerospace Engineer) completed his 14th week helping with research related to the solar microgrid design, sizing, and cost analysis specifics. This week, he added images to the types of solar harvesting cells, and the color coating onto the solar hardware spreadsheets for visual differentiation on how good or bad they are. Jeson also added more descriptions on how to choose from each type of hardware. He then focused on rewriting the solar incentive research document and constructing the solar incentive rate table. He will be doing the requested conclusion next week and the format and image numbering at the end. Jeson will then make all the webpage links into PDF and add them to the dropbox. The pictures below share some of this developing work.

Continued With Research Related to the Solar Microgrid Design, Sizing, and Cost Analysis Specifics – Click for Page

Katherine Cao (Chemical Engineer) also completed her 2nd week working on the grid-tie connection details for our solar microgrid designs. This week Katherine researched the steps and cost for constructing the PV grid tie-system. She also researched local power company websites, and learned their utility distribution, contacted them for cost, and wrote the initial report on them. Additionally, Katherine learned how to use Google Earth and Google Maps to do measurements and measured the distance we’ll need to run cable to bring power to the property. Pictures below are related to this work. <

Researched the Steps and Cost for Constructing the PV Grid Tie-system – Click for Solar Energy Page

This week Frank Roland Vilcapaza Diaz (Mechanical Engineer) joined the team and began by helping with some needed research for the Earthbag Village energy specifics. He worked on learning more about the project and understanding the basic principles behind it. The analysis of pump power requirements was computed. A selection tool was used to determine the water heater used on the eco-shower, and the HVAC study was started for the Tropical Atrium. The pictures below relate to this work.

Joined the Team and Began by Helping With Research for the Earthbag Village Energy Specifics – Click for Page

Prabhath Ekanayake (Electrical Engineering Assistant) also joined the team and completed his 1st week working on the grid-tie connection details for our solar microgrid designs. For his first week, Prabhath focused on completing grid connection details and research covering how to get started/where to start your research, and the step-by-step construction steps to expect. Below are some images related to this work.

Joined the Team and Began Working on the Grid-tie Connection Details for Solar Microgrid Designs – Click for Page

Last but not least, Nicholas K. de León (Project Management Adviser) joined the team and completed his first week helping with review of Highest Good Housing research and related tasks. This week, Nicholas completed his onboarding process and began his first assignments, including researching the best providers for cylinder molds we’ll be ordering to do aircrete and stabilized earth compression testing. After researching and compiling information on sellers and the most competitive prices, he is close to being able to determine the most cost effective route for One Community. In addition to this, Nicholas familiarized himself with solar infrastructure research documents and began making edits/suggestions. Pictures below show some of this work-in-progress.

Joined the Team and Began Review of Highest Good Housing Research and Related Tasks – Click for Page

This week Ksenia Akimov (Plumbing Engineer) completed her 32nd week working on the Duplicable City Center plumbing designs. This week Ksenia calculated hot water flow rate for the Social Dome, Kitchen and Living Dome. She also started looking for the new water heater we’re going to use. Pictures below are related to this work.

Calculated Hot Water Flow Rate for the Social Dome, Kitchen and Living Dome – Click for City Center

Ian Oliver Malinay (Energy Modeler/Analyst) completed his 22nd week helping run the energy analysis calculations to help us achieve LEED Platinum status for the Duplicable City Center. This week, Ian finished transferring all data of the operation schedule from the spreadsheet to the DesignBuilder energy simulation software. This spreadsheet contains a detailed operation schedule for occupancy, process load, artificial lighting, mechanical ventilation, heating demand and cooling demand. This operation schedule is important to accurately calculate the energy consumption of the building for the whole year and has a significant effect on the results of the calculation. This is all a requirement for the building to achieve a LEED certification. Below are some images related to this work.

Transferred All Data of the Operation Schedule to the Designbuilder Energy Simulation Software – Click for Page

David Na (Project Management Adviser/Engineer) completed his 15th week helping with input and management of the Parking Lot and Sustainable Roadways, Walkways, and Landscaping tutorial development, as well as the City Center Water Catchment Designs. This week David and his team focused on implementing corrections as needed to the Roadways, Walkways, and Landscaping tutorials per recommended/suggested comments from the multi-person review team. David also reviewed the comments and made changes as necessary and assigned comments to specific team members if he felt that they related to them. David also spent time finishing the AutoCAD Civil 3D training with Carol for the design of a roadway/corridor. He has worked with Carol to teach her how to create a surface from survey points, design a horizontal alignment, design a vertical alignment and profile, create a road assembly, and apply the assembly to the corridor. Pictures below are related to this work.

Implemented Corrections as Needed to the Roadways, Walkways, and Landscaping Tutorials – Click for Page

Sunitha Paraselli (Mechanical Design Engineer) completed her 13th week working on the Duplicable City Center connectors we’ll use to build the domes. This week Sunitha revised the previous document and made some major changes as she analyzed the material with stainless steel according to updated design criteria. The stress resistance of stainless steel is very high, so we are considering it for our angle bracket and comparing it with aluminum using simulations. She eliminated the galvanized steel as there is cracking of the coating when we bend the plate. The pictures below relate to this work.

Continued Working on the Duplicable City Center Connectors We’ll Use to Build the Domes – Click for Duplicable City Center

Luis Manuel Dominguez (Research Engineer) also completed his 13th week helping with research related to the City Center Eco-spa designs. This week Luis began the plumbing design. His primary focus has been the pump selection and what will fit our needs perfectly. He did the necessary research to understand what is available on the market and now is determining the flow rates and pressures of the system to select the correct pump. Along with the plumbing, the installation of the foundation and piping schematic will also need to be designed to have a complete model with accurate calculations that reflect the model. Pictures below are related to this work.

Began the City Center Eco-spa Plumbing Design – Click for Pool and Spa Page

Daniela Andrea Parada (Civil Engineering Student) completed her 10th week helping with the Sustainable Roadways, Walkways, and Landscaping tutorial development. She primarily focused on two sections, Porous Asphalt and Decomposed Granite. Daniela researched, wrote and completed the last portions of the Porous Asphalt section. She then moved on to reorganizing the Decomposed Granite section. Once the concepts flowed better, Daniela added various paragraphs concerning the topics presented. Then this work was reviewed by a team member and Daniela edited the report based on the feedback provided. Lastly Daniela ensured the sections were clear and concise, in addition to making last edits to the formatting of the report. Pictures of some of this work are below.

Continued Helping With the Sustainable Roadways, Walkways, and Landscaping Tutorial – Click for Page

Rushabh Bhavsar (Mechanical Design Engineer) completed his 7th week helping with the City Center Eco-spa designs. He finished the inlet water supply and air supply piping connecting it to the body of the hot tub and jet valves. Rushabh also started modeling the features of the heater and pump, and researched insulation materials and construction processes for custom hot tubs like ours. Pictures below relate to his work last week.

Continued Helping With the City Center Eco-spa Designs – Click for Page

Carol Nguyen (Civil Engineer) also completed her 6th week helping with the Sustainable Roadways, Walkways, and Landscaping tutorial development. This week, Carol did research and added details to the “Dense Graded HMA”, “Porous Asphalt”, “Decomposed Granite”, “Paving Stones”, “Equivalent Single Axle Loads”, “Lane Distribution Factor”, “Traffic Index”, “Life-Cycle Cost Analysis”, “Subgrade”, “Base” sections as requested through core team feedback. She also added other information to “Streetscape Elements by Street Types (Standard Elements, Case by Case Additions)”. Carol additionally worked on the Bikeway Design part and worked with David on Civil 3D for Roadway Design. The pictures below share some of this developing work.

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