DETAIL kids- A green home for Sophie and Henry: A short story about energy, carbon dioxide and architecture 9783955530167, 9783920034799

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A green home for Sophie and Henry

Andreas Ernstberger

A green home for Sophie and Henry A short story about energy, carbon dioxide and architecture

∂ kids

Meet Sophie, Henry and their dog, Sam. The three friends are going to take you on a journey. You’ll be able to spot them every time you turn a page.

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Contents

Energy Page 7

Carbon dioxide Page 15

What can we do? Page 23

A green home Page 31

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Energy

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Energy gives Sophie and Henry the strength to play catch. But where has all that energy gone when they have played for a long time…

…and they’re out of breath? Energy does not simply disappear.

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All the running around has turned Sophie and Henry’s energy into heat. Now they feel hot and sweaty.

But we don’t only use up energy; we’re also able to recharge our energy supplies. We do this when we lie out in the sun, for example. Sunlight is a source of energy. On our skin, the sun’s rays are converted into heat. Energy comes in many different forms. We find it in movement, in heat and in light, among other things.

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Trees and plants use the energy from the sun to grow. They can even store energy – in their fruit, for example.

As Henry eats an apple after playing catch, he absorbs the energy stored in the fruit. The energy from the apple gives Henry new strength to run, jump, climb, and ride his horse..

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Trees and plants store energy in their twigs, branches and trunks, too.

As Sophie makes a fire and burns the wood from the trees, the energy stored inside the wood changes back into heat. We can make use of this energy.

Have you ever sat in front of a fire and warmed your hands?

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Animals and plants have been using and storing energy from the sun for millions of years.

The prehistoric world was full of swamps. When plants died there, they were buried by earth and water. Over the years, heat and pressure turned them into coal.

Tiny sea creatures died and sank down to the ocean floor. Over millions of years, they turned into oil and gas.

This energy has remained stored up in the dead plants and animals – up until today!

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When we burn coal and oil in furnaces and engines, we’re using the energy that has been stored in the ground for millions of years. We use it to heat buildings, generate electricity, drive cars and fly aeroplanes.

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Carbon dioxide

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You can’t see, smell or taste carbon dioxide. It’s a gas, it’s in our air. Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound consisting of one part carbon and two parts oxygen. Its symbol is CO2.

Plants need carbon dioxide to grow and store energy from the sun. They store the carbon in their fruit.

When, like Henry, we eat an apple or some other fruit, we take in the energy and the carbon particles contained in the fruit. As soon as we run around, we use the absorbed energy and breathe out carbon dioxide, which then makes its way back to the plants.

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As they grow, trees and plants absorb energy and store the carbon particles in their branches and trunks as well. When we burn wood to make use of the energy, the carbon is released. It combines with the oxygen in the air to form carbon dioxide, which can then once again be absorbed by the plants and trees:

This cycle works perfectly – but only if we don’t burn more wood than is growing.

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For millions of years, living things have been soaking up the carbon particles whilst growing and storing energy.

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The coal, oil and gas formed millions of years ago contain not only energy, but also lots of carbon.

Because these days we are burning vast amounts of coal, oil and gas to get the energy we need, a lot of carbon from prehistoric times is being released.

The carbon combines with the oxygen in the air. This is why so much carbon dioxide is in our air today – more than our plants need to grow.

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If there is too much carbon dioxide in the air, the sun’s rays are trapped when they reach the ground. They can’t get back out of our atmosphere, which is the layer of gases surrounding planet Earth. All the rays turn into heat. As a result, our atmosphere is warming up.

The polar ice caps are melting.

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The rise in temperature is affecting our weather. That’s why we should limit the amount of carbon dioxide that is put into the air when we burn coal, oil and gas.

Storms are growing fiercer.

The deserts are expanding.

Rains are getting heavier.

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What can we do?

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The electricity that Henry, Sophie and most of us get from wall sockets every day is usually generated through the combustion (burning) of oil, gas or coal. When we burn them, the carbon they have been storing for centuries is released, combining with oxygen to form carbon dioxide. But we can also buy a different kind of electricity.

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solar power

It is possible to produce electricity without releasing carbon particles from prehistoric times. The answer is to use what we call renewable energy sources. Solar energy is one of these. Solar cells convert the energy from the sun into electricity.

hydropower

Energy from the sun also makes the wind blow, waves swell and water flow. It makes plants grow, too. All of these things can be used to generate electricity tidal power in power stations.

biomass

wind power

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The energy we use to drive cars and fly planes is refined oil, or what we call petroleum. It’s burned in the vehicles’ engines. Every time we use a car, motorbike or plane, we’re converting energy and releasing ancient carbon particles.

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To save carbon dioxide, it’s better to drive less and not to fly at all. When going short distances, Sophie walks; Henry prefers to ride a bike. They use buses and trains for longer trips. Lots of people travel together on public transport, which means they consume less energy and produce less carbon dioxide per passenger.

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So that Sophie and Henry can use hot water and enjoy warm, cosy rooms in winter, their house needs to be heated. The usual way for people to do this is to burn oil or gas in a boiler. This releases carbon from the dinosaur era back into the atmosphere, where it combines with oxygen to form carbon dioxide.

