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.

Eco-renovating Our Social Models ” Proofreading the Sustainable Tutorial

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.

Eco-renovating Our Social Models, Best Plastic Recycling, Reuse, & Repurposing Community Options

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

Eco-renovating Our Social Models ” 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. 

Eco-renovating Our Social Models ” Earthbag Village Energy Specifics for the Solar Microgrid Design

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.

Eco-renovating Our Social Models ” 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.

Eco-renovating Our Social Models ” Net-zero Bathroom Component of the Earthbag Village

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.

Eco-renovating Our Social Models ” Earthbag Village Footer, Foundation & Flooring Tutorial

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.

Eco-renovating Our Social Models, Supervision of the Ongoing Energy Tasks, Click for Solar Energy

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.

Eco-renovating Our Social Models ” Solar Microgrid Design, Sizing, and Cost Analysis Specifics

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. <

Eco-renovating Our Social Models ” Steps and Cost for Constructing the PV Grid Tie-system

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.

Eco-renovating Our Social Models ” Helping With Research for the Earthbag Village Energy Specifics

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.

Eco-renovating Our Social Models, Working on Grid-tie Connection Details for Solar Microgrid Designs

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.

Eco-renovating Our Social Models ” Review of Highest Good Housing Research and Related Tasks

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.

Eco-renovating Our Social Models ” Hot Water Flow Rate for the Social Dome, Kitchen & Living Dome

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

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

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.

Eco-renovating Our Social Models ” Duplicable City Center Connectors We’ll Use to Build the Domes

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.

Eco-renovating Our Social Models ” City Center Eco-spa Plumbing Design – Click for Pool & 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.

Eco-renovating Our Social Models ” Sustainable Roadways, Walkways, and Landscaping Tutorial

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.

Eco-renovating Our Social Models ” 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.

This week the core team completed our 2nd-to-last review and feedback round on the Earthbag Village Construction of the Footer, Foundation, and Flooring doc. The focus was mainly on regarding strip placement of wing insulation. This tutorial is now about 99% complete behind-the-scenes.

The same team member then proceeded proofreading Sustainable Roadways, Walkways, and Landscaping tutorial, going through page 7 and posing questions for further clarification of the aggregate mix treatment for the surface asphalt layer.

Practical Highest Good ” Earthbag Village Construction of the Footer, Foundation, and Flooring Doc.

The core team additionally continued the final publishing of the Earthbag Village Dome Home Loft Engineering page. We updated the page with all the updated images, transformed the updated tables into images, and addressed some other images that had to be edited on top of the standard resizing and optimization before publishing them on the web page.

We also added the metadata on all the images. This page is done now except for the final read through and creating of a new header image.

Practical Highest Good ” Publishing of the Earthbag Village Dome Home Loft Engineering Page

The core team additionally continued double checking the Earthbag Village energy specifics for the solar microgrid design, sizing, and cost analysis. We added more specifics for the electrical demands, working more on identifying all the energy consuming components within the village. We’d say this evaluation/estimation task is now about 80% complete.

Practical Highest Good ” Double Checking the Energy Specifics for the Solar Microgrid Design

Jose Luis Flores (Mechanical Engineer) completed his 44th week helping finish the Net-zero Bathroom component of the Earthbag Village. This week Jose Luis continued his analysis of the maximum rain catchment area when an external support column is used.

He continued his analysis and first determined a geometric relationship between the distance of the external column to the outer structure wall and the height of the column. This was feasible due to the slope of the roof being constant, making the height and length proportional.

A constraint was then made by stating that the center of gravity or half the length of the radial beam would not surpass 80% of the distance from the origin to the column to avoid tipping. Jose Luis then made a free body diagram and equations of equilibrium to have a relationship between the distance between the center of gravity and the structure’s reaction force vs the reaction force at the column.

The reaction force on the column was isolated by using the maximum distance parameter, the maximum weight the structure can withstand, and relating it to the column’s length to simplify the equation. The length of the radial beam can be calculated by using the chosen length of the column.

With the length the reaction force can be verified by using the buckling equation and the equation derived from the spreadsheet relating weight to radial beam length. These findings will be added to another spreadsheet to calculate the maximum rain catchment area of the Net-Zero Bathroom’s exterior roof. The pictures below show some of this work.

Analysis of the Maximum Rain Catchment Area When an External Support Column Is Used

Stacey Maillet (Graphic Designer) completed her 40th week working on the final edits and revisions to the Murphy bed instructions. This week Stacy focused on making changes to part w31a and w31b by changing the board and reworking the cutting map to fit those parts in. She added more cutting instructions for all boards in the wall section and the measurements for all boards split into two pieces.

Stacey also updated the board color coding system and the procurement list based on these changes. The new added wood to the structure is making the structure more secure and sound. Screenshots below are related to this latest progress.

Practical Highest Good ” Working on the Final Edits and Revisions to the Murphy Bed Instructions

Hannah Copeman (Structural Engineer) completed her 38th 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.

She went through the FFF doc to resolve any outstanding comments and updated/added content for topics that needed further elaboration, such as how to calculate the width increase between the foundation and footer by using a trigonometric principle. Hannah also researched the compressive strength of aircrete in relation to its variable density.

