Why Open Source Sustainable Cities – One Community Weekly Progress Update #434

This week the core team started moving the updated content for the “Earthbag Construction Footers, Foundation, and Flooring” tutorial from the Google Doc generated by the researchers to the One Community’s website. We worked to make sure the format matches our standards, solved situations where the special characters are not supported by default on WordPress (like the square root symbol), and began to make the table of content clickable and more detailed. The pictures below share some of this work.

Moved Content of Earthbag Construction Footers, Foundation, and Flooring” Tutorial to Our Website – Click for Page

The core team also completed a thorough review of the best solar hardware report for our solar microgrid designs.

Completed Review of the Best Solar Hardware Report for Our Solar Microgrid Designs – Click for Page

Jose Luis Flores (Mechanical Engineer) completed his 52nd week helping finish the Net-zero Bathroom component of the Earthbag Village. This week Jose Luis continued researching information on how snow accumulates on sloped roofs and the effects the environment has on the snow. He also researched ways to control the motion of the snow when on the roof. His findings determined that temperature fluctuation causes snow to slide abruptly on sloped roofs. This poses a danger to the structural integrity of the interior roof of the Net-Zero Bathroom. The most practical solution was to retrofit snow guards onto the roof in order to hold the accumulated snow in place and slowly allow it to melt. He rendered the exterior roof of the Net-Zero Bathroom with snow guards to help the user understand where to install them. He then rechecked his calculations of the maximum allowable snow depth on the Net-Zero Bathroom and found it to be 34.5” and a scaling factor of 1.15 when average snow depth is under 30”. Jose Luis added this information to the tutorial/instructions of the Net-Zero Bathroom and gave construction recommendations. He will finish the AutoCAD roof plan of the Net-Zero Bathroom and review the tutorial/instructions to fix discrepancies and/or errors. The pictures below show some of this work.

Continued Researching Information on How Snow Accumulates on Sloped Roofs – Click for Net-zero Bathroom Page

Jeson Hu (Aerospace Engineer) completed his 19th week helping with research related to the solar microgrid design, sizing, and cost analysis specifics. This week, Jeson contacted Garkane to arrange a phone meeting next week to discuss the rate schedule that One Community will fall into. He also continued on his diesel generator research, finding products, inputting specs and contact information. He additionally linked the spec information to the product name cell for future reference and then focused on addressing the comments in the Choosing the Best Solar Hardware Research & Report. Jeson added first, second, and third generation solar cells definition, cleared up a few confusing areas, and added image descriptions. The pictures below share some of this developing work.

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

Daniela Andrea Parada (Civil Engineering Student) completed her 13th week helping with the Sustainable Roadways, Walkways, and Landscaping tutorial development. This week Daniela completed working on the roadway easements for the property. She then worked on a new design for the fire access road of the Earthbag Village. The new design that was implemented expanded the road to 35 feet, which was the smallest width the team was able to come up with. Once approved Daniela then began to work on this change for the complete village layout. This week Daniela also created a resources page for the Roadways, Walkways, Gutters and Parking Lot Report and uploaded the resources to the Dropbox. Pictures of some of this work are below.

Completed Working on the Roadway Easements for the Property – Click for Sustainable Roadways Page

Katherine Cao (Chemical Engineer) also completed her 8th week working on the grid-tie connection details for our solar microgrid designs. This week Katherine read feedback from peers and made corrections on the report. Katherine also redid the tables, and made them look professional, and did some formatting for the report. Pictures below are related to this work.

Continued Working on the Grid-tie Connection Details for Our Solar Microgrid Designs – Click for Page

Nicholas K. de León (Project Management Adviser) completed his 6th week helping with review of Highest Good Housing research and related tasks. Nicholas continued editing documents, going through the first three documents on his list and working up from there. He cleared prior suggestions that had the necessary improvements, continuing to make suggestions where necessary. On a positive note, Nicholas believes that many of the documents are nearly at a stage where a final read can be done. Pictures below show some of this work-in-progress.

