Interlock House

The “Interlock House” was Iowa State University’s entry in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon competition in 2009. CBER led the interdisciplinary team of faculty and students. 

Experiment #A6 At the Interlock

Published March 28, 2015
The CBER Team

Team CBER ran their sixth experiment (Mar7-8th) at the interlock. Using  over 70 sensors the team made time not only to set up but to also meet with Mike our mechanical specialist and run through some test. The team meet with the occupants on strategies for creating a confortable environment while maintaining a non-hassle routine.
 

The CBER team training with Mike Wassmer, the mechanical room specialist.

Training

 

 

 

 

sensors

Interlock House Featured on National Solar Tour

Published October 2, 2014

The American Solar Energy Society (ASES) 19th Annual National Solar Tour will make a stop in Iowa this year at the Interlock House Community Laboratory. The house will have an open tour from 1pm~4pm on Oct. 3 and 4.

broader impact

Students Win in the Iowa NSF EPSCoR Annual Meeting Poster Competition

Published August 14, 2014

Shan He and Esdras Murillo, with the poster Distributed data acquisition system design to measure indoor air stratification won the third place in the EPSCoR annual meeting poster competition.

CBER get involved with Ames Summer Enrichment Program

Published August 5, 2014

CBER researcher Shan He and intern Mackenzie Betz volunteered to give 6 classes on building science for Ames Summer Enrichment Program. About 40 students entering 4th and 5th grade took the whole 6 classes.

Class content is hands-on experiment looking for "What makes me feel hot or cold?". From the pre- and post-assessment survey, about 10% students increased their interests in science through this class. Shan has developed the curriculum into basic, medium and advanced modules, and can cover different levels for K-12 education.

broader impact

CBER researcher presented at ASHRAE 2014 Annual Conference

Published August 5, 2014

Shan He, a research associate from ISU CBER team presented at the 2014 ASHRAE (The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating & Air-Conditioning Engineers) Annual Conference. Her presnetation is about the energy efficiency study on the Interlock House with post-occupancy measurement and data analysis. This study alert that a net-zero designed house could be low energy efficient if not operated as designed. Occupants and maintanance team needs to learn how to operate a hybrid designed house.

Young Engineer Scientist summer intern completes program

Published July 24, 2014

Congratulation to Mackenzie Betz for successfully completing her summer internship with the CBER NSF EPSCoR team.

Our team represented at Windsor Conference 2014

Published April 17, 2014

Isabelle Leysens, and undergraduate architecture student, gave a presentation on her work in developing a Dynamic Visual Comfort Zone, or DViC Zone for ISU's solar home. The DViC project proposes a new set of daylighting metrics through a process of identifying opportunities for reducing the amount of necessary lighting when the occupants are out of the house, or do not need a lot of light.

Windsor Conference 2014

Published April 17, 2014

On the weekend of April 10-12, Isabelle Leysens and Shan He from the ISU CBER team traveled to London, England to attend the 8th annual Windsor Conference, hosted on the grounds of Windsor Castle. This year's theme centered around "Counting the Cost of Comfort in a Changing World", which aimed to look at the realities of implementing energy efficient building design and operation strategies, while maintaining a comfortable interior space. 

New Project* Lakeside Lab

Published February 13, 2014

The Lakeside Lab in Okaboji, IA is our research team's new project which will be an energy analysis the existing spaces and strategies to improve energy utilization. The secondary team on this project is a independent study for ISU architecture students. These cabin's are where the teachers of Iowa come to teach summer courses, they sleep here too so thebuilding are being used all day and night. This projects goal will be to increase the energy efficiency of the labritory campus.

Wind Testing with Senors Nov.24-25th

Published December 30, 2013

This test ran on Nov. 24-25th was Experiment #A3 which evaluated the system design and temperature profile in the Interlock House for passive heating and natural cooling. 

Testing started at 2:25pm Nov 24th and ended 4:30pm 25th. The Weather was sunny the 24th and cloudy the 25th. All data collection showed good stratification. Our new radiation shield design is working great. 

 

sensors

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