Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the science bowl encourages middle school students to excel in mathematics, science and engineering. It improves awareness of alternative fuel technologies and it provides an avenue of enrichment and reward for academic science achievement.

The Florida Solar Energy Center Middle School Science Bowl is one of 36 qualifying competitions for the National Science Bowl and the only one in the Southeast U.S. This year, sixteen middle school teams came to the Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC), a research institute of the University of Central Florida, in Cocoa on March 7 to compete. This is the seventh year FSEC has hosted the event and the second year it’s been sponsored by Bright House Networks.

2009 Florida Solar Energy Center Middle School Science Bowl winners from Lincoln Middle School: (left to right) James Thieke, Asst. Coach, Keshav Vemuri, Kyung-seok Oh, Robin Xu, David Liu, Emilie Song, Adrienne Thieke, Asst. Coach, and Roberta Harbrucker, Coach

Lincoln Middle School from Gainesville won the academic portion of the program, a fast-paced question-and-answer competition. Archimedean Middle Conservatory from Miami finished second and Ronald McNair Middle School from Cocoa finished third.

“It was tough,” said James Thieke, coach of Lincoln Middle School’s ‘Asian Invasion’ team. “Our captain had pneumonia and we had a heartbreaking loss in the first game, however, through a series of close games, blowout and nail biters, we won. We’re really happy.”

Lincoln Middle School goes on to compete against 35 other regional winners on an all-expenses-paid trip to the National Science Bowl in Washington, D.C. from April 30 to May 4. The national competition includes both the academic event and a hydrogen fuel cell car race.

“We especially like the hands-on portion of the Science Bowl,” said Susan Schleith, Education Coordinator at FSEC. “It’s one thing to be smart, but it’s another to be able to put that intellect into practical use, solving real problems.”

The top eight teams of FSEC’s Science Bowl received a starter hydrogen car kit and participated in a car-building workshop facilitated by FSEC. Teams include, Lincoln Middle School from Gainesville, Archimedean Middle Conservatory from Miami, Ronald McNair Magnet School from Cocoa, Howard Middle School from Ocala, Andrew Jackson Middle School from Titusville, Crystal Lake Middle School from Broward Pompano Beach, The Bolles School from Jacksonville and Edgewood Jr/Sr High School from Merritt Island. They will all return to FSEC on April 18 to demonstrate their cars’ performance at the Sunsational EarthFest.

All the schools participating in this year’s event include:

Andrew Jackson Middle – Titusville
Archimedean Middle Conservatory – Miami
Ascension Catholic School – Melbourne
The Bolles School – Jacksonville
Crystal Lake Middle – Pompano Beach
Edgewood Jr/Sr High – Merritt Island
Einstein Montessori School – Cocoa
Howard Middle – Ocala
Lake City Middle – LaBelle
Lincoln Middle – Gainesville
McLane Middle – Valrico
Odyssey Middle – Orlando
Ronald McNair Magnet – Rockledge
Space Coast Jr/Sr High – Cocoa
St. Charles Borromeo – Orlando
West Shore Jr/Sr High – Melbourne

For more information about the National Science Bowl, visit http://www.scied.science.doe.gov/nsb/default.htm

For information about Florida Solar Energy Center’s Regional Science Bowl or the Sunsational EarthFest, contact Susan Schleith, FSEC Education Coordinator, 321-638-1017, Susan@fsec.ucf.edu.

Water heating is the second largest home consumer of energy, and the performance of some systems on the market today have never been tested under realistic and extreme weather conditions. Testing in the lab will help provide answers the solar industry, utilities and home builders are looking for to increase energy efficiency.

Mr. Robert Hassett, U.S. Department of Energy's Building America Solar Heating and Cooling Technology Manager, cuts the ribbon at the opening celebration of FSEC's new Hot Water Systems Laboratory. He's joined by (from left to right) Danny Parker, principal investigator, Subrato Chandra, project manager, and Carlos Colon, task leader.

“This project is an important part of Building America’s goal of zero energy buildings by year 2020,” said Robert Hassett, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Heating and Cooling Technology Manager. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Building America Program funded the lab at FSEC, a research institute of the University of Central Florida.

The facility, which opened on Wednesday, will be a hub to test solar, tankless and conventional domestic water heating systems for efficiency.

“Solar water heating is an excellent way to save energy on water heating and reduce whole-house energy use, but utilities are specifically interested in knowing whether or not solar is providing relief to the power grid during peak times. Our testing will answer their questions,” says Subrato Chandra, the Building America Industrialized Housing Partnership project manager. This information is key to utility “buy-in” to more aggressively sponsor solar water heating systems.

This side-by-side testing will evaluate the impact of systems on the utility power grid according to time-of-day usage, and will also enhance and validate simulation models for solar water heating systems. Danny Parker, principal investigator noted, “Solar integrated collector and storage (ICS) systems, where the storage tank is on the roof and sensitive to weather, have never been verified before, only simulated, so we’re interested in seeing how they work particularly on winter mornings.”

Seven systems are currently responding to the same conditions and schedule of use to compare their energy performance and time-of-day electric loads. Over 90 channels of data are being collected. This flexible facility will evaluate how the water heating systems perform without the influence of family usage habits.

“Our tests are performed under more realistic, yet controlled conditions. We’re using real inlet water temperatures and varying the quantity of water being used, something that hasn’t been done before,” says Carlos Colon, task leader of the project.

The seven systems currently being tested are:

1.  Standard 50-gallon electric water heater

2.  40 sq. ft. collector/80-gallon tank flat plate direct solar water heating system with a differential-controller

3.  32 sq. ft. collector/40 gallon integrated collector storage (ICS) system with a standard 50 gallon electric tank for backup

4.  40 sq. ft. collector/80 gallon tank flat plate PV-pumped direct solar water heating system

5. 40 gallon conventional natural gas water heater

6. Tankless natural gas water heater

7. Tankless electric water heater

Current tests will run for a full year under its current configuration with the option of testing additional systems.