If we don’t heat our homes quite so much and don’t use so much hot water, we burn less oil or gas and put less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Wearing another layer of clothing, instead of turning up the heating, is something you can do to save energy and carbon dioxide.

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There are actually quite a few things that you can do to reduce carbon dioxide. Sophie and Henry are going to show you some of them:

The heat stays inside if you air the house by opening the windows wide for a short moment rather than leaving them open a bit all day. If you seal all door and window gaps tightly, the heat will stay indoors.

You save hot water by just having a short shower instead of a bath. You can save electricity by switching off any electrical appliances and lamps that you aren’t using. Televisions and computers use electricity even in stand-by mode.

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A green home

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Sophie and Henry would like to do more than just save energy. They want to live in a green home: a house that doesn’t need electricity from a power station and doesn’t depend on oil or gas for heating.

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An architect helps them make their dream come true. They speak to him about their plans and ideas and what the house should look like. Together, they also talk about how much a house like that might cost, where it could stand, and how long it might take to plan and build.

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Then the architect goes away to develop ideas. He thinks of ways to meet the different needs of Sophie, Henry and Sam. He thinks about the plot of land, its shape, the position of trees, the angle of the sun, and whether the location is quiet or noisy. He must also consider the building rules and regulations. After all, a new house has to fit in with the neighbourhood – and, of course, it has to be sturdy enough not to fall down.

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HOME OF SOPHIE HENRY SAM

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FLOOR PLAN

VIEW FROM SOUTH

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SECTION A-A

12 JUNE 12 ARCHITECT

VIEW FROM NORTH

Once the architect has a concept, he prepares some drawings on a plan. It shows the shape of the building, how many storeys it has, where the different rooms are, the position of doors and windows and the height of the ceiling. Sophie and Henry can now picture the house and the builders know what to do. Do you understand the drawings?

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The architect also thinks about the materials that could be used. A lot of energy is needed for the production of some materials, not so much for others. It’s also important to consider where the materials come from to make sure the transport routes are short. That is because the transport of materials requires energy, too.

Of course the architect also thinks about how the house should be built. It has to be able to adapt to the changing needs of Sophie, Henry and Sam as they get older. But it also has to be made of materials that can be reused when the house is no longer needed and is knocked down.

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And then, at last, things start to happen:

The walls are made as elements in a workshop. Sophie and the architect check whether the wooden panels, the insulation and the sealing sheets have been fitted correctly.

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First, the builders make a floor slab of concrete.

Then the wall elements are assembled and the gaps are closed. Sam’s busy helping to make sure that his house is finished first.

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This is how the house works in WINTER:

The low sun heats the house up through the big windows. Sophie is also heating it up with her body warmth. The building’s insulation works like Henry’s winter gear: it doesn’t let out any heat. The ventilation unit on the roof exchanges the stale air for fresh air without letting any heat escape from the house.

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The insulation and the ventilation unit make sure that the heat stays in the house. The floor, made of concrete, is heated up by the sun during the day and stores the energy. The warm floor and Henry’s body heat are all it takes to keep the house warm – even at night and on days when the sun doesn’t shine. The sealing sheets in the walls make sure that the cold wind doesn’t enter the building.

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In SUMMER, the house shouldn’t be hot, but nice and cool. Sophie can keep the window open at night to let cool air flow in and reduce the temperature of the floor.

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The floor then keeps the house cool during the day. The summer sun is high and can’t shine into the building. The solar panels on the roof provide Sophie and Henry with electricity and hot water in summer and winter.

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Henry, Sophie and Sam have done it:

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They’re living in a house that uses very little energy and gets all the energy it needs directly from the sun.

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Experiments

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Feel the energy from the sun

Hold a bare arm out to the sunlight and hide the other one behind your back. Very soon you’ll notice that one of them feels warmer.

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Understand the greenhouse effect

Visit a greenhouse – in your garden, at a garden centre or in a botanical garden – to see the greenhouse effect at work. The sun’s rays shine in, but the glass stops them from escaping. Can you feel the temperature difference?

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Test your windows at home. Are they properly sealed?

Open a window, put a piece of paper on the frame and close the window again. If you can’t pull the piece of paper out, the window is properly sealed.

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Draw a floor plan of your bedroom

Measure your room with a tape measure. Where are the windows and doors? Draw your bed, wardrobe, table and chair as if you were looking into your room from above.

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Illustrations and text: Andreas Ernstberger, Dipl.-Ing. Architect Sommer-Hoch & Tiefblau, Munich Editorial services: Steffi Lenzen (Project management) Carola Jacob-Ritz Translator: Sharon Heidenreich, Nuremberg Proofreader: Kathrin Enke, Ludwigsburg Layout: lilli.knopf Production/DTP: Roswitha Siegler Reproduction: ludwig:media, Zell am See Printing and binding: Kösel GmbH & Co. KG, Altusried-Krugzell This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprint, re-use of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in other ways, and storage in data banks. For any kind of use, permission of the copyright owner must be obtained. Bibliographic information published by the German National Library. The German National Library lists this publication in Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at http://www.dnb.d-nb.de Publisher: Institut für internationale Architektur-Dokumentation GmbH & Co. KG, Munich www.detail.de © 2012 Printed in Germany, 1st edition ISBN 978-3-920034-79-9 This book is also available in a German language edition (ISBN 978-3-920034-68-3).

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