Energy efficiency in housing.

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INTRODUCTION:

Energy efficiency is the percentage of total energy input into an energy conversion device or system that does work and is not converted to low quality useless heat. Being energy efficient helps the environment and helps reduce our reliability on renewable resources. Energy efficiency uses less energy and does more useful work. Although energy efficient devices costs more than least efficient devices but this pays off in the long term. Beginning with the most common thing in houses, lights, we can use fluorescent lights instead of incandescent lights which waste 95% of the energy input. Adding insulation to the house and windows can very much reduce waste energy. Another step to energy efficiency in houses is to plug leaks. People should also switch off electric appliances, lights, etc. when they are not using them. Using tankless water heaters, which only heat when needed, saves a lot more energy than conventional heaters, which heat water all day. As there is a huge pressure on renewable resources and the risk of losing them, there are other alternative resources which need to be used instead. Those alternative resources are renewable resources, which are solar energy, hydro power, win energy, energy from biomass, and geothermal energy. Energy derived from the sun s called solar energy. Solar energy can be collected to produce high-temperature heat and electricity basically by a solar power tower and a solar thermal plant, where huge solar panels collect the sun's where huge solar panels collect the sun's thus transforming the radiant energy into electricity. Energy produced from flowing water is called hydro power. This electricity can be produced by three ways. The first way is by a large scale hydro power, where a high dam is built across a large river creating a reservoir which then water flows through huge pipe spinning turbines and then creating electricity. Hydro power is also produced by the ocean tides and waves. Hydro power is also produced from heat stored in water. Another way in producing energy is wind energy. Wind turbines can be used to produce electricity individually or in wind farms, where wind spins the turbines and then produces electricity. Producing energy from biomass is also an alternative resource. Biomass can be burned directly as a solid fuel or converted into gaseous or liquid biofuels. Most biomass is burned directly for heating, cooking, and industrial process or indirectly to drive turbines and produce electricity. Plant materials, trees, shrubs, animals' wastes, and crop residues can all be burned down to produce energy. The last alternative source of energy is geothermal energy. Heat contained in underground rocks and fluids is called geothermal energy. This geothermal energy is derived from dry steam, wet steam, and hot water. There are also three other nearly nondepletable sources of geothermal energy which are magma, hot dry zones, where magma that has penetrated the earth's crust heats subsurface rock to high temperatures, and low- to moderate- temperature warm-rock reservoir deposits. There are several types of energy efficient houses. The first known as superinsulated house, where the house is heavily insulated (walls, windows, roof, etc.) and so airtight. It can be warmed by heat from direct sunlight, appliances, and human bodies, with little or no need for a backup heating system. The second kind of energy efficient house is the strawbale house, where the walls consist of compacted bales of straw covered with plaster or adobe. There are two other types of energy efficient houses which use solar energy. Passive solar houses, which absorb and store heat from the sun directly within a structure, can be built as earth sheltered, direct gain, or greenhouse, sunspace or attached solarium. The other type is active solar house, where solar collectors absorb solar energy and a fan or pump supplies part of a building's space-heating or water-heating needs.
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<<Ali's part>> The group has chosen a strawbale type of house. A strawbale house involves all of the basic needs of a house, is environmentally friendly and has a higher insulation value that waste less energy. Unsurprisingly it has many advantages that include being resistant to fires especially if it's built in a very dry and hot climate, straw has a unique appeal, is easily available, sound proof, cheap, and is a good insulator. It's also 100% renewable instead of being burned creating pollution.

BODY:

<<Abe's part>>

Energy efficient appliances house will use/products/costs:

The ...

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