The Florida Solar Energy Center, a research institute of the University of Central Florida, is the largest and most active state-supported energy research institute in the country. Current divisions and their research activities include Advanced Energy Research: alternative transportation systems, hydrogen fuel and fuel cells; Buildings Research: energy-efficient buildings; and Solar Energy: solar water and pool heating and solar electric and distributed generation systems. For more information about the center, visit www.floridaenergycenter.org or call the FSEC Public Affairs Office at 321-638-1015.

A more sustainable form of transportation, the new monorail is designed to move both people and freight high above traffic congestion. In addition to its solar component, the monorail will use lighter aviation materials to reduce energy use.

“Innovations such as this will contribute to a sustainable energy future and provide a fast, safe, practical and socially responsible mode of transportation for people and freight while reducing the environmental impact of transportation,” said Karl Guenther, CEO of STC and the grant’s primary investigator.

William Young, Jr., a senior research engineer at FSEC, is working closely with Guenther and a team of accomplished engineers, including Francis Knize, Co-PI and Dan Simpson of STC, Douglas Tobin of ARC International, Hector Guevara of Nu Dimensions Group, George Taylor of Largo Railroad, and Jan Zicha of Zicha Engineering.

This team is developing innovative alternative transit technology that will evaluate the use of a proprietary transverter and other energy devices. A mini charging station will be constructed for evaluating this new hardware. The partnership will demonstrate transferring energy, from the source to the monorail, faster than existing technology. STC has been researching to build the most technologically advanced transportation system for fourteen years, with 63 claims patented.

The system will be built as a demonstration model to showcase the nation’s leadership and dedication to energy-efficient public transportation. This DOE grant is the first of many that will further a planned life-size demonstration to be executed within three years.

The results of this research grant will be used to develop a future monorail system that will transport visitors throughout the 74 acres of the Museum Of Science and Industry (MOSI) in Tampa, Fla., and once funding is obtained, plans to connect the system to Busch Gardens and the University of South Florida.

Additional information may be found a www.stc-in.com.

FSEC, a research institute of the University of Central Florida (UCF), will lead nationwide teams of researchers from universities, DOE’s national laboratories and industry in the three projects.

The FSEC team will oversee the $19 million DOE High Temperature, Low Relative Humidity Membrane fuel cell work involving the activities of Working Group that includes researchers from Arizona State University, Case Western Reserve University, Clemson University, the Colorado School of Mines, FuelCell Energy, General Electric, Giner Electrochemical Systems, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Tennessee and Virginia Tech.

The working group will prepare and evaluate new membranes for proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells, a technology that has been receiving worldwide attention due to its uses in the hydrogen economy and the automobiles of the near term future. The potential applications for PEM fuel cells range from automotive propulsion to power for hand-held devices such as cell phones and PDAs.

In the second project that is being funded by DOE, the Building America Industrialized Housing Partnership (BAIHP) will continue its work to accelerate the nationwide development of cost-effective, production-ready energy technologies that can be widely implemented by factory and site homebuilders. These technologies will achieve 30 percent to 50 percent savings in whole-house energy use through a combination of energy efficiency and renewable energy measures. The team will conduct research in the southeast (hot-humid climate zone) and the Pacific northwest (marine and cold climate zones) on improved duct systems, factory integrated heating, cooling and water heating systems, green products and processes, cool roofs and other energy-saving products and strategies.

The BAIHP team is led by FSEC in collaboration with UCF’s Industrial Engineering program and researchers and energy experts from Arizona State University, Calcs-Plus, Florida Home Energy and Resources Organization, Oregon Department of Energy, the Residential Energy Services Network, the University of Texas at Austin School of Architecture and Washington State University. The Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Florida Energy Office has contributed significant matching funding. Collaborating industry team members include producers of HUD code housing (Champion, Clayton, Fleetwood and Palm Harbor) modular builders (Clayton, Excel, Palm Harbor, and Penn Lyon Homes) production builders (Centex and K. Hovnanian) and 18 affiliates of Habitat for Humanity International in six states.

The third project, Advancement of DOE’s EnergyPlus Building Energy Simulation Program, is an important multi-year effort to expand upon DOE’s investment in building science analysis tools. EnergyPlus is a building energy simulation program that focuses on improving the energy efficiency and long-term economic feasibility of buildings. It has been recognized worldwide for its excellence in technical ability to accurately model buildings.

FSEC will lead the diverse EnergyPlus team of collaborators for this project that includes experts from CDH Energy, DHL Consulting, GARD Analytics, the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, Oklahoma State University and C.O. Pedersen Associates. The group will work in collaboration with other developers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Because buildings use approximately one-third of all energy consumed nationally, DOE focuses significant research in buildings and promotes more energy-efficient equipment and appliances and lower energy-consuming building design. EnergyPlus is especially effective at accurately modeling buildings so that architects and engineers can investigate a variety of design alternatives for the building envelope and heating/cooling systems in an effort to obtain the most energy efficient and cost effective design possible.

The Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC), a research institute of the University of Central Florida, is the largest and most active state-supported energy research center in the United States. Current research activities include solar water and pool heating, photovoltaics (solar electric) and distributed generation systems, energy-efficient buildings, alternative transportation systems and fuels, hydrogen, fuel cells and other energy areas and energy education. For more information about the center or these new projects, visit http://www.fsec.ucf.edu or call the FSEC Public Affairs Office at (321) 638-1015.