Project title: Energy Efficiency in Irish Homes

Team: Climate Warriors

Presentation Community College   Dublin   Ireland   5 Student’s age: 16-17 years old

How energy efficient are the materials used to insulate homes in Terenure?

The process of conducting our experiments:

Firstly, we collected all our equipment: a kettle, 2 glass beakers, 2 thermometers, wooden and styrofoam boxes (custom-made to equal the volume of the terracotta pot), terracotta pot, our phone stopwatch and our pen and paper to record the data.

We conducted our experiment in three parts, ensuring to complete them in as similar format as possible. We recorded the heat loss of our mediums separately, with a control to guarantee accurate results.

Firstly, we boiled the kettle. While it was boiling, we placed the thermometer in the hole of the box or pot and filled this with blue tack. After the kettle was finished boiling, we poured the water into 2 beakers, measuring 75mls. Then we placed the thermometers into the control beaker and the box or pot over the other beaker. We started the stopwatch on our phone and checked the temperature every minute, recording our data on a page.

After recording our data, we analysed and interpreted it by pasting the data into a chart and graph.

With the Styrofoam box, the temperature drop ranges from 2-4° C per minute. In the control the temperature drop ranges from 3-5°C.
We measured the temperature after an additional 5 minutes (10-minute mark). There was a temperature drop of 9°C.
With the Styrofoam box, from 5 minutes to 10 minutes, there is a temperature drop of 9°C.
With the control, from 5 minutes to 10 minutes, there is a temperature drop of 11°C.
Styrofoam Box: The drop between 0 minutes to 10 minutes is 21°C.
Control: The drop between 0 minutes to 10 minutes is 32°C.

Our Results from the second section of our experiment
From this graph, we can see the difference between the pot and control. With the pot, the temperature drop range is 2-3°C every minute interval.
From 5 minutes to 10 minutes, there is a temperature drop of another 10°C.
In the control, there is a temperature drop range from 3-5°C. From 5 minutes to 10 minutes, there is a temperature drop of another 11°C, from 73°C to 62°C.
Terracotta Pot: The drop between 0 minutes to 10 minutes is 22°C.
Control: The drop between 0 minutes to 10 minutes is 28°C.

Our Results from the third section of our experiment
From the graphs, we can see the difference between the Wooden Box and the base.
The Wooden Box has a consistent temperature drop of 4°C per minute. From minute 5 to 10 minutes there is a drop in temperature of 11°C
In the control, there is a drop temperature range 3-6°C. From minute 5 to 10 minutes there is a drop in temperature of 12°C.
Wooden Box: The drop between 0 minute to 10 minutes is 30°C.
Control: The drop between 0 minute to 10 minutes is 33°C.

What we have learned from conducting these 3 experiments is that the wooden insulator is proven to be less effective at insulating than Styrofoam. The Styrofoam was overall better at insulating. However, the difference between the insulators and the control is miniscule (as seen in our charts above). This shows us that the insulators we experimented with are not effective enough to contain heat in Terenure homes.

Our research question, ‘How energy efficient are the materials used to insulate homes in Terenure?’ was answered through our experiment. You can see from the temperature drop between the control and our medium, that the materials did provide minimal insulation, but considering the advances in scientific research in recent years, more focus should be applied to create better insulation for Terenure homes.

If we were to conduct our experiment again, we could make our results more accurate by using different mediums such as cotton and different kinds of plastics.

Our project relates directly to Climate Change because 1 million homes in Ireland are poorly insulated and have inefficient heating systems. This contributes negatively to Climate Change because the residents of poorly insulated homes are inclined to use their heating systems (fueled by fossil fuels) more frequently than those with sufficiently insulated homes. Shockingly fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) account for over 75% of greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 90% of all carbon dioxide emissions.

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