Regenerative Community Establishment – One Community Weekly Progress Update #425

This week the core team continued finalizing the Earthbag Village Construction of the Footer, Foundation, and Flooring doc, integrating input from 3 core team members. These last reviews are from a potential users perspective. They addressed some issues that we overlooked and we have responded with additional information to reconcile the concerns where appropriate. We’d say this tutorial is now about 90% complete behind-the-scenes.

Continued Finalizing the Earthbag Village Construction of the Footer, Foundation, and Flooring Doc. – Click for Page

The core team additionally continued the final review of the Earthbag Village Dome Home Loft Engineering page. We integrated Hannah’s input and had a phone call for further clarification. We also discovered some mistakes in the new spreadsheet, so it was decided to use Hannah’s original spreadsheet instead of the one we’d edited for visual aesthetics. We identified areas where additional images would be helpful to the reader and edited and rearranged the order of a couple sections. We’d say the final review and final editing of this page is now about 95% complete.

Continued the Final Review of the Earthbag Village Dome Home Loft Engineering Page – Click to Visit

The core team also confirmed all of Zachary’s updates from last week to the Tree House Village (Pod 7) online book and created a new list of requests covering up through page 50. Pictures below show some of this work.

Continued Working on the Tree House Village Online Book – Click for Page

Lastly, the core team finished the latest version of the Murphy bed assembly instructions document. Last review with corrections and suggestions were done for the closed storage unit and nightstand assembly, covering pages 102 -119. Pictures below are related to this work.

Reviewed Murphy Bed Closed Storage Unit and Nightstand Assembly – Click for Page

Dean Scholz (Architectural Designer) continued helping with the Earthbag Village (Pod 1) 4-dome cluster designs. This was week #221 of Dean’s work and the focus was was mostly texturing and placement of the quilt shown in the pictures below. Dean added some items to the guest room too. Pictures of some of this work are below.

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

Jose Luis Flores (Mechanical Engineer) completed his 42nd week helping finish the Net-zero Bathroom component of the Earthbag Village. This week Jose Luis finished calculating the maximum scaling factor of the Net-Zero Bathroom exterior roof. He also calculated the relationship between the scaling factor and the amount of material needed to construct the exterior roof. A relationship was calculated between the number of tangential beams and weight. This was needed to accurately calculate the relationship between weight and the surface area of the exterior roof. The same principle was used to determine a relationship between the weight of both the radial beam and the galvalume panel and the number of tangential beams. Graphs were constructed using the calculated weight and the number of tangential beams. A best fit line was generated to have an estimated equation to calculate the weight based on the number of tangential beams. This approach was taken to calculate the maximum scale factor and the amount of material needed by calculating the total weight using the best fit line equations from the generated graphs. With the calculations completed he began creating a scaling factor section in the Net-Zero Bathroom tutorial/instructions. The pictures below show some of this work.

Finished Calculating the Maximum Scaling Factor of the Net-zero Bathroom Exterior Roof – Click for Net Zero Bathroom

Stacey Maillet (Graphic Designer) completed her 38th week working on the final edits and revisions to the Murphy bed instructions. Stacy focused on going through the updates slowly one-by-one and trying to make the changes suggested. This week was still making updates to different wood types and cuts of wood in the different areas and assembly. It is definitely helping the clarity of the instructions to pull everything together visually in the beginning of the wall section and initial frame construction. All while keeping a close eye on the changes in any screw counts and parts needed as per the new construction changes. Screenshots below are related to this latest progress.

Continued Working on the Final Edits and Revisions to the Murphy Bed Instructions – Click for Page

Hannah Copeman (Structural Engineer) completed her 36th week helping complete all the Earthbag Village tutorials. This week Hannah continued the development of the Earthbag Village dome construction by continuing work on the Footer, Foundation and Flooring tutorial and the loft dome design tutorial. She continued to elaborate on details within the FFF doc and worked with team members to enhance the presentation and content of the loft structural design. You can see some pictures of this work below.

Continued Working on the Footer, Foundation and Flooring Tutorial – Click for Earthbag Village

Vicente J Subiela (Project Management Adviser) completed his 17th week working on the solar microgrid design, sizing, and cost analysis specifics. Vicente reviewed the calculations for the tub thermal losses for different situations and the associated report, making comments and contributions to improve it. The inserted chart (picture on left) illustrates a summary of Luis’ calculations indicating the highest heat loss is when the tub is in use (about 25 kW required under the worst situation: environmental temperature -6.7 ºC); this means that the power demand will never be higher than this value. He has updated the tub report to remove old/inactive comments. The economic balance that compares two options for the electric service has been updated as well, illustrating a clear advantage for the case of RMP. Vicente also reviewed and commented on the quote from the inverters company.

Continued Working on the Solar Microgrid Design, Sizing, and Cost Analysis Specifics – Click for Page

Jeson Hu (Aerospace Engineer) completed his 11th week helping with research related to the solar microgrid design, sizing, and cost analysis specifics. This week, Jeson completed the research of solar incentive rate in California, Utah, Arizona, Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. He found that most of the power utility companies offer 1:1 net metering, which is as good as it gets, meaning the rate of selling energy to the utility company is the same as what is charged for using their energy. However, for the utility provider of the current location, Garkane Power Association, the cost of energy is at $ 0.07500/kWh and the energy being credited is only $ 0.02600/kWh. In other words, for the same amount of energy, the customer pays 2.88 times more than they are credited. The next closest power utility company in Kanab, Utah is Rocky Mountain Power. They offer basically 1:1 net metering, which would be much more desirable than Garkane Power Association. He summarized his findings in both the solar collaboration doc and his solar incentive rate research doc. He also called and sent the email to both Garkane and RMP for the solar rate and size confirmation. Finally, Jeson finished the evaluation and selection of the best solar PV and inverters, given all the collected quotes and data. The pictures below share some of this developing work.