You can see some pictures of this work below.

Practical Highest Good ” Footer, Foundation and Flooring Tutorial – Click for Earthbag Village

Vicente J Subiela (Project Management Adviser) completed his 19th week working on the solar microgrid design, sizing, and cost analysis specifics. This past week, Vicente focused on the supervision of Jeson and Luis’ tasks, reviewing draft reports, indicating suggestions to improve the texts and solving questions.

He completed the revision of the solar hardware and solar rates reports. Vicente additionally updated the solar schedule plan to have a one year view, and started to supervise and review the work by Katherine, a new member of the team.

Practical Highest Good ” Solar Microgrid Design, Sizing, and Cost Analysis Specifics ” Click for Page

Jeson Hu (Aerospace Engineer) completed his 13th week helping with research related to the solar microgrid design, sizing, and cost analysis specifics. This week, Jeson created and started developing the diesel generator spreadsheet. He determined the necessary data to be included in the spreadsheet and used the same format as the previous spreadsheets.

Other than starting the diesel generator product research, he primarily focused on responding to the comments input from other reviewers. He added more information on sections that were too short and reconstructed the recycling section with more detail. Jeson also fixed some format errors and added appendix and resource sections with backup resource web page PDFs.

The pictures below share some of this developing work.

Practical Highest Good ” Developing the Diesel Generator Spreadsheet – Click for Solar Energy Page

Dan Alleck (Designer and Illustrator) continued helping with 3D render work, completing his 4th week as a volunteer now helping with the Earthbag Village 4-dome cluster renders. This week he finished the final sky, plant, and people edits needed to complete the render shown below.

Practical Highest Good ” Sky, Plant, and People Edits of the Earthbag Village 4-dome Cluster Renders

And Katherine Cao (Chemical Engineer) joined the team and completed her 1st week working on the grid-tie connection details for our solar microgrid designs. This week Katherine reviewed the solar reports written by other One Community team members to learn about the work already done and the format desired.

She then began the research on grid-tie systems, PV field connect-to-grid, etc. and started writing the report. Pictures below are related to this work.

Practical Highest Good ” Grid-tie Connection Details for Our Solar Microgrid Designs – Click for Page

This week Ksenia Akimov (Plumbing Engineer) completed her 31st week working on the Duplicable City Center plumbing designs. This week Ksenia calculated the hot water flow rate for the kitchen according to the Guidelines for Sizing Water Heaters, California Conference of Directors of Environmental Health.

Her results showed a need for 2 working heaters of 268 gallons per hour each. This seems high for the kitchen and will need to be double checked. Pictures below are related to this work.

Practical Highest Good ” Hot Water Flow Rate for the Kitchen – Click for Duplicable City Center

David Na (Project Management Adviser/Engineer) completed his 14th 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 began the week by emailing action items for his team.

The roadway, walkways, landscaping, and rigid and flexible pavement design is nearing completion; and so this week David was working on finishing remaining sections, reviewing formatting and comments, and making sure that the document is ready and prepared in the “End State” format that Jae is looking for.

Because this document and project tutorial takes priority, the greywater processing pond research has been put on hold until it is complete. Pictures below are related to this work.

Practical Highest Good ” Management of the Parking Lot and Sustainable Roadways Development

Sunitha Paraselli (Mechanical Design Engineer) completed her 12th week working on the Duplicable City Center connectors we’ll use to build the domes. This week Sunitha worked on different materials; Aluminum, Stainless Steel, and Galvanized Steel. Because of the cracking of the coating near the bend we cannot consider galvanized steel.

She prepared the parts from scratch and analyzed them on Aluminum and steel and compared with Galvanized steel. Aluminum is less strong than stainless steel and so stainless steel has been chosen as the preferred material. The pictures below relate to this work.

Practical Highest Good, Worked on Different Materials; Aluminum, Stainless Steel, & Galvanized Steel

Luis Manuel Dominguez (Research Engineer) also completed his 11th week helping with research related to the City Center Eco-spa designs. This week Luis made some design selections for the One Community City Center Hot Tub. With the heater selection finalized, the pump selection began.

This meant scouring websites for recommendations and sizing to understand what our system required. The pump for the unit cannot exceed the performance of the heater, but must also provide adequate flow. The flow rate numbers are only an estimate for the plumbing requirements, but he will work on those in the near future.

As of right now, the main task is to understand the power requirements of the system by finding potential compatible parts. Pictures below are related to this work.

Practical Highest Good ” Made Some Design Selections for the One Community City Center Hot Tub

Daniela Andrea Parada (Civil Engineering Student) completed her 9th week helping with the Sustainable Roadways, Walkways, and Landscaping tutorial development. As the team is wrapping up the report, Daniela edited the formatting for each section in order to ensure uniformity throughout its entirety.

Once completed, Daniela then worked on a section regarding Porous Asphalt Design. Since this section was primarily composed of images containing condensed information, Daniela converted this content into paragraph form. Additionally, subsections were reorganized for better transitions and easier understanding.

Final editing for this section will be completed in the upcoming week. Pictures of some of this work are below.

