Dear friends
I had promised I will write on the project presentation at MESCE Kuttippuram.
As I already mentioned, it was far below our expectations. It seems 11 teams registered for the event, but only three turned up, all three from the same college, that was the first blow. Second, except one of the projects, the other two had no practical content. It was just a seminar presentation based on data retrieved from the internet. All three were good in presen tation, however we are sorry to see that these boys and girls have not realized what exactly is a project.
What should an ‘Enery efficient homes have? One can be very eloquent on that. If one searches through Google, you can get material for presentation for hours on that. Unfortunately, two teams did only that and nothing else. One batch, at least had developed on some of the ideas like developing a TV plug that can switch the power supply to the TV once one switches of the TV from a remote. He was also presenting another device which can adjust the lighting requirement in a room . This, we judges, both my former student Velayudhan O P (now in KSEB:velayudhan orikalparambil ) and myself appreciated.
Now what is an Energy Efficient Home? Is it necessarily a home with all devices connected through an IoT (internet of Things) through WiFi or an ordinary house with energy efficient equipment ? Yes and No. For a house already constructed years back, the best that we can do is to make an assessment of the energy usage in the house and make it as minimal as possible with gadgets and devices that can minimize the consumption. Starting from energy efficient lamps,(LED ) to the low power consuming refrigerators and air conditioners, low water consuming flush tanks in bath rooms, rain water harvesting facilities and facilities for water reuse, bio gas plants, solar power converters etc. can be very useful.
On the other hand, for a new house being constructed, it is possible to do a lot of things to make a truly energy efficient home. The choice f the location with plenty of sun light and wind movement, choice of materials which can help in controlling the room temperature , use of materials that are locally available ( low Carbon index) , effective methods to reuse water after filtering or purification, setting up methods to use rain water (harvesting) etc can be integrated and incorporated in the construction, all will be useful.
Coming to the project and seminar aspect of the contest, unfortunately none of the contestants has realised the basic difference, Project is something that one has to DO, rather than abstracting and presenting what others have done in Europe or USA. Even a good case study based on an in depth study of the construction of the houses by conscious builders of the new generation may have justified the ‘project’. Unfortunately our engineering students are rather poor in understanding these subtle differences. Probably, they have not discussed with their peers or may be there was no formal mentoring on these available. The absence of such a bit of mentoring was evident , but who cares these days on seeking some guidance from teachers and others or how many teachers do bother to help these boys and girls who try to get some guidance?
I will close this discussion with a few words from my fellow judge E. Velayudhan O P, presently Exec Engineer in KSEB and my former student in REC Calicut. ( from his comment in my face book post)
“Expected more sir..... the participants could have handled the topic with a bit more practical outlook. And it would have been done with some visual modeling, incorporating the aspects of green home/dream home like Eco friendliness, land selection, use of natural sun light & wind for reducing energy consumption, waste water management, waste management, rain water harvesting and storage, use of energy efficient gadgets, live Green coverage etc. Any way some teams at least mentioned some of these things during presentation”
Thank you for reading, your comments are welcome !
Let me add a few images from my Google search on "Energy Efficient Homes:
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