Continued Helping With Review of Highest Good Housing Research and Related Tasks – Click for Page

Prabhath Ekanayake (Electrical Engineering Assistant) completed his 6th week working on the grid-tie connection details for our solar microgrid designs. This week Prabhath continued development of the grid tie tutorial by rewriting assigned sections based on team feedback. Below are some images related to this work.

Continued Development of the Grid Tie Tutorial for Our Solar Microgrid Designs – Click for Page

Shreyas Dayanand (Battery Research Engineer) also completed his 3rd week helping with the solar microgrid design specifics related to electric vehicles and battery sizing. Following up with last week, Shreyas came up with a more illustrative block diagram to explain the Vehicle-to-Grid concept for the current generation of Electric Vehicles. He found an option to consider the Tesla Model X as an option for the community in accordance with its features that would be helpful. Shreyas illustrated with an example of how much energy can be used from an electric vehicle battery pack considering all the governing factors. He started to look into the different battery storage options that are available to use for the solar-farm application and the parameters to be established for the same. He also consolidated information regarding the different levels of Electric vehicle charging the related parameters like the power delivered and charging time.  Pictures below relate to this work-in-progress.

Continued With the Solar Microgrid Design Specifics Related to Electric Vehicles and Battery Sizing – Click for Page

Jarot Tamba (Civil Engineering Intern) completed his 2nd week helping with the Aircrete and earthbag compression testing. This week Jarot dove further into gathering information regarding the different proportions which Aircrete users have found to have worked successfully. Jarot found some useful information from the Honey Do Carpenter Youtube channel which focuses on the construction of small rectangular homes using Aircrete. There was information provided regarding the best curing methods (covered and out of direct sunlight and high temps), how to protect aircrete from a mold (using visqueen plastic wrap), and how to reinforce aircrete (pouring mixture over grid patterned wire mesh). Further research was also done about superadobe which was a bit difficult. Jarot’s group cannot control what dirt or clay mixture they receive so initial tests must be run to determine the best mixture. Jarot and the group also met on campus during the week to scope out the workplace and discuss some important aspects of the project. They also met to finalize their plans for initial testing, documentation, video recording and cleaning and maintenance plans. Pictures below relted to this work.

Continued Helping With the Aircrete and Earthbag Compression Testing – Click for Aircrete Page

Dominick Banuelos (Civil Engineering Intern) also completed his 2nd week helping with the Aircrete and earthbag compression testing. This week Dominick worked with the whole team to create the initial mixing plan, materials, testing plan, cleaning plan, video plan, and project schedule. Following what the group came up with will allow for the project to run smoothly and on time. Below are some images related to this work.

Worked to Create Initial Mixing Plan, Materials, Testing Plan, Cleaning Plan, Video Plan, and Project Schedule – Click for Aircrete Page

John Paul D. Matining (Civil Engineer Intern) completed his 2nd week helping with the Aircrete and earthbag compression testing too. This week John completed more research on Aircrete and the Earthbag mixes and created a proposed plan that was then combined with the group’s individual plan to create the group’s proposed plan. This included plans for documentation of the project, a materials proposal, mixture proposal, schedule, and cleanup plan. These documents included calculations, ratio mixtures, camera uses, and other details needed to conduct and fully document the compression testing. The pictures below relate to this work.

Completed More Research on Aircrete and the Earthbag Mixes and Created a Proposed Plan – Click for Aircrete Page

And Marcus Nguyen (Civil Engineering Intern), also part of the Aircrete and earthbag compression testing team, completed his 2nd week as well. This week Marcus did further research in order to figure out the overall schedule for the Aircrete and Stabilized Earth Compression Testing. He also attended the meetup on his campus to meet with Jae, his group members, professor, and internship liaison to go over the necessary information needed to run the test. Later in the week, Marcus and his group gathered all the information to meet up and shared their research in order to come up with a schedule and plans for approval. The pictures below share some of this developing work.

Continued Helping With the Aircrete and Earthbag Compression Testing – Click for Earthbag Village Engineering Page

This week the core team continued review and feedback on the Sustainable Roadways, Walkways, and Landscaping tutorial. The focus for the week was making comments and addressing some older comments related to the doc. This week’s work has taken us through page 128 and included sections on Rigid Pavement Design and the Glossary.