Practical Highest Good ” Edited the Formatting for Each Section in Order to Ensure Uniformity

Rushabh Bhavsar (Mechanical Design Engineer) completed his 6th week helping with the City Center Eco-spa designs. Rushabh proposed and designed an idea to incorporate the standard cover and thermal blanket with an option to open only a quarter of the spa area in case only one or two people are using the spa to save energy.

He also worked along with Luis selecting the heater, searching for the sizing chart and a suitable model for the heater. Pictures below relate to his work last week.

Practical Highest Good ” Continued Helping With the City Center Eco-spa Designs – Click for Page

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.

This week we provided more video insert notations and contributed edits and addressed concerns regarding floor finishing, best method for tucking vapor barriers between existing earthbags, and verifying the most effective method and layout of rock wool floor insulation with minimal waste. We’d say this tutorial is now about 95% complete behind-the-scenes.

Creating a More Sustainable Planet ” Construction of the Footer, Foundation, and Flooring Doc.

The core team additionally continued the final review of the Earthbag Village Dome Home Loft Engineering page. We integrated more of Hannah’s input, identified and passed along instructions to another team member for additional images needed, and wrote up instructions for our web editor to add the new images.

Creating a More Sustainable Planet ” Review of Earthbag Village Dome Home Loft Engineering Page

Another team member generated the new requested images and updated/corrected existing images related to the Earthbag Village loft construction. You can see some of these below and we’d say the final review and final editing of this page is now about 98% complete.

Creating a More Sustainable Planet ” Earthbag Loft Construction Images and Updated Existing Images

Dean Scholz (Architectural Designer) continued helping with the Earthbag Village (Pod 1) 4-dome cluster designs. This was week #222 of Dean’s work and the focus was placement of the quilt in the guest bedroom shown in the pictures below, then testing various quilt patterns.

Creating a More Sustainable Planet ” Placed Quilt in the Guest Bedroom & Tested Quilt Patterns

Jose Luis Flores (Mechanical Engineer) completed his 43rd week helping finish the Net-zero Bathroom component of the Earthbag Village. This week Jose Luis began analyzing and calculating the maximum size of the Net-Zero Bathroom exterior roof with additional external supports.

The purpose of the analysis was to determine the overall maximum catchment area of the exterior roof to help the user determine where to place the external supports and know their size limitations. He began by researching the types of failures and the most critical one in support columns.

It was determined the most critical type of failure in the column is buckling. He researched lumber of different types and sizes to use for the modeling of the columns and chose 16′ pressure treated pine wood as the model for the columns. The columns were rendered on SolidWorks to help visualize the additional exterior column supports.

With the dimensions of the column the mass moment of inertia was determined and added to the list of variables needed to determine the critical load from buckling. The information was added to a spreadsheet to organize what was gathered and relevant to the purpose.

The next step is to determine the weight distribution between the wall and the column to help determine a relationship between the length of the column and the buckling of the column and the load on the wall. The pictures below show some of this work.

Creating a More Sustainable Planet ” Maximum Size of the Net-zero Bathroom Exterior Roof

Stacey Maillet (Graphic Designer) completed her 39th week working on the final edits and revisions to the Murphy bed instructions. This week Stacey worked on making the update of the board W14 and the extra 2 pieces of W7. It was necessary to update all sketches of the wall showing the exposed beams with the extra pieces.

She also focused on updating page keys and wood piece layouts to represent the boards that are split into ‘a’ and ‘b’ sections. All this while maintaining the appearance of the size of texts and color coding in all sketches. Screenshots below are related to this latest progress.

Creating a More Sustainable Planet ” Making the Update of the Board W14 & the Extra 2 Pieces of W7

Hannah Copeman (Structural Engineer) completed her 37th week helping complete all the Earthbag Village tutorials. This week Hannah addressed a diversity of ongoing improvements and updated figures to show changes to the design (such as extending the vapor barrier along the stem wall and using larger sheets for the horizontal wing insulation).

She helped with the loft designs too. For those she updated images and clarified terms such as “tributary width” related to the loading on the loft. You can see some pictures of this work below.

Creating a More Sustainable Planet ” Complete Earthbag Village Tutorials – Click for Page

Vicente J Subiela (Project Management Adviser) completed his 18th week working on the solar microgrid design, sizing, and cost analysis specifics. Vicente made a basic comparative analysis to check if the option of solar generation is suitable and feasible for even the beginning stages of construction.

The contributions from Jae and Jeson to the analysis led us all to agree on the need for a diesel generator for the first stage of the community. He then updated the schedule plan with the current state of the project.

Vicente also approved the report by Jeson on the electricity service rates and solar credits for different States and, given the economic rates in the RMP area, suggested reflection questions to assess the modification of the placement of the project. He reviewed (for a second time) the report by Luis on the hot tub heat transfer calculations.

Creating a More Sustainable Planet ” Solar Microgrid Design, Sizing, and Cost Analysis Specifics

Jeson Hu (Aerospace Engineer) completed his 12th week helping with research related to the solar microgrid design, sizing, and cost analysis specifics. This week, Jeson got a reply from RMP company regarding the solar incentive rates, and he followed up with his questions, currently waiting for their response.

However, for the current project location power provider Garkane Power, they have not replied yet, and Jeson sent a follow-up email again. Also, he fixed the formatting for the Solar Incentive Rate Research doc, and added a table of contents for easy reading.

