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Title: Solar heating in the Los Alamos mobile/modular home Unit No. 1

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:5351878

Mobile/Modular Home Unit No. 1 at the Los Alamos National Laboratory has an active system that incorporates 340 ft/sup 2/ of flat black, single-glazed, flat-plate air-heating collectors mounted at a 60/sup 0/ tilt on the south wall. The thermal storage is in 1536 pint jars of water. The unit has been in operation since March 1976; data were obtained on the unit from October 1976 to May 1979. Data acquisition was accomplished with a Hewlett-Packard (HP) 3050 system controlled with a HP 9825 desk-top calculator. Complete energy summaries for the 1976-77, 1977-78, and 1978-79 heating seasons were obtained. The solar energy system has provided about 70% of the heating requirements of the house each season. Although the active solar energy system provides a major fraction of the space and domestic hot water requirements, the yearly total energy supplied is low. This is primarily because the house load is lower than expected because of passive gains and internal heat generation. Low performance is also the result of a low storage mass (5.3 Btu/sub c/sup -///sup 2/ /sup 0/F) and several possible uncontrolled air leaks. A paper design has been completed on a new, modular, solar heated home based on the information and experience obtained from the first unit.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Lab., NM (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
W-7405-ENG-36
OSTI ID:
5351878
Report Number(s):
LA-9299-MS; ON: DE82016136
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English