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Heat for Habitat: Engineering Bootcamp Class Makes Solar Collectors

Seniors design easy-to-build solar collectors for those struggling to keep up with utility bills...
Heat for Habitat is a project in Peter Rust's Engineering Bootcamp class. Seniors were challenged to design easy-to-build solar collectors that could be used to heat a house for someone struggling to keep up with utility bills. The collectors were assembled from inexpensive and easily accessible materials from stores like Lowes and Home Depot.

Students are documenting detailed instructions for how to build their collectors and designing an experiment to test how much energy is collected to compare their results against commercial collectors.

Heat for Habitat is a new project for Mr. Rust's class, and he expects that the designs will become more sophisticated with subsequent classes. In the future he sees the potential to share the designs with Instructables, a how to and DIY community, or through Habitat for Humanity.

The class will be discussing what to do with the collectors. One option is to donate them to the community; two will make excellent pool heaters. Mr. Rust is also considering holding a workshop where people in the community could come in and build their own after the current designs are analyzed and refined.

Mr. Rust is working on designing his own home heater, a unique design that requires minimal tools and skill to build.
 
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