Jeson also merged the PV and inverter google sheets together in the same document for easier information look up and created the company name “encryption code”. He also fixed the table format in the best solar hardware google sheet according to the beautiful table template. The pictures below share some of this developing work.

Creating a More Sustainable Planet, Solar Microgrid Design, Sizing, & Cost Analysis Specifics Research

Zachary Melin (Graphic Designer) also continued helping complete the editing of the Tree House Village (Pod 7) online book. This week he integrated all the edit requests shown below.

Creating a More Sustainable Planet ” Integrated All the Edit Requests for the Tree House Village

This week the core team updated all the Duplicable City Center room schedules to reflect the projected usage patterns for this structure. These are used for the energy analysis required for LEED Platinum certification.

Creating a More Sustainable Planet ” Updated All the Duplicable City Center Room Schedules

Ian Oliver Malinay (Energy Modeler/Analyst) completed his 21st week helping run the energy analysis calculations to help us achieve LEED Platinum status for the Duplicable City Center. This week, Ian transferred all the data he made from the operation schedule spreadsheet to DesignBuilder energy simulation software.

The operation schedule (which consists of Occupancy (%), Process Load (%), Artificial Lighting (%), Mechanical Ventilation (on/off), Heating Demand (setback/setpoint temp) and Cooling Demand (setback/setpoint temp) was checked and revised by Jae. This operation schedule will be simulated as percentage per hour for the whole year.

The said process/control has a significant effect for the reduction of energy which is necessary for the LEED Platinum Certification. Below are some images related to this work.

Creating a More Sustainable Planet ” Energy Analysis Calculations for the Duplicable City Center

David Na (Project Management Adviser/Engineer) completed his 13th 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 began the week by emailing his team action items for the week.

He also worked with Carol to design a roadway/corridor in AutoCAD 3D, and created a document with instructions for future volunteers to use. He reviewed Daniela’s grading and drainage drawings and has found them to be completely functional and well thought out.

In addition, David reviewed the roadways, walkways, and landscaping google document to run through any final comments and corrections before handing it over to Jae for publishing. Lastly, David read and highlighted the SF greywater manual, and is working on compiling his notes into the research Google Doc. Pictures below are related to this work.

Management of the Parking Lot & Sustainable Roadways Development ” Click for Page

Sunitha Paraselli (Mechanical Design Engineer) completed her 11th week working on the Duplicable City Center connectors we’ll use to build the domes. This week Sunitha worked on addressing comments from the Core Team. She provided detailed specifications and loading limits of different materials like LVL, seasoned fir, red cedar, yellow pine, and spruce along with LVL 2×12 and references for each. The pictures below relate to this work.

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

Luis Manuel Dominguez (Research Engineer) also completed his 10th week helping with research related to the solar microgrid design, sizing, and cost analysis specifics. This week Luis finalized the heat transfer design report for the City Center Hot Tub. This consisted of making some modifications to the evaporative heat loss equations and updating the report with equipment justifications.

The main priority was selecting a heater that would provide sufficient heat to the tub, while still providing an easy method of interaction. Multiple reviews led to the selection of an 11kW heater made by Hayward which has been widely discussed and recommended by professionals. This allowed for the reheating calculations to be complete and provide closure to the report.

Full approval from the team should be coming this week, with the update to the site following shortly after. Luis will continue aiding the plumbing design of the City Center Hot Tub and begin his work on the PV Solar Energy Design. Pictures below are related to this work.

Creating a More Sustainable Planet ” Heat Transfer Design Report for the City Center Hot Tub

Daniela Andrea Parada (Civil Engineering Student) completed her 8th week helping with the Sustainable Roadways, Walkways, and Landscaping tutorial development. This week Daniela started working on the City Center Water Catchment Designs. She watched the BioVeda Course on Grey Water Theory, Grey Water Practical and Black water.

Additionally, she completed videos discussing Grey Water Theory and Grey Water Practical, and is close to wrapping up the section on Black Water. This included taking thorough and detailed notes so that others could understand the material without going through all the videos. Daniela also spent some time recalculating the amount of cut necessary for the basement design of the Duplicable City Center.

Initially the design was assumed to be circular, but it was then realized that the shape reflects a semi-circle. Pictures of some of this work are below.

Creating a More Sustainable Planet ” Working on the City Center Water Catchment Designs

Carol Nguyen (Civil Engineer) also completed her 5th week helping with the Sustainable Roadways, Walkways, and Landscaping tutorial development. This week, Carol continued to do research and write the sections “General Bikeway Design Criteria (Design Considerations)” and “Roadway Design Specifics”.

She also worked on Google spreadsheets for “Roadway Initial Costs” and “Roadway Maintenance Costs”. In addition, Carol started reading and taking notes for the new topic “Greywater Treatment in Developing Countries”. She also worked on basic “Roadway Design” on AutoCAD Civil 3D with David. The pictures below share some of this developing work.

Creating a More Sustainable Planet, Sustainable Roadways, Walkways, & Landscaping Tutorial

Rushabh Bhavsar (Mechanical Design Engineer) completed his 5th week helping with the City Center Eco-spa designs. This week Rushabh planned the hot tub piping and drainage system, updating the existing model of the pipes.

