Master thesis suggestions including study of the Nature House
Energy modelling of Nature House
Adopting equations for some Nature House specific effects:
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Natural convection draught through soil culvert and greenhouse ventilation.
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Effectiveness, heat transfer and pressure drop, of soil culverts.
Inner wall absorption and reflection of incoming light.
Modelling and testing of light vacuum 2-plane window for greenhouses.
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All rigid (all except the ones that can be opened) windows of the greenhouse could be evacuated
with one small pump. Easy to have sensor for automatic vacuum refill when needed. Vacuum
between planes would reduce conduction, convection and diffusion through greenhouse wall.
Relations of how window surface area, vacuum pressure and glass thickness correlates with costefficiency (investment and efficiency) needs to be investigated.
Heat storage based on PCMs
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Testing and evaluating CaCl.6H2O for 25°C (passive space) and NaC3H3O2.3H2O for 55°C
(active hot water); heat transfer, stability, cost, LCA. Up to five times more heat that is used by the
house during whole year is ventilated away during summer. A 500 liter 55°C PCM could store one
week worth heat for hot water from a water jacket wood stove.
Greenhouse with wood frame
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Evaluating materials relating mechanical properties and resistance to organic decay to price: oak,
birch, beech, pine, spruce and possibly others.
Investigating advantages of compressed and/or heat treated cheap spruse. Assembly methods.
Structural calculation software tool for traditional and possibly also unconventional shapes such
as domes.
Minimal and demand controlled ventilation in low processed biological (low VOC emission)
material buildings
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Sensors, controllers, ducts and actuators; designing, programming and practical installation of a
Nature House HVAC system.
Investigating ventilation need due to CO2 from humans and plants. Benefits/drawbacks of
ventilating with greenhouse rather than outside atmosphere.
Analyzing material characteristics; likely that also some biological materials emit high levels of
VOCs. Also likely some rather processed and/or synthetic materials emit low levels of VOCs.
Evaluate and compare three novel options for foundation construction and conventional concrete
slab.
New ideas to compare: Open crawl-space with Slab on cellular glass. Parameters to analyze
are; dimensioning, energy, moisture, cost, ecological footprint.
Investigate alternative systems for load carrying floor/joists for carrying a rubber membrane
sealed integrated plant bed.
Parameters to analyze are; dimensioning, energy, moisture, cost, ecological footprint.
Kontaktperson/EcoRelif/Naturhusföreningen:
Anders Solvarm, info@ecorelief.se
www.naturhusforeningen.org