| Issue No. 3: April 2005 |
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
It's hard to believe that I've been here more than three months already, but I can honestly say it's been a great start for me in my new position. My family has adapted well to the move and my kids love their new schools. Oh, I can't say that we don't miss the Connecticut winter a little, since we're all into outdoors activities like skiing and skating, but it's really not that tough to adjust to winter in Florida. My kids sailed my wife and me in a hobie cat last weekend. I knew I was officially here when I found myself loudly rooting for my new school, UCF, in the opening round of college basketball's "March Madness" when they played my old school, Connecticut. Guess I've got sand in my shoes already. I've spent much of my time here so far getting to know the staff and taking part in such activities as working on budgets, putting proposals together and learning all about the varied activities that go on at FSEC. I can tell you it's been a real education so far. TOP STORIES Hurricane-Caused Leaking Walls Lead to New Research Effort
For the past 15 years, researchers at FSEC and in UCF's Industrial Engineering & Management Systems department have worked together on a wide variety of research projects as part of the U.S. Department of Energy-funded Building America and its predecessor program. However, last summer's hurricanes created a new problem for Florida homeowners that opened the door to an interesting new study just getting underway. Not long after the hurricanes roared through the state, thousands of homeowners started complaining about water leaking through their walls. FSEC's Subrato Chandra and Neil Moyer met with the College of Engineering's Mike Mullens and Bob Hoekstra to discuss this phenomenon, since such problems hadn't been reported in Florida homes before. What they found suggested the need for some important new research to deal with the effects of hurricanes. <Full
Story> FSEC Completes Solar Water Heating and PV Project in the U.S. Virgin Islands
If you ask John Harrison about the project he and Jim Dunlop just completed in the U.S. Virgin Islands, he uses the word "challenging" to tell about their activities. Challenging indeed! All the two FSEC researchers did was direct a wide-ranging project for the Virgin Islands Energy Office, supported by funding from the U.S. Department of Energy, that demonstrated the use of solar water heating and photovoltaics (PV) in a variety of buildings, determined hot water usage by system owners, conducted site inspections, wrote functional and operational requirements and design standards, worked with industry on everything from bidding out projects to installing and then inspecting systems, evaluated the performance of solar water heaters and PV systems, and coordinated work between the Florida solar industry and technicians and installers in St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John. <Full Story> Landfill Gas May Be Used for Hydrogen Production A team of FSEC researchers is currently examining ways to use local renewable resources like landfill gas in the production of hydrogen. The research is a component of FSEC's NASA-funded project that supports the hydrogen-related space and space launch activities at the Kennedy Space Center. According to FSEC's hydrogen division director Ali Raissi, "A lot of people have researched various ways of producing hydrogen over the years. But interestingly, because we have the Kennedy Space Center's launch pads virtually in our backyard, we looked at production options a little differently than others have, and we came up with the idea of using the landfill gas." <Full Story> Middle School Science Bowl Promotes Academic Excellence
The third annual Florida Middle School Science Bowl was hosted by FSEC on April 2, with a record-setting 29 teams participating in the event. The Science Bowl, which is designed to encourage middle school students to excel in mathematics, science and engineering, has the underlying theme that academic success is on a par with athletic success. The event has two components: a fast-paced question- and-answer competition and a hands-on engineering event. Teams participate in the academic competition until one winning team remains. The top eight teams then participate in a hands-on science activity, building and racing a hydrogen fuel cell model car.<Full Story>  Top Darlene Slattery Receives FSEC Distinguished Researcher Award
Darlene Slattery, a Senior Research Chemist, has been named the Distinguished Researcher at the Florida Solar Energy Center for 2005. Slattery, who has worked in FSEC's Hydrogen R&D Division since 1989, earned her Ph.D. in chemistry at the Florida Institute of Technology in 1999. Her primary area of research has been in the storage of hydrogen to be used for automotive purposes. She has investigated magnesium hydride, lanthanum magnesium hydride and complex hydrides such as lithium aluminum hydride. All of this work has been funded by the U.S. Department of Energy. <Full Story> RESNET Conference Produces New Home Rating Standards Three FSEC staff members played key roles in the recent Residential Energy Services Network (RESNET) national conference in San Antonio, TX. FSEC deputy director Philip Fairey is the current president of the RESNET Board of Directors, and he welcomed conference attendees and presented the RESNET Leadership Awards. Tei Kucharski, Energy Gauge Program Coordinator at FSEC, moderated a conference session. She was recently appointed to the RESNET Education and Training Committee, which ensures the integrity of the National Core Test for certification of energy raters. Brian Hanson, an FSEC computer scientist, also attended the conference and staffed the Energy Gauge Booth.
NEWS NOTES State Energy Officials Visit FSEC
FSEC hosts Sunwize Technologies conference
About 75 people participated in a PV dealers' conference sponsored by Sunwize Technologies held at FSEC January 20-22. The purpose of the conference was to educate PV contractors on the latest developments in the field. Presentations from manufacturers were given on the first two days, followed by seven different training courses on the final day. Manufacturers participating in the conference included Beacon Power, Fronius, Outback, PV Powered, Sharp, SMA Americas, Unirac, Unisolar and Xantrex. FSEC's Kevin Lynn reports that this venue provided the center with the opportunity to educate manufacturers and installers about our work with the SERES including module testing, design review and approval, inverter testing, and training. As a result, we received pledges for equipment from SMA, Sharp, Unirac, PV Powered and Outback that can be used for training and testing. NEWS FROM AROUND THE STATE FPL launches statewide partnership with Habitat for Humanity:
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
This newsletter has been produced by Ken Sheinkopf, Adrienne Henzmann, Sherri Shields and Dianne Wood. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
heck out the Director's message in this issue for an inside look at our planning for the future. We're also featuring a write-up on a timely research program growing out of last summer's hurricane damage, as well as a summary of a three-year project in the Virgin Islands on solar water heating and photovoltaics. There's other news as well, so we hope you enjoy this issue of The Energy Chronicle. 
RESNET is the premier national forum on home energy ratings, residential energy efficiency financing and building performance business development. Attending the 2005 conference were more than 300 national experts on home energy ratings, energy mortgages, and high performance homes from across the nation, who gathered to share the latest information on successful program delivery and to shape business development strategies for the 21st century. <