Luis and Rushabh researched the selection of Heating systems for the hot tub, collaborating on the type of heater, the power of the heater, and whether to isolate the heater or use a shared component for the pool and spa. An isolated system was decided as being the best for these designs. Pictures below show some of this work-in-progress.

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.

Regenerative Community Establishment ” Construction of the Footer, Foundation, and Flooring Doc.

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.

Regenerative Community Establishment, Review of Earthbag Village dome home loft engineering page

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.

Regenerative Community Establishment ” Working on the Tree House Village Online Book

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.

Regenerative Community Establishment ” Murphy Bed Closed Storage Unit and Nightstand Assembly

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.

Regenerative Community Establishment ” Helping With the Earthbag Village 4-dome Cluster Designs

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.

Regenerative Community Establishment, Maximum Scaling Factor of Net-zero Bathroom Exterior Roof

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.

Regenerative Community Establishment ” Final Edits and Revisions to the Murphy Bed Instructions

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.

Regenerative Community Establishment ” Working on the Footer, Foundation and Flooring Tutorial

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.

Regenerative Community Establishment ” Solar Microgrid Design, Sizing, and Cost Analysis Specifics

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.

regenerative community establishment, solar microgrid design, sizing, & cost analysis specifics research

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.

Regenerative community establishment, Review & feedback of the duplicable city center connector

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.

Regenerative Community Establishment ” 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.

Regenerative Community Establishment ” Energy Analysis Calculations for the Duplicable City Center

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.

Regenerative Community Establishment ” Parking Lot & Sustainable Roadways Development

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.

Regenerative Community Establishment ” Solar Microgrid Design, Sizing, and Cost Analysis Specifics

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.

Regenerative Community Establishment ” Sustainable Roadways, Walkways, and Landscaping Tutorial

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.

Regenerative Community Establishment ” WBS #: 2.2.3.3: City Center Dormer Window Design

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.

Regenerative Community Establishment ” Sustainable Roadways, Walkways, and Landscaping Tutorial

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.

Regenerative Community Establishment ” City Center Eco-spa Designs – Click for Page

This week, an additional member of the core team began proofreading the Earthbag Village Construction of the Footer, Foundation, and Flooring doc, watching videos to clarify some technical concepts, linking them to the document, looking for ways to present the information in a more friendly way, making some infographics for the “construction steps”, and hyperlinking the resources in the right place to facilitate the edition process in the future.

Earth-care Collaboratives ” Earthbag Village Construction of Footer, Foundation, and Flooring Doc.

A second core team member continued edits and worked with Hannah on the technical details for this same Earthbag construction of the Footer, Foundation, and Flooring doc.

They began integrating the comments of the previous core member and adding notations regarding future video insertions indicating where videos produced onsite and created by our team members during the actual build of the earthbag/airkrete village will be added.

Earth-care Collaboratives ” Earthbag Construction of the Footer, Foundation, and Flooring Doc.

The core team additionally continued double checking the Earthbag Village energy specifics for the solar microgrid design, sizing, and cost analysis. We added more specifics for the electrical demands, set up referenced cells so we can change the number of domes of each kind easily, and integrated comments and questions from other collaborators. We’d say this evaluation/estimation task is now about 60% complete.

Earth-care Collaboratives ” Earthbag Village Energy Specifics for the Solar Microgrid Design

We also began final review of the Earthbag Village Dome Home Loft Engineering page. We added multiple introductory paragraphs and formatted the page for consistency. We’d say the final review of this page is now about 40% complete.

Earth-care Collaboratives ” Review of the Earthbag Village Dome Home Loft Engineering Page

Lastly, the core team continued working with the latest version of the Murphy bed assembly instructions document. We put comments, corrections, and suggestions for another 15 or so pages of the instructions, covering from WS1k to WS20. Our comments can be seen below and are related to missing parts, incorrect dimensions, labeling of the parts, and suggestions about cutting oversized parts.

Earth-care Collaboratives ” Murphy Bed Assembly Instructions Document – Click to Visit

Dean Scholz (Architectural Designer) continued helping with the Earthbag Village (Pod 1) 4-dome cluster designs. This week was week #220 of Dean’s work and the focus was adding in the roof/loft floor to each dome and beginning the process of adding common objects (like books) into the rooms. Pictures of some of this work are below.

Earth-care Collaboratives ” Earthbag Village 4-dome Cluster Designs – Click for Page

Jose Luis Flores (Mechanical Engineer) completed his 40th week helping finish the Net-zero Bathroom component of the Earthbag Village. This week Jose Luis began researching proper scaling feasibility of the Net-Zero Bathroom. Scaling through proportions is beneficial for different space and/or water collection needs.

It was determined that the most efficient part of the structure to scale was the outer diameter of the Net-Zero Bathroom and its exterior roof. Scaling has its limitations due to the growth of the structure needing more support because of increase in the structure’s weight.

In order to determine these limitations, it was necessary to research the mechanical properties and stresses involved in the construction of earthbag structures. To organize this information Jose Luis began constructing a spreadsheet of these mechanical properties and the dimensions of the exterior and interior roof panels and supports.

