Team Blog #2

Water Conservation Model

There are many techniques and methods to execute water conservation. To help demonstrate this concept, our team is construction a model that uses the idea of a collecting water with a rain barrel. The main objective is to collect rain water that falls on the surface of a structure with gutters that leads to a rain barrel. This water can then be used for any application desired by the owner. Through basic filtration systems this water may be suitable for consumption. The purpose of our model is to demonstrate how simple it can be to perform water consumption techniques. By participating in water conservation practices, the demand on the local treatment plant will be less to limit the amount of untreated water flowing into the rivers.

Our model of a house is made from white foam board with gutters made of clear PVC pipe. The house will be held together with hot glue along with the gutters. The gutters will be sloped to flow into a down spout that will empty into a graduated cylinder to serve as the rain barrel. We plan on adding shingles to the roof (although they will not be to scale) to have a more accurate representation of how a real roof receives rain and sheds it. We also will add popsicle sticks as siding and other decorations to make the project more presentable and eye catching.

We started last lab by going to the machine (mechanical engineering) lab and enlisting the help of Professor Wood. He helped us find some quality small diameter clear PVC pipe for our gutters, and we cut it lengthwise on a vertical band saw. We also found some smaller tubing that we plan to use as our downspout under the gutter system, leading to the rain barrel. The white foam board was measured and cut by hand using a razor blade. All measurements were predetermined from our sketch and drawn in pencil using a square. Next lab we plan on using a wood glue, or other high strength glue, to fasten all of the cut foam board pieces together and support it so it retains its structure while it dries. We did not do this last lab because the foam board we used was curved, so we placed it under a few weights to flatten it out. We plan to drill a hole at the end of both gutters, through which the downspouts will be fitted. The downspouts will route to the same collection barrel (some sort of graduated cylinder).