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

This week the core team completed another round of review and feedback for what will become the Duplicable City Center connector tutorial covering the engineering that went into identifying the best designs for the hub connectors for the dome frames. Pictures below show some of this work.

Continued Review and Feedback for What Will Become the Duplicable City Center Connector Tutorial – Click for Page

Ksenia Akimov (Plumbing Engineer) completed her 30th week working on the Duplicable City Center plumbing designs. This week Ksenia added ventilation in the kitchen, cleaned up the  background of the floorplan, and started to calculate hot water for the kitchen. She also deleted pipelines between the domes. Pictures below are related to this work.

Continued Working on the Duplicable City Center Plumbing Designs – Click for Page

Ian Oliver Malinay (Energy Modeler/Analyst) completed his 20th week helping run the energy analysis calculations to help us achieve LEED Platinum status for the Duplicable City Center. This week, Ian finalized the operation of schedules for the Duplicable City Center. He also transferred all the data of operation schedules from the spreadsheet to the energy simulation software. He finalized the operation of schedule for occupancy, process loads, artificial lighting, air ventilation, heating and cooling demand and domestic hot water. This operation of schedule has a significant effect considering the energy savings of the building (especially when the project is pursuing LEED Platinum certification). Below are some images related to this work.

Continued Helping Run the Energy Analysis Calculations for the Duplicable City Center – Click for DCC Heating and Cooling Page

David Na (Project Management Adviser/Engineer) completed his 12th 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. David sent out an email to coordinate and distribute action items to his team on Monday because his team was not available to meet. A progress update meeting was held to gauge how much work was needed for completion so that David and his team can prepare a submittal to Jae for review. David has also responded to emails, worked on the landscaping tutorial, and finished up the Storm Drain drainage design tutorial section. He also looked into the greywater processing pond project to familiarize and prepare himself to work with the design team when they are ready. Pictures below are related to this work.

Continued Management of the Parking Lot and Sustainable Roadways Development, and Water Catchment Designs – Click for Water Catchment Page

Luis Manuel Dominguez (Research Engineer) also completed his 9th week helping with research related to the solar microgrid design, sizing, and cost analysis specifics. This week Luis encountered some setbacks with regards to his completion of the City Center Eco-spa  report. With the help of the One Community Team, he was able to identify some errors in his evaporative heat transfer calculations with regards to the water densities he was using, along with the mass transfer coefficient of water. This was a small setback, but it is important to provide the correct information with confidence and certainty. He was also tasked with putting together a table that displays the heat loss of the tub when partially covered. This will allow some heat to be saved while in operation. Furthermore, the report is in its final stages and awaits approval from the team. Pictures below show some of this work-in-progress.

Continued Working on the Solar Microgrid Design, Sizing, and Cost Analysis Specifics – Click for Page

Daniela Andrea Parada (Volunteer/Consultant Civil Engineering Student) completed her 7th week helping with the Sustainable Roadways, Walkways, and Landscaping tutorial development. Daniela started off this week by editing the grading and drainage plans of a basement for a City Center structure. As she has been making various edits within the past few weeks, she continued to make alterations in order to receive more feedback from David. Daniela also met with David and his team in order to explain the completed work from last week and continued to discuss questions/expectations for the current week. Afterwards Daniela worked on creating a glossary for the Roadways, Walkways, Gutters and Parking Lot Report. She began by reading through the document and choosing technical terminology that non-engineers would need further descriptions on. Once completed Daniela researched for the most accurate and clear definitions in order to better describe terminology. To wrap up the week Daniela made further alterations to the grading design as the driveway did not properly align with the semi circle. This included making attempts to find the best and most efficient drainage design. Pictures of some of this work are below.

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

Yufan Jiang (Volunteer Architectural Designer) completed her 5th week as a member of the team. This week Yufan worked on WBS #: 2.2.3.3: City Center SketchUp, AutoCAD 3D and 2D Dormer Window Design for the Duplicable City Center. For this task, she worked on the SketchUp model and modified the dormer’s frame, trimming the improper structure out of the wall. At the same time, she previewed the tutorials about 3D AutoCAD. After communicating with Jae and identifying the right place to make adjustments, Yufan researched the IBC fire code and other relevant code, and also scanned some design references. Then she worked on the new proposals for the dormer in the SketchUp model. The pictures below relate to this work.

Worked on WBS #: 2.2.3.3: City Center SketchUp, AutoCAD 3D and 2D Dormer Window Design for the Duplicable City Center – Click for Page

Carol Nguyen (Civil Engineer) also completed her 4th week helping with the Sustainable Roadways, Walkways, and Landscaping tutorial development. This week, Carol did research and wrote the Different Street Types section, including “Commercial”, “Residential”, “Industrial”, and “Mixed-Use” Streets. She also did additional research and worked on sections “Consideration for Sidewalk Width Determining”, “Design Features” for intersection, and “General Bikeway Design Criteria (Design Considerations)”. In addition, she also wrote the introductions for “Alternative Pavement Options” and “ADA Requirements for Parking Lot”. Carol also made some changes in the “Roadway Initial Costs” spreadsheets. The pictures below share some of this developing work.

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

Rushabh Bhavsar (Mechanical Design Engineer) completed his 4th week helping with the City Center Eco-spa designs. This week Rushabh contacted the cover vendor to finalize the cover for the hot tub. He also worked on designing the piping and drainage system of the hot tub and assembled the whole setup. Special consideration was given to the connection of the overflow drain to the main drain and also the piping for incoming water. Rushabh also started research towards finalizing the hardware parts and specifications. Pictures below show some of this work-in-progress.

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

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