Sustainable community development: Westwood solar furnace project

Abstract

This paper presents a humanitarian engineering project in Denver, Colorado's Westwood community. Under the guidance of Dr. Bernard Amadei, a team of graduate students from the University of Colorado created a simple and helpful technology solution for the community that could alleviate an identified problem common for households in Westwood. This paper presents the project through all the steps: community appraisal, analysis, problem identification, strategy planning, implementation and a plan for monitoring and evaluation. The team identified the financial burden of high energy bills on the residents of the community as a pervasive problem that could be alleviated with a simple design, the solar furnace, a box built using recycled aluminum cans, plywood and acrylic plastic that heats the house through the conversion of solar energy into warm air. To demonstrate the technology, the students constructed and tested a solar furnace unit, implemented a pilot test at Re:Vision's (a local NGO working in Westwood) office, held a focus group with community leaders (“promotoras”) for discussion about the pilot unit, calculated energy and cost savings for the design, and developed a plan to continue the project from pilot stage to community implementaion. The paper addresses the capacity and risk analysis for this design, the design itself, the implementation plan, the monitoring and evaluation plan which are the natural next steps in the project.