Water - Spirit
From Green Garage Detroit
return to Winter 2009 - Design Studio Sessions
Contents
Natural water cycle (Helen)
Absorption rate of clay (Helen)
The absorption rate of clay seems to vary a little depending on the source.
Infiltration rate of
- .2 inch per hour Greenview Spring website
- <.25 inch per hour Managing Michigan Wildlife: A Landowners Guide.
- .33 inch per hour University of Wisconsin – Madison Arboretum
We could perform a water absorption test to determine what type of soil we currently have. The following procedure is from the University of Wisconsin – Madison Arboretum site
Procedure: Perform the following infiltration test at each location selected.
- Dig a hole 6 inches deep by 6 inches in diameter.
- Fill hole with water and let stand for one hour.
- Refill hole with water. Measure depth of water with a ruler.
- Let stand 1 hour. Then measure the depth again.
- Use the following chart to determine soil types based on the rate at which water soaks into the soils.
Soil type: Rate
- Sand: 1.5 inches/hour or 4 hours total
- Silt :1/2 inch/hour or 12 hours total
- Clay 1/3 inch/hour or 18 hours total
Rain Water harvesting (Don)
- Imagine
- Water Central
- Off the Grid Water
Harvested Water Usage (Tom)
- Evaporated Sprayer System for passive cooling of the roof
- Autocool Roof System ... indicates a 50 - 70F reduction in roof temp saving 20 - 30% cooling load.
- Cool Roof Article excellent stats...including "On average, the roof accounts for 35% to 40% of a building's total heat load." This article reinforces the findings above.
- It could be PV operated because it would be hottest on a sunny day.
- Solar Shield product
- Micro-irrigation
- mirco-irrigation data overview; Univ of Florida Study
- DripWorks ...they have sprayers and misters; Drip Depot great kits
- require low-pump pressures...save energy.
- Self-WateringGardening system
- Hydroponics Gardening
- What Is Hydroponics?
- VerticalGardening System
- Various Hydroponics Systems
- Wash cars/bikes (homeless could do people's cars)
- Use a wagon or hose to distribute water
- Thermal Storage
- hot and cold tanks
- 1 cf of water holds 9.2 kBTU of energy (e.g. 15ft x 10 x 10 = 13,800 kBTU)
- advanced thinking on thermal storage including molten salt tanks
- Solar Tubes nice moderately priced passive solar storage.