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

The core team also completed a thorough review of the best solar hardware report for our solar microgrid designs.

Completed Review of the Best Solar Hardware Report for Solar Microgrid Designs – Click for Page

Ian Oliver Malinay (Energy Modeler/Analyst) completed his 27th week helping run the energy analysis calculations to help us achieve LEED Platinum status for the Duplicable City Center. This week, Ian worked on the energy modeling narrative updates as reference for the future projects to be processed to ensure the LEED platinum certification. Ian produced a narrative report that is general and easy to follow. The provided procedures also considers the ASHRAE 90.1-2010 standard that is applicable to the LEED 4/4.1 version of the rating system. This report can be considered as an official manual of Duplicable City Center to properly design the energy model of the building. The inputs here are more efficient than the performance of the Baseline Design so we can make sure that the energy model attains the highest possible LEED credit points. Please see below related pictures for reference.

Continued to Update the Energy Modeling Narrative Documents – Click for Heating and Cooling Page

Carol Nguyen (Civil Engineer) also completed her 12th week helping with the Sustainable Roadways, Walkways, and Landscaping tutorial development. This week, Carol worked on the report, added more details in the writing, added references for the requested sections, and resolved the comments that had already been addressed. For the Rigid Pavement section, she added the pictures to illustrate types of rigid pavement (CRCP, JPCP) and “Expansion Terminal Joint Section Between CRCP and Structure Approach Slab”. Carol also added more details in the “Dowel and Tie Bar” and “Pavement Smoothness” section. In addition, she worked on the comparison table for alternative pavement options. The pictures below share some of this developing work.

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

Neel Shanbhag (Control Systems Electrical Engineer) completed his 6th week helping with the Duplicable City Center Electrical designs. This week he continued researching and understanding various papers for solar sizing for the Duplicable City Center. Pictures related to this work are below.

Continued Researching and Understanding Various Papers for Solar Sizing for the Duplicable City Center – Click for Page

Venus Abdollahi (Architectural Designer) completed her 2nd week helping finish the Duplicable City Center roof designs. This week Venus started development of the City Center Living Dome roof design by detailing the roof, making the isometric section, and adding R-value specifics. For detailing the roof, she’s using Revit to create details and callouts. For the City Center Living Dome roof, she added different layers and annotated them. The isometric section is still in process but Venus was able to complete details and the 3D isometric section. See pictures below.

Started Development of the City Center Living Dome Roof Design – Click for Page

And Carlos Lillo (Engineering Technician) joined the team and completed his 1st week helping with the pallet furniture designs for the Duplicable City Center guest rooms. Carlos started the week importing the Duplicable City Files into the Blender Environment. By the end of it, he was able to complete his firsts deliverables: All Renders. Carlos encountered a problem when generating the renders after including the LED system (noisy renders) but after a while he was able to overcome said problem by increasing the render quality and using a denoiser filter. Pictures below are related to this work.

Joined the Team and Began Helping With the Pallet Furniture Designs for the City Center Guest Rooms – Click for Page

This week the core team completed 32 hours managing One Community emails, social media accounts, interviewing potential new volunteer team members, and managing volunteer-work review and collaboration not mentioned elsewhere here. The picture below relates to this. We also did more testing and bug identification within the Beta version of the Highest Good Network software.

Completed 32 Hours Managing One Community Emails, Etc. – Click for Home Page

Jaime Arango (Graphic Designer) completed his 32nd week, returning to creating badges for the Highest Good Network software. This week Jaime created the New Max-Personal Record and Most Hours in a Week badges. You can see both below.

Created the New Max-personal Record and Most Hours in a Week Badges – Click for HGN

Chris Weilacker (Software Engineer) completed his 31st week working on the Highest Good Network software. This week Chris worked on the Badge Report/History including the ability to set up to 5 featured badges and for Admins to delete badges in a user’s history and change badge counts on the User Profile page. Chris also placed the listing of featured badges (up to 5 by rank) on the user profile page. Pictures below are related to this work.

Continued Working on the Highest Good Network Software – Click for Page

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