The information gathered will be used to calculate the maximum diameter of the Net-Zero Bathroom which, when applied in a ratio with the original diameter, will result in the maximum scaling proportion. Finite element analysis was applied to the structure using the weight of the roof from the original design as the principal load.

This was done to help understand where the maximum stresses and deflections occur in order to focus the analysis on the specific areas of the Net-Zero Bathroom. The pictures below show some of this work.

Earth-care Collaboratives ” Began Researching Proper Scaling Feasibility of the Net-zero Bathroom

Hannah Copeman (Structural Engineer) completed her 34th 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.

She continued to revise the document to be more specific by clarifying topics such as how to fill in gaps in insulation and defining common construction terms. Hannah also began to add content for the 3-Dome cluster for the crowdfunding campaign. You can see some pictures of this work below.

Earth-care Collaboratives ” Continued Working on the Footer, Foundation and Flooring Tutorial

Vicente J Subiela (Project Management Adviser) completed his 15th week working on the solar microgrid design, sizing, and cost analysis specifics. This week, Vicente upgraded the comparison between the two potential utilities for the electric supply and connection of the solar PV, with clear pros & cons for each case.

For the moment, it seems that the current location (Garkane option) seems to be the best option. Nonetheless, final results are pending confirmation of data for incentives and compensation rate in RMP. He also dprepared two new ad profiles for electrical engineers and supervised and gave feedback on Jeson and Luis’ work. The picture below shows the  related to this work.

Earth-care Collaboratives ” Solar Microgrid Design, Sizing, and Cost Analysis Specifics

Aidan Geissler (Sustainability Researcher) completed his 12th week helping with 2nd-to-final review, feedback, and content editing. This week Aidan nearly completed the Insulation Comparison spreadsheet that he has been working on for the past several weeks.

He made edits to the various scoring categories to ensure they appropriately reflected One Community’s top priorities for insulation: Health and Safety, Sustainability, Cost, DIY-ability, and Durability. Aidan conducted more research, compiled content, and evaluated each product in each scoring category.

He calculated the cumulative score for each product and currently has a tentative ranking for the 12 considered insulation products. Additionally, Aidan added a sheet that diligently documents the scoring system he created. This helps ensure that people can clearly understand how each category was evaluated and scored, and makes it easier to add and score new products in the future.

Check out the pictures below as examples of this work.

Earth-care Collaboratives ” Nearly Completed the Insulation Comparison Spreadsheet – Click for Page

Jeson Hu (Aerospace Engineer) completed his 9th week helping with research related to the solar microgrid design, sizing, and cost analysis specifics. This week, Jeson followed up with the inverter quotes and focused mostly on the solar incentive research. He is halfway through the research and writing up the final report details shown below.

Next is putting the numbers into a table for easier visual comparison and finalizing the report. The pictures below share some of this developing work.

Earth-care Collaboratives ” Inverter Quotes & Focused on the Solar Incentive Research – Click for Page

Yufan Jiang (Volunteer Architectural Designer) completed her 3rd week as a member of the team. This week Yufan started on WBS #: 1.1.1: Finalize development of the AutoCAD plans for the Transition Kitchen. For this task, she made a plan, front elevation and section of the transition kitchen with dimension markers, also made the table of each equipment and labeled them in the plan.

Each drawing is scaled and placed in the spreadsheet for formal print. Then she kept working on WBS #: 2.1.1.2: Earthbag Village Photoshop Additions. Yufan changed the position of additions in “03b-Earthbag Village 4DC Final Looking SE2” and added additions in “04-Earthbag Village 4DC Final Looking E”. Pictures below show some of this work.

Earth-care Collaboratives ” Development of the AutoCAD Plans for the Transition Kitchen

Zachary Melin (Graphic Designer) also began helping complete the editing of the Tree House Village (Pod 7) online book. This week he integrated all the edit requests shown below. These edits finalize the book through page 31.

Earth-care Collaboratives ” Tree House Village (Pod 7) Online Book – Click for Page

This week the core team continued edits on the Earthbag Village Footer, Foundation and Flooring development Doc. This week’s focus was edits and further clarifying existing information throughout the doc. New paragraphs were included, going into further detail and polishing the narrative and tying it in with the existing work. See pictures below for some screenshots related to this.

Sustainable Social Models ” Earthbag Village Footer, Foundation and Flooring Development Doc.

The core team also continued what we hope will be the 2nd-to-final check of the Murphy bed instructions, assembling the bed in 3D to test them. This week we created a list of updates and suggestions for the Table and Benches assembly section. Updates included measurements for some parts and shifting of location of affected parts/items. The screenshots below show some of this work.

Sustainable Social Models ” Updates and Suggestions for the Table and Benches Assembly Section

And the core team additionally began double checking the Earthbag Village energy specifics for the solar microgrid design, sizing, and cost analysis. This week’s focus was working on compiling the list of energy consuming components within the Earthbag Village.

We had 2 meetings regarding energy consumption, began cleaning up the brainstorm list and added a ‘Data Source’ column, so the source of the information could be traced to its origin. We also began the list for the Dome Homes (residence) and added Greywater, Earthbag Village General, and Overall Property to the area category.

We also corrected some equations within the Water Use Calculations spreadsheet and updated the Hydropower Spreadsheet based on that information. Pictures below are related to this work.

Sustainable Social Models ” List of Energy Consuming Components Within the Earthbag Village

Dean Scholz (Architectural Designer) continued helping with the Earthbag Village (Pod 1) 4-dome cluster designs. This week was week #219 of Dean’s work and the focus was finishing precise placement of the furniture in all of the domes. Pictures of some of this work are below.

Sustainable Social Models ” Placement of the Furniture in All of the Domes – Click for Earthbag Village

Jose Luis Flores (Mechanical Engineer) completed his 39th week helping finish the Net-zero Bathroom component of the Earthbag Village. This week Jose Luis finished updating the AutoCAD roof plan for the Net-Zero Bathroom to coincide with the Solidworks rendering, and reorganized the format to simplify the order of construction and installation.

The updates included adding flash to the interior roof diagrams to illustrate that the installation comes after the exterior flash installation. The elevation view of the roof was also updated to include the drip edge flash. Jose Luis then began working on a section explaining the construction and installation of the roof support frame.

The support frame consists of a series of beams that support the load of the panels that rest on top of them. The introduction and material list for the roof support frames was added. The Solidworks rendering was then updated to help illustrate the location and orientation of the supports used to hold them to the structure and to each other.

The updated renderings will be added to the roof support frame section of the Net-Zero Bathroom tutorial/instructions. The pictures below show some of this work.

Sustainable Social Models ” Net-zero Bathroom Component of the Earthbag Village ” Click for Page

Stacey Maillet (Graphic Designer) completed her 36th week working on the final edits and revisions to the Murphy bed instructions. This week she tried to clear up a few issues mentioned in earlier comments. The measurements listed for wood sizes needed to be updated to show depth of wood first.

The page arrangement was also updated and all corresponding page numbers needed to be updated if they are referenced in several other places. She started to work on cutting instructions for a couple boards and found this can be simplified and probably quite easy to follow by the user.

She also continued to work on the renders and front booklet pages for tools and components, still brainstorming for a table of contents page and what that might look like. Screenshots below are related to this latest progress.

Sustainable Social Models ” Edits and Revisions to the Murphy Bed Instructions – Click for Page

Hannah Copeman (Structural Engineer) completed her 33rd 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.

She revised the tutorial to include further explanation on specific topics, such as placement of the welded wire fabric in the concrete slab floor, the placement of the vapor barrier around the foundation, and the need for additional rebar through the footer and into the ground. You can see some pictures of this work below.

Sustainable Social Models ” Continued Helping Complete All the Earthbag Village Tutorials

Vicente J Subiela (Project Management Adviser) completed his 14th week working on the solar microgrid design, sizing, and cost analysis specifics. This week, Vicente focused on reviewing and updating the schedule plan and attending to the questions and needs of his team.

He looked into comparing two possible options of electric service (Garkane Energy that supplies energy to our county, and Rocky Mountain Power, another utility that operates in our state but doesn’t supply energy to our county).

Both options have several pros & cons with different aspects (technical, economic, mobility) and the decision is still unclear and requires more research. He also collaborated on the writing of two ads for new team members. Pictures below are related to this work.

Sustainable Social Models ” Solar Microgrid Design, Sizing, and Cost Analysis Specifics ” Click for Page

Aidan Geissler (Sustainability Researcher) completed his 11th week helping with 2nd-to-final review, feedback, and content editing. This week Aidan continued to conduct and compile research for the Insulation Comparison spreadsheet.

Much of the research for this week was focused on sustainability, which he has broken down into the following scoring categories: sustainability of the materials, sustainability of production and transportation, the direct environmental impacts, and other sustainability considerations. He also spent time locating, providing links, and reviewing the Health and Safety Data Sheets for each product.

Additionally, the aesthetics of this document have been improved, so Aidan also spent time transferring content and adding product images to the newly constructed Comparison Table. Lastly, Aidan reviewed the Final Draft of Climate Battery Website Info to provide edits, comments, questions, and suggestions.

Check out the pictures below as examples of this work.

Sustainable Social Models ” Research for the Insulation Comparison Spreadsheet – Click for Page

Jeson Hu (Mechanical Engineer Assistant) completed his 8th week helping with research related to the solar microgrid design, sizing, and cost analysis specifics. This week, Jeson gathered inverter spec data, contacted the RMP electricity power provider for solar incentive program and rate, and left a voicemail to the solar department, but no answer back.

He also organized and input important email communication and files to the dropbox folders using Vicente’s suggested order. In addition, Jeson constructed an inverter quote request email and sent ~10 quote emails and company website requests.

Then he linked the company web address and product spec web address to the google sheet for future easy access, finalized the best solar harvesting product research, and added web addresses into the solar tech and company comparison google sheet for future easy access. The pictures below share some of this developing work.

Sustainable Social Models ” Solar Microgrid Design, Sizing, and Cost Analysis Specifics ” Click for Page

Yufan Jiang (Volunteer Architectural Designer) completed her 2nd week as a member of the team. This week Yufan started on WBS #: 2.1.1.2: Earthbag Village Photoshop Additions.

For this task, she worked on the PSD file, researched sources of royalty free images including people and plants, changed the size and color of sources in photoshop, placed them into appropriate places, and added shades and rendered the landscape of the original picture. Based on the comments, she modified the PSD file twice.

Yufan also reviewed the information of the transition kitchen for next week. Pictures below show some of this work.  Pictures below show some of this work.

Sustainable Social Models ” Started on WBS #: 2.1.1.2: Earthbag Village Photoshop Additions

This week the core team created the initial review and outline 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.

Sustainable Social Models ” Outline for Future Duplicable City Center Connector Tutorial

Qiuheng Xu (Landscape Designer) completed her 29th week helping with the Duplicable City Center landscaping design. This week Qiuheng combined the herb garden model with the landscape model she has been working on. In the combined file, Qiuheng was able to fix the road system to the herb garden and entryways, and placed several seating areas. Pictures below show some of these changes.

Sustainable Social Models ” Herb Garden Model With the Landscape Model – Click for Page

Ian Oliver Malinay (Energy Modeler/Analyst) completed his 17th week helping run the energy analysis calculations to help us achieve LEED Platinum status for the Duplicable City Center. This week, Ian processed/revised the operation schedule. This operation schedule is the frequency/occurrence of occupancy, process load, artificial lighting, air ventilation, heating and cooling demand on an hourly basis.

Ian also processed the simulation requirements of domestic hot water particularly in the Living Dome that is currently using a heat pump. He also researched how the hydronic system works and how this technology will be modeled in the simulation software. Below are some images related to this work.

Sustainable Social Models, Operation Profile ” Click for Duplicable City Center Heating & Cooling Page

Sunitha Paraselli (Mechanical Design Engineer) completed her 8th week working on the Duplicable City Center connectors we’ll use to build the domes. This week Sunitha focused on editing the final report in Google Docs, adding more details and appropriate references , explaining what exactly the Hub Connector Analysis is and why we perform them.

She also explained what is included in the analysis, what the safety factor is, and how much safety factor we should look for. In addition to this, Sunitha updated the load calculations of the LVL beam. The pictures below relate to this work.

Sustainable Social Models ” Duplicable City Center Connectors We’ll Use to Build the Domes

Luis Manuel Dominguez (Research Engineer) also completed his 6th week helping with research related to the solar microgrid design, sizing, and cost analysis specifics. This week Luis began to verify and summarize his calculations for the hot tub heat transfer analysis. He began the week by double checking his work on his early calculations regarding the convective and evaporative heat transfer of the tub during operation.

Luis found all of his links and numbers to be in order and proceeded on to the idle state analysis. Simultaneously, he began drafting the engineering justification for his documents. Verifying while documenting is an effective strategy for organizing and validating findings. Moving forward, Luis will continue his report and prepare his findings to be published to the City Center Natural Pool and Spa web page.

The pictures below are related to this work.

Sustainable Social Models ” Calculations for the Hot Tub Heat Transfer Analysis – Click for Page

Daniela Andrea Parada (Volunteer/Consultant Civil Engineering Student) completed her 3rd week helping with the Sustainable Roadways, Walkways, and Landscaping tutorial development. This week Daniela worked on editing and rewriting. She analyzed paragraphs and ensured that the material was easy to comprehend for both engineers, clients, and the general public.

Daniela also researched more information about grading ordinances in our specific planned location for the Duplicable City Center. As this information was not easy to come by, she also obtained material focusing on the general grading ordinances for Los Angeles. Pictures of some of this work are below.

Sustainable Social Models ” Sustainable Roadways, Walkways, and Landscaping Tutorial

Rushabh Bhavsar (Mechanical Design Engineer) joined the team and completed his 1st week helping with the City Center Eco-spa designs. Rushabh started with the design and development of the hot tub model. This week’s process included recording the parameters and modeling the initial structure of the tub, and making adjustments based on feedback. Pictures below show some of this work-in-progress.

Sustainable Social Models ” City Center Eco-spa Designs – Click for Page

Carol Nguyen (Civil Engineer) also joined the team and completed her 1st week helping with the Sustainable Roadways, Walkways, and Landscaping tutorial development. This week, Carol added the all-caps titles, subtitles, and organized the “Roadways, Walkways, Gutters, and Parking Lot” report sections so they appear in the order of the table of contents.

She created the bookmarks in the table of contents to link the headers to their respective sections below. In addition, Carol also worked on summarizing, paraphrasing, and revising the report. The sections focused on this week included Flexible Pavements, Rigid Pavements, Composite Pavements, Process Overview, Preparing a Pavement Recommendation, and Project Specific Conditions to Consider.

The pictures below share some of this developing work.

Sustainable Social Models ” Sustainable Roadways, Walkways, and Landscaping Tutorial

Henry Vennard (Mechanical Engineer) completed his 28th and final week helping continue the development of the climate batteries for the Aquapini/Walipini structures. This week’s focus was reviewing and integrating feedback on the “Final Draft of Climate Battery Website Info” Google Document.

Once published, this tutorial will serve as a guide to anyone interested in building their own climate battery. He also helped organize all the relevant information so it will be easier for anyone who works on the project next to jump in and start helping. Pictures below show some of this work-in-progress.

Sustainable Social Models ” “Final Draft of Climate Battery Website Info” Google Doc